LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 400 current and former Scientologists filed a $1 billion suit against the church Wednesday, alleging efforts to compromise or pay off two Florida judges and siphon $100 million to foreign bank accounts. The class action filed by attorney Lawrence Levy contends Church officials or their representatives committed fraud and breached fiduciary duties. It says information obtained during purportedly confidential "auditing" sessions with a lie detector-like device is used "for purposes of blackmail and extortion." The ...

Authorities said Saturday they closed all 16 Italian offices of the Church of Scientology and seized books, documents and financial records. The raids began Thursday and involved Treasury and Carabinieri paramilitary police. Officials also announced the closing of 11 Narconon drug rehabilitation centers, but did not elaborate on the connection. Raids were conducted in 20 cities including Milan, Turin, Florence, Rome, Genoa and Naples. The last one was Saturday when police shut down a recently opened Scientology office in the eastern ...

[The following is from the article 'Search for Salvation Ended in Death', printed originally in the San Jose Mercury News, December 5, 1986. I have omitted some parts of the original, mostly those giving a general discussion of Scientology, and paraphrased others, since I don't have permission of the copyright holders. The author of the story is David Scrieberg. My discussion is enclosed in brackets, except for some analysis at the end.] Two years ago, confused and unsure of his future, ...

A 20-year-old man who said his housecleaning business has made him a millionaire presented a $10,000 check Monday to Narconon, a Los Angeles drug rehabilitation program. Barry Minkow, owner of ZZZZ Best Inc., said the money will be used to help rehabilitate drug users who otherwise could not afford treatment. "I make things happen," said Minkow, who started his Reseda-based company while he was in the 10th grade at Cleveland High School and "too young to open a bank account." Minkow ...

A 300-foot horizontal tunnel is being drilled into a mountain east of Las Vegas to house church documents. The Los Angeles-based Church of Spiritual Technology, which is affiliated with the Church of Scientology, has been working on the project for two years. On a remote, 3,600 acre ranch near Trementina, 14-17 men are preparing the site for a tunneling machine, said CST ranch manager Russ Bellin. Although about a dozen of the workers have been hired locally, the construction is under ...

TWO West Country doctors have been channeling patients to the controversial Church of Scientology cult. A Sunday Times Investigation has revealed that Dr Edward Hamlyn and his wife, Dr Dorothy West, who run a surgery in Ivybridge, Devon, are members of the Church of Scientology and both act as local recruiting agents for the cult. They refer patients to Plymouth Scientology centre for a commission. Scientology is the money-spinning brainchild of the late Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, an unsuccessful postwar science fiction ...

SUPPORTERS of the Church of Scientology have unleashed a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the author and publishers of a book which is highly critical of the cult. The author, Stewart Lamont, has been inundated with threatening letters and telephone calls from members of the sect, both before and since the publication of his book "Religion Inc" this summer. On one occasion Mr Lamont's neighbours were questioned about his private life by callers posing as future employers. Although it was ...

CLEARWATER — A local school student council could win $5,000 in a contest — if the school follows the offical guidelines outlined in Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's book "The Way to Happiness." At least one Pinellas school principal received a flier advertising the contest sponsored nationally by the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, an organization that has been tied to the Church of Scientology. School principals are asked to fill out a request form to enter their school in the ...

CLEARWATER — What was thought to be a roofing job under way on the Fort Harrison Hotel's 10th-floor sundeck turned out to be gutter repairs, building officials confirmed Tuesday. So Chief of Building Inspections Dave Christiansen said he's not sure whether the Church of Scientology needed a permit for such minor repair work or even a licensed contractor. A pot of hot tar burst into flames about 4 p.m. Sunday at the sect's Clearwater retreat at 210 N. Fort Harrison Ave. ...

Kima Douglas was very much a typical Scientologist during her years in the Church, from 1968 to 1980: she was young, English-speaking, well-educated and totally committed. She was well-qualified to join L. Ron Hubbard's naval élite, the Sea Org, which had been founded in 1967. Her past nursing experience in her home country of Rhodesia was discovered at a time when Hubbard's health was rapidly deteriorating and for seven years, from 1973 to 1980, she became a unique combination of nurse, ...

A week from today, passengers will board the cruise ship Boheme for what apparently will be its last Caribbean voyage out of St. Petersburg. Travelers who had planned dream cruises are getting called about a change in those plans. Travel agents are making the unpleasant phone calls. St. Petersburg officials who helped bring the Boheme to port 20 months ago are keeping stiff upper lips and looking for another ship. Finley Myers, a senior vice president at Automobile Association of America ...

SACRAMENTO (AP) — About 500 protesters went to the Capitol yesterday to demand exemption of churches from punitive damages in lawsuits. The Church of Scientology members and sympathizers sang songs from the 1960s black freedom protests in the South as they arrived in port after a 120-mile trip from San Francisco. A 78-foot sailing ship and others in the 30-vessel armada sported banners like, "The Sun Never Sets on Scientology." Clad in T-shirts proclaiming the effort a "Religious Freedom Crusade," they ...

The Danish High Court awarded the Church of Scientology in Denmark over 1.4 million Danish Kroner in damages against three apostate members from England. The damages award, one of the highest amounts ever awarded in a Danish court, was the result of a case brought against former church members for their involvement in the theft of sacred upper level church Scriptures from the church in Denmark. In December 1983, Robin Scott returned to Denmark and was subsequently arrested and taken to ...

[Picture / Caption: Scientologists arrive Thrusday in Old Sacramento in a flotilla from San Francisco. The Tower Bridge had to be raised for many of the ships to pass, tying up traffic on both sides. About 1,000 Scientologists then marched to the state Capitol for a rally. Story on page B1.] Amid chants of "Religious freedom now," about 1,000 seafaring Scientologists docked Thursday in Old Sacramento and marched, single-file, to the state Capitol. They came in boats from San Francisco, completing ...

BOSTON — An international con artist has been charged in a scheme to bilk the controversial Church of Scientology out of $2 million, adding a new layer of intrigue to a Byzantine case that already involves a reputed organized crime figure, a disbarred lawyer and a financial swindler-turned-FBI-Informant. Ala Fadili Al Tamimi, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in connection with the scam against L. Ron Hubbard, the late ...

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a group sponsored by the Church of Scientology, is doing a great disservice to the Florida Mental Health Institute, a state facility based in Tampa. The "human rights" commission, which works out of the church's national headquarters in Clearwater, has started a national lobbying campaign to halt a federally-funded program at FMHI that seeks to determine the success rate of both psychotherapy and behavior modification in curbing child molestation. The commission has circulated letters to ...

TAMPA — The Church of Scientology has reached out-of-court settlements in four multimillion-dollar lawsuits but U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich has sealed the records in all cases. The settlements were reached in cases involving former Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares and his wife Maggie; Tanja C. Burden of Las Vegas; former Scientologists Nancy and John McLean of Ontario. Canada; and former Scientologist Margery Wakefield, whose address was unavailable. Tampa attorney Walt Logan, who represented the plaintiffs in all four cases, said ...

The Church of Scientology has reached out-of-court settlements in four multimillion-dollar civil suits, but details were ordered sealed by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich. Settlements were reached with former Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares, a Democratic candidate for Congress; Tanja Burden of Las Vegas; Nancy McLean of Ontario, Canada; and Margery Wakefield, no address available. Tampa attorney Walt Logan, who represented plaintiffs in all four cases, said the files were sealed Thursday over our objections. The Cazareses sued the church for $1.5 ...