[... Trustee seeks leave to amend the Adversary Complaints to include more detailed information regarding Keene and Blyskal’s involvement in a massive scheme to defraud dental patients and transfer significant sums of money to Church of Scientology ("CAS") or CAS related entities. The Trustee through proper investigation and analysis of various documents was able to unearth further information relating to this scheme. ...] —– UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA MIAMI DIVISION www.flsb.usc0urts.g0v In re: Chapter 7 RENE PIEDRA ...

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology in Australia is speaking out for the first time about past treatment of children within the church. In an exclusive interview with Lateline, Scarlett Hanna has described Scientology as a toxic organisation and says that many of those who've grown up in the church are damaged. Scarlett Hanna talks of children being deprived of contact with parents and communal living conditions where 25 children lived in one unit. ...

The daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology in Australia has spoken out against the organisation, describing it as toxic and accusing the church of tearing some families apart. In an exclusive interview which will air on ABC 1's Lateline tonight, Scarlett Hanna has detailed life growing up in the former Cadet Org - a group set up for the children of Scientology's elite unit - the Sea Org. "The best way I can describe it is cattle," Ms ...

Objectif: soigner l'image du mouvement pour stimuler le recrutement [Picture / Caption: Le porte-parole de l’Église de scientologie de Montréal, Jean Larivière, devant l’édifice que le mouvement vient d’acquérir au centre-ville de Montréal. Un projet de 10 millions après rénovations] L'Église de scientologie prépare une offensive majeure au Canada. D'ici deux ans, cette organisation controversée compte construire d'attrayants lieux de culte à coups de millions dans les grandes villes du pays. Une opération charme sans précédent visant à recruter de plus ...

Most people know very little about Scientology aside from the fact that Tom Cruise, John Travolta and other celebrities are a part of it, and that it's had its fair share of controversy over the years. A new book is looking to pull back the curtain on the mysterious religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard, and the author certainly knows her stuff. Amy Scobee is a former Scientologist who was in the church for more than two decades, and worked in ...

["Amy Scobee was a staff member for the Church of Scientology for 27 years. She escalated up the ranks to the top of church management by the time she was twenty, where she remained for two decades. For much of that time, she served as a member of the Watchdog Committee, the highest management body in Scientology, which supervises every sector that makes up the church today. In this book, Amy relates her experiences from her discovery of Scientology as a ...

Mark Bunker (Wise Beard Man) pointed us to something remarkable over at Marty Rathbun's blog. Rathbun is a former high-level member of Scientology who defected and is now providing some of the most damning statements against his former employer. We had heard earlier from Jason Beghe that one of Rathbun's roles was to provide "auditing" to Tom Cruise. And now, Rathbun is speaking out about it. Rathbun says that Scientology leader David Miscavige ordered that Rathbun's private counseling sessions with Cruise ...

Per a letter sent last night to Creative Loafing’s chief financial officer, CL now has a new landlord: The Church of Scientology of Tampa, Inc. We broke the story of the prospective purchase last weekend on the Daily Loaf after finding documentation of the deal-in-progress at the City of Tampa zoning office. That news was a surprise to most of Ybor, most especially to CL and our fellow tenants in Ybor Square (which include Centurion Center, an executive suite rental company ...

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has slammed the major parties for blocking his moves for an inquiry into the Church of Scientology. Senator Xenophon has been calling for a full inquiry into the church since revealing claims of forced abortions and other abuses in Parliament last year. Today he accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of hiding behind process and vowed to continue to fight for further examination of Scientology in Australia. "There is a certain cowardice in turning your backs on people ...

An assault against a masked demonstrator protesting against the Church of Scientology has landed a Halifax woman in legal trouble. Nicole Cassandra Andersen, a 40-year-old personal-care worker, pleaded guilty in Halifax on Tuesday to assault for punching the protester in the face near the Scientology Life Improvement Center on Dutch Village Road on Sept. 19. Click here to watch the protest and the assault She will return to court July 20 for sentencing. Andersen has told police that she has ...

