After years of sparring with the townsfolk and veiling itself in secrecy, the Church of Scientology has succeeded in turning Clearwater into its spiritual mecca. Scientologists quietly run teen nightclubs, schools, day-care centers, management consulting firms and other businesses, records and interviews show. Now the strategy of the organization, longtime observers say, is to confront controversy, gain converts and make money - lots of it. Scientology's Clearwater operation brings in $1.5-million to $2-million a week, say church watchers who include Clearwater ...

Operating under auspices of the Church of Scientology are dozens of groups, many of them separate legal entities. Untangling Scientology's lines of organizations can be difficult; even the sect's own charts that have been used in court cases are complex. Here are some of Scientology's organizations. Flag Service Organization — The legal name of Scientology's Clearwater operation, which serves as the sect's spiritual headquarters. Before 1981 the organization was part of the Church of Scientology of California, and Pinellas County officials ...

The year was 1976, one year after the Church of Scientology had secretly moved its spiritual headquarters to Clearwater, and Mayor Gabe Cazares was complaining too loudly for the church's comfort. So, as documents seized by the FBI would later show, the church's Clearwater office devised a scheme to "ruin Mayor Gabriel Cazares' political career by spreading scandal about his sex life." Church officials came up with ways to get Cazares' school records, birth records, anything — from checking with the ...

The president of the Church of Scientology and 10 other members arrested in an investigation of alleged fraud and tax evasion have been released on more than $1 million bail, their lawyer said Sunday. A judge's order releasing church President Heber Jentzsch, an American, and the others came Saturday after facts were presented that "corrected" some allegations against the group, said the lawyer, Jose Luis Chamorro. Jentzsch, 53, a native of Salt Lake City, lives in Los Angeles. Judge Jose Maria ...

MADRID, Spain — The president of the Church of Scientology and 10 other members arrested in an investigation of alleged fraud and tax evasion have been released on more than $1 million bail, their lawyer said Sunday. A judge's order releasing church President Heber Jentzsch, an American, and the others came Saturday after facts were presented that "corrected" some allegations against the group, said the lawyer, Jose Luis Chamorro. Jentzsch, 53, a native of Salt Lake City, lives in Los Angeles. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - A 22-year-old actor was listed in critical condition yesterday after shooting himself in the mouth while re- enacting a scene from a movie at a student workshop. Adam Hancock suffered the wound at a Beverly Hills theatre Monday as he recreated a scene from Lethal Weapon. In the scene a character played by Mel Gibson contemplates suicide and puts a gun in his mouth. Horrified fellow students looked on as Hancock pulled the trigger of a semi-automatic ...

"Dianetics," it says, splashed seven times in bold logos on each of the two yellow race cars - one to be driven by veteran racer Mario Andretti. Dianetics is the name of a best-selling self-help book by the late L. Ron Hubbard and published by Bridge Publications of Los Angeles. Dianetics is also the "science" of freeing deep-seated psychological problems that is the basis of the Church of Scientology, a group founded by Hubbard. And Dianetics - the logo, the book ...

Usted ana de esas personas interesadas en conocer mas acerca de si mismo? (Are you one of those people interested in knowing more about yourself?) That's the nice, clean, formal Spanish that begins, innocently enough, a four-page text (pink with black ink) stuffed between the news and sports sections of a recent issue of La Opinion. Such inserts are not uncommon — they're great marketing ploys. What with everyone jumping on the hot "Hispanic" market these days, we suppose no one ...

A judge in Spain ordered the head of the Church of Scientology International jailed Wednesday pending possible indictment on charges of fraud, criminal association and tax evasion. Judge Jose Maria Vazquez Honrubia said it will be at least a week before Heber Jentzsch of Los Angeles sees a second judge about setting bail. He said Jentzsch was being sent to a prison outside Madrid. The judge said authorities had frozen $1.76 million in bank accounts belonging to officials of the U.S.-based ...

A judge ordered the head of the Church of Scientology International jailed on Wednesday pending possible indictment on charges of fraud, criminal association and tax evasion. Judge Jose Maria Vazquez Honrubia said it would be at least a week before Heber Jentzsch of Los Angeles sees a second judge about setting bail. He told reporters Jentzsch was being sent to Carabanchel Prison outside Madrid and said the legal process could take months or even years before it reaches trial. Vazquez Honrubia ...

Police arrested 69 people in a raid on a hotel and accused 45 of them of fraud, illegal association and forgery for being members of the Church of Scientology. Among those held was Heber Jentzsch, 53, of Los Angeles, worldwide director of the faith, and two unidentified Americans, judicial sources said. In 1986 and again last June, Spain's Justice Ministry rejected a petition by the Church of Scientology for accreditation as a legitimate religious institution on the ground that the group's ...

[Parent document: Scientology International Reserves Trust (SIRT): Form 1023 filing.]

[Parent document: New Era Publications International ApS (Denmark) (NEPI): Form 1023 filing.]