WASHINGTON — Prosecutors said Monday the Church of Scientology's campaign against its enemies included infiltrating law firms and newspapers, including the Washington Post. Federal prosecutors disclosed a number of the church's activities in a 70-page memorandum in which they urged a judge to give eight Scientologists the maximum sentence for their roles in a conspiracy to steal government documents. U.S. District Judge Charles Richey is scheduled to impose sentences Thursday on nine leading church members whom he found guilty last month ...

WASHINGTON—The project was so top secret and top priority that L. Ron Hubbard himself christened it. He called it "Goldmine." At stake was more than $8 million in Scientology money that the Internal Revenue Service might get if top-level sect "guardians" didn't work quickly and vigorously to protect Scientology from unfavorable IRS audits. The scheme was based in Clearwater, where in November 1975 the sect had just established its phony United Churches group. But top Scientologists around the country were prepared ...

The Church of Scientology plotted to purchase or otherwise "control" the Clearwater Sun by attempting to cut the paper's advertising revenue, discredit reporters and editors and rally readers against it, according to sect documents released Friday.

Secret letters and memos from the personal files of St. Petersburg Times editors and its attorneys were obtained and analyzed by members of the Church of Scientology shortly after the church moved to Clearwater four years ago. The letters and memos were used by the church in calculating its response to news media reports revealing its purchase through a front organization of the Fort Harrison Hotel. How the Church of Scientology or its agents got access to the locked filing cabinets ...

WASHINGTON — L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, was so concerned with the success of his newly formed Clearwater headquarters that he visited there in late November 1975 to "save the operation." A letter Hubbard sent one of his top-level "Guardians" shows the founder wanted to make sure "this scene stays cool" while his United Churches of Florida front group established itself in the old Fort Harrison hotel and Bank of Clearwater buildings. The letter is included in ...

WASHINGTON — United Churches of Florida, the Scientology front group established in Clearwater in November 1975, was designed to be a tax shelter that could launder sect revenue nationwide, top-secret Scientology documents show. Sect founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in September 1975 that United Churches was being created "to preserve the assets of Scientology . . . in case of a total wipeout of the Church of Scientology by IRS." The secret correspondence between Hubbard and highest-level Scientology "Guardians" show that ...

CLEARWATER — A two-page policy memo written by four top Church of Scientology officials apparently singled out for attack a former vice president of a local bank, according to documents released last week by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. The memo, included among the documents, cites Wilby F. Anderson of Buttonwood Court as an "enemy," apparently because of a speech Anderson made before the city commission in 1975. Anderson, who at one time worked in the U.S. Department of Justice, ...

WASHINGTON — Six boxes of documents make it clear: People in Pinellas County — a newspaper editor, a reporter, a mayor, a state attorney — were targets three years ago of the "fair game" policy of members of the Church of Scientology. The documents were among thousands seized by the FBI in 1977 raids on church headquarters in Washington and Los Angeles. They were the basis for indictments against nine church leaders on charges of conspiring to steal government documents and ...

WASHINGTON — Nine Church of Scientology leaders were convicted Friday on charges stemming from a four-year church program to burglarize, bug and infiltrate various federal agencies with which Scientology has battled for two decades. On two occasions during the four-hour court proceeding, a fragile plea-bargaining agreement between the defendants and federal prosecutors almost collapsed. But finally all the legal obstacles presented by defense attorneys were overcome and U.S. Dist. Judge Charles R. Richey pronounced all nine defendants guilty of one count ...

WASHINGTON — A plan by the Church of Scientology to infiltrate federal agencies with "covert agents" and steal thousands of government documents over a period of nearly four years was outlined Thursday in an unusual document filed in federal court by prosecution and the defense. The 284-page "stipulation of evidence" against nine Scientology leaders was filed with U.S. Dist Judge Charles R. Richey, who is expected to render a verdict today. The defendants have said they expect to be found guilty ...

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Nine scientologists, who faced a 28-count indictment on charges of stealing government documents, each would plead guilty to only one count of conspiracy under an agreement upheld by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Charles Richey ruled Monday that the disputed plea arrangement between defense and prosecution attorneys is valid. Chief prosecutor Raymond Banoun promptly said the U.S. attorney's office would file a notice of appeal. Richey had held closed hearings for nearly two weeks on the defense ...

WASHINGTON — Nine leaders of the Church of Scientology, in a rare legal maneuver, have agreed to be found guilty by a federal judge on reduced charges of conspiracy and theft as an outgrowth of their long battle with the federal government over allegedly stolen U.S. documents. Under a procedure called a "stipulated record," the defendants agreed to be found guilty after the government presented its case in a written court record without challenge or a trial, which could have lasted ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) — A Federal judge today upheld a disputed agreement under which nine leaders of the Church of Scientology would plead guilty to a single count in connection with an alleged conspiracy to steal Government documents. District Judge Charles Richey entered his ruling just 24 hours before the church members were to stand trial on a 28-count indictment. He ordered the opposing lawyers to appear Friday, "whereupon the court will pronounce its findings with respect to guilt or ...