[Picture / Caption: Scientology leader David Miscavige (l.) is being accused of gossiping about Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson after snooping in her confidential confessional file.] The Church of Scientology is bringing down the hammer on a renegade member who alleges leader David Miscavige loves to gossip about his star parishioners. Former high-ranking member Amy Scobee claims in her just-out book, "Scientology: Abuse at the Top," that Miscavige and other officials "snooped" in confidential confessional files - a charge vehemently ...

Last week, as Creative Loafing was preparing to move from temporary quarters to permanent office space in Ybor Square (right), we heard the rumors: The historic former cigar factory, built in 1886 by Vicente Martinez Ybor, was up for sale — and the prospective buyer was The Church of Scientology. Whoa. We looked into it. No one could confirm. Calls weren’t returned. Then I checked with the City of Tampa’s zoning office, and there it was in black and white: In ...

A BIZARRE religious cult which believes humans are trapped alien souls has announced plans to open a centre in Trafford to serve as its north west HQ. The Church of Scientology, which bills itself as the fastest growing religion in the world, announced on its website plans to take over the former Duckworth’s Essence Distillery factory on Chester Road in Old Trafford. The movement’s website has started advertising the building as one of several across the globe it plans to open ...

For more than 25 years, the IRS denied tax-exemption to the Church of Scientology. The long-running policy flowed from an IRS determination in 1967 that Scientology was in fact a commercial entity operated solely for the benefit of founder L. Ron Hubbard. In 1993, seven years after Hubbard's death, the IRS made a puzzling and highly suspicious reversal. It settled its tax bill with Scientology for just $12.5 million and conferred on it the title of tax-exempt "religion." Both the Wall ...

With two recent public confrontations, a year-long, highly publicized drama in the world of Scientology has spilled into the streets of Clearwater. The latest incident occurred Friday afternoon as seven members of the Church of Scientology — including five senior members of its California-based international management team — surrounded and screamed at a former church executive, then loudly carried the dispute into the office of an unsuspecting and startled doctor. The former executive was Mike Rinder, 55, Scientology's longtime spokesman, whose ...

Inside Scientology, superstar Tom Cruise is regarded as its most dedicated follower. The mystery is why he never joined its most elite unit. Now, a former top-ranking defector who was just a teenager when recruited into Scientology says she knows why. Amy Scobee claims she knows the truth about how the cult controls celebrities, the way it handled Tom Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman and tells eyewitness accounts of what happens when its leader loses it. She began life and work ...

RUSSIA is set to ban dozens of texts and recordings by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. "Materials on Scientology by Ron Hubbard have been found extremist and will be banned from distribution in Russia," the Russian prosecutor general's office said in a statement. The ban relates to 28 books and audio-video discs containing lectures by Hubbard, a US science fiction author who founded Scientology in 1954. The ruling was the latest blow to the Church of Scientology, an organisation that some ...

Moscow, April 21, Interfax — On the initiative of the Surgut Transport Prosecutor's Office, materials by scientology founder Ron Hubbard were recognized as extremist and banned in Russia, the Prosecutor General's Office reports. In compliance with the legislation, they will be included in the Russian federal list of the extremist materials. The Surgut Transport Prosecutor's Office and the Khanty-Mansiysk customs held a joint check to find out that various recipients in Surgut received international mail deliveries from the USA with literature, ...

TAMPA - A lawyer suing the Church of Scientology has filed a motion asking to withdraw from the wrongful death case – but he doesn't really mean it. Kennan Dandar says the state judge who ordered him to withdraw doesn't have jurisdiction in federal court. He also says he doesn't want to abandon his client, who blames the church for her son's death. The highly unusual motion is rooted in the longstanding animus between the church and Dandar. The order to ...

