LOS ANGELES, May 2 — Lawsuits filed by investors accuse a co-founder of the Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. of bilking them of more than $35 million. The co-founder, Reed E. Slatkin, a venture capitalist from Santa Barbara, Calif., is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his financial dealings, according to a report today in The Los Angeles Times. Investors have filed at least three lawsuits against Mr. Slatkin, with lawyers saying that he collected more than ...

Courts: Lawsuits allege Reed E. Slatkin bilked friends out of $35 million. SEC is also conducting an investigation. Investors are accusing Reed E. Slatkin, a co-founder of the giant Internet service provider EarthLink Inc., of operating a Ponzi scheme that may have resulted in the loss of least $35 million of their funds. Slatkin—a Santa Barbara socialite and venture capitalist—also is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his financial activities, which allegedly included a day-trading operation that promised ...

(05-01) 04:00 PDT Seattle — They're calling it the "Camp David of the cult wars." Leaders from both factions in the decades-long dispute over danger posed by new religious movements came together over the weekend at a woodsy retreat center on the shores of Puget Sound. There were a few screaming matches, and a bit of the old backbiting and rumormongering, but it was a largely peaceful gathering of defectors, devotees, heartbroken families and assorted cult experts. "We've reached the point ...

An Arlington, Texas veterinary clinic agreed earlier this month to pay $150,000 to six employees who claimed in a suit backed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the company unlawfully pressured employees to subscribe to beliefs of the Church of Scientology (EEOC v. I-20 Animal Medical Center, N.D. Tex, 398CV2316-X, settlement approved 12/2/99). In a complaint filed Sept. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, EEOC alleged that I-20 Animal Medical Center violated religious ...

Strange Death in a Strange Land The Old Man in the Desert He had achieved success beyond his wildest dreams; wealth, fame and the adulation of thousands of devoted adherents. Yet for the last five years of his life, L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, dwelt, a virtual prisoner of his own paranoia, a recluse in self-imposed exile, on a ranch in the desert of Creston, California. Surrounded by a handful of trusted aides, he handed over the running of his ...

SEATTLE — Responding to e-mail complaints, Amazon.com says it will restore a book critical of the Scientology movement to its online catalog. The book, "A Piece of Blue Sky," by British writer Jon Atack, was banned by a British court following a successful 1995 defamation lawsuit against Atack. Amazon.com pulled the book in February, but said this week that it would reinstate it. "While the decision in February seemed the right thing to do at the time, we thought we could ...

[...] Maloney doesn't say which religion (perhaps his?) he would like to bring back into the schools, but it likely would not be the Church of Scientology, which boasts among its ranks several well-known purveyors of Maloney's "violence, hatred and sadism" and has used the shootings to promote its own agenda. Calling itself the Citizen Commission on Human Rights International, a Scientology-backed group showed up at the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to blame psychiatrists for ...

Scientology leaders say they want peace. They say they want to stay out of court. But with both foes at home and foes abroad, that goal may be elusive. The spiritual home of the Church of Scientology is in Clearwater, but for many years now its leaders have had worldwide ambitions. But as disciples have carried L. Ron Hubbard's teachings away from America's shore, the reception has been almost universally chilly at best – and at times openly hostile. At one ...

She is one of an estimated 3,300 Scientologists who have migrated to Clearwater in the 1990s, the most dramatic period of growth for the church during its 22 years in Clearwater. In addition, the church has said it is "deadly serious" about its plans for the year 2000, which include tripling the size of its Clearwater staff to more than 3,500; launching a local Scientology "university" that would accommodate more than 10,000 students a week; and having "Clearwater known as the ...

This document will prove the the Church of Scientology in the UK, operating under the company "Church of Scientology Religious Education Colleges Incorporated" (C.O.S.R.E.C.I.), received money to the value of nearly $100,000,000 from another Scientology organisation and that this money then disappeared without trace. This information has been passed on the the police and the UK taxation authorities (called the Inland Revenue over here in the UK) who are taking an interest in the matter since it is both corporate fraud ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Late on a November afternoon two years ago, a 36-year-old Scientologist named Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor traffic accident. She was not injured, but she inexplicably stripped off her clothes and began to walk naked down the street. A paramedic rushed her into an ambulance and asked why she had taken off her clothes. Ms. McPherson replied: "I wanted help. I wanted help." She was taken to a nearby hospital for a psychiatric examination, but several ...