Amy Scobee is a former high-ranking Scientologist. She's about to publish a book about her time with the Church, which contains some interesting details about Tom Cruise. Last week, Cruise's lawyer has sent her an angry letter, countering the claims. Scobee, who'd been with the Church since age 14 and used to work at the LA Celebrity Centre, has spoken out before—most recently during Anderson Cooper's CNN Scientology expose. Next month, her book, Scientology: Abuse at the Top, will be (self-?) ...

Yesterday, we were visited by Aaron Saxton, who is in town visiting friends. Saxton is a former Scientologist, and his Orwellian tales of being one of the Sea Org's ruthless enforcers during the 1990s are part of a national scandal that has become big news in Australia. In November, an Australian senator with the unlikely name of Nick Xenophon stunned his colleagues and the nation with a surprising speech filled with allegations of abuse by Scientology and calling for a federal ...

[Unofficial English translation by Anonymous of an article in Itialian entitled, "Le falsità del comunicato stampa di Scientology in merito alla richiesta di risarcimento danni a Maria Pia Gardini"] [Quoted] you can read the press release of Scientology, my answer [follows each quoted passage]. The National Church of Scientology of Italy has brought proceedings against Mrs. Maria Pia Di Gasparro Gardini for damages totaling two million euros. Scientology forgot to state that this is what they are asking for ...

[Picture / Caption: In four to six months, the former Science Museum of Minnesota will be transformed into the regional headquarters for the Church of Scientology, which has ambitious plans for growth in the Twin Cities—part of a global effort to expand, which an official says has resulted in the Church doubling its worldwide size in the last five years. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)] The Church of Scientology has ambitious plans for growing in the Twin Cities area, hoping to double ...

Books penned by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard are not a common sight in Egypt. Recently, however, Arabic-language translations of the books have begun to appear in Cairo, even bearing the stamp of approval–surprisingly–from Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world. Hubbard's book The Way to Happiness, which claims to be a non-religious work, and, more surprisingly, his Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which lays some of Scientology's 'scientific' foundations, were made available ...

Au sommet de l’organisation de l’Eglise de scientologie, Sea Org est censée former les cadres de la secte. Aline*, inféodée et ruinée, a vécu une méthodique entreprise de déstructuration de la personnalité. Elle raconte. Dans l’Eglise de scientologie, le fond du gouffre, c’est à Copenhague qu’Aline* l’a connu. Cadre brillante d’une société financière, généreuse, idéaliste, élevée dans une ambiance religieuse, solitaire mais ouverte aux autres, elle est entrée dans la secte en juillet 1990. Neuf ans plus tard, toutes ses économies ...

Marie-France Hirigoyen, psychiatre, et Rodolphe Bosselut, avocat d'Aline [Voir son témoignage en lien], nous expliquent les mécanismes sur lesquels s'appuie une secte pour qu'un individu «structuré» se retrouve sous emprise psychique. Paris Match. A quoi reconnaît-on qu’on a affaire à une secte ? Me Rodolphe Bosselut. J’ai une définition simple : “C’est un groupe où il est très facile d’entrer et dont il est très difficile de sortir.” Et sa caractéristique essentielle ? Le phénomène d’emprise psychi­que. Mais attention ! Il ...

Workers are busily transforming the old Science Museum of Minnesota in downtown St. Paul into the new local headquarters for the Church of Scientology—thanks to a $3 million renovation. The Clearwater, Fla.-based denomination, which claims more than 8,000 churches and adherents in 165 countries, has been headquartered in the Twin Cities at 1011 Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis since 1991. That will change when the renovated, three-story, 80,640-square-foot building at 505 N. Wabasha St. in St. Paul reopens as a Scientology “Ideal ...

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit brought against the Church of Scientology by a woman who alleged she worked 100-hour weeks for almost no pay for years while a member of Scientology's elite inner corps. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer issued a written order late Friday that dismissed the wage claims portion of Claire Headley's lawsuit. The judge did not address two other causes of action: allegations that the church coerces members of the inner ...