Lisa McPherson turned to the Church of Scientology in her 20s as she tried to shed the emotional baggage of a rocky youth. By age 36, with a high school education, she was earning a handsome salary as a sales representative in Clearwater. Today, as the church tries to rebut assertions that it caused her sudden death, it also credits Scientology for her successes in life. But McPherson's turnaround came at a financial price. From 1991 until she died in December ...

Feldman Equities, a medium-sized midtown real estate management firm is set for a $290 million stock offering in late September, with heavyhitting investors that includes G.E. Capital and Morgan Stanley. This flotation may be marred by an impending religious and employment discrimination lawsuit charging that company CEO Lawrence Feldman forced employees at the firm to take Scientology courses and fired those who refused. According to papers filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April, Karen Schwartz, a 38-old former property ...

Several months after she went to work at a Manhattan real estate firm, Karen Schwartz says her boss, developer Lawrence Feldman, ordered her to take an unusual series of night classes. Ms. Schwartz says he informed her they were simply "business courses." But when she arrived at the classroom, Ms. Schwartz couldn't have been more astonished. According to a complaint Ms. Schwartz has filed with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was subjected to something close to an indoctrination into ...

People who spend money unwisely or damage their own reputation could be classified as mentally ill and forcibly taken away for treatment in an institution, under new mental health legislation due to come into effect within two weeks. Under the new laws, police will be able to take people from their home to hospital for psychiatric assessment for three days or longer. The changes to the Mental Health Act are strongly supported by relatives and friends of the mentally ill. However, ...

A visitor to the Internet World trade show in Los Angeles last month would have come away with the impression that Luckman Interactive was an industry powerhouse. The 3-year-old firm, which makes software and Internet directories, hung a giant banner on the side of the Los Angeles Convention Center—the only company to spring for the expense. Its booth was among the biggest at the show, rivaling those of Netscape, Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems. The company has raised more than $20 ...

Mar. 4—MicroHelp, a promising Marietta software company, was shut down last month amid allegations its Los Angeles owners have "looted assets," lavishing corporate funds on friends, stereos and the Church of Scientology. The company, which had more than 60 employees just a few months ago, closed in mid-February, about three months after being bought by Luckman Interactive of Los Angeles. Monday, Luckman officials said they were betrayed by MicroHelp's four major shareholders, the company's top management. "Basically, we paid them $4 ...

The onetime building of the Riverside Young Men's Christian Association, a Cultural Heritage Landmark designated as Italian Renaissance in style, is trying to develop an active community status. It faces University Avenue at Lemon Street. It has an auditorium, which combines earlier smaller rooms, available for conventions and other meetings. Its newest portion, the gymnasium built in 1951, has been decorated with murals designed by artist Sam Huang. Among its uses are programs called quincineras, a coming-of-age celebration for Hispanic girls. ...

Courts: Online firm agrees to set up protocol for handling copyright disagreements. SAN JOSE — Netcom On-Line Communications Services Inc. has settled a copyright lawsuit by the Church of Scientology that threatened to set new boundaries for speech on the free-wheeling Internet. The Scientologists sued Netcom after the Internet access provider refused to remove church writings posted to its computer network by a former Scientologist minister. In a closely watched decision six months ago, a federal judge in California ruled that ...

Many Internet legal analysts are disappointed by an out-of-court settlement between Netcom and the Church of Scientology because now they'll have to wait for another case to come to light before a court sets a firm precedent on Internet access providers' liability for online copyright infringement. Netcom and the church announced an out-of-court settlement Sunday in a copyright infringement dispute dating from December that many expected to set a precedent for Internet service providers' liability. The case involved church allegations that ...

As part of a settlement with Religious Technology Center, Netcom has posted a protocol in which the company states it will block access to material pending an investigation into claims of copyright infringement. Netcom's protocol states that upon receiving a complaint Netcom "will temporarily remove or deny access to the challenged material, to protect the rights of all involved." "If Netcom concludes that complainant has raised a legitimate claim, it will continue to deny access to the challenged material," the protocol ...