Lovinglife625
Patron with Honors
This posting touches on three subjects that in my opinion are interrelated:
1) facts behind the IAS which too few know;
2) some things about “Ideal Org” buildings that have similarities to what has been done with the IAS; and
3) why scientologists are kept in the dark about all this.
The first part here is about the IAS (International Association of Scientologists). This is a very little bit of what will be a bigger chapter in an upcoming book about the lies behind organized scientology’s “corporate sortout”.
The information listed here is a small part of the available information that will eventually be published and, IMHO, will be covered by several witnesses in future criminal and/or civil litigation.
To understand the IAS and what is really behind it one has to go back to the years prior to the IAS.
For years Hubbard took money from organized scientology (millions of dollars) while preaching to scientologists that he never got such money.
It would be too lengthy to go into a full history of this but suffice to say there were often pools of funds that were used to funnel money to Hubbard whether it be in the days the guardians office worked with “LRH Accounts” on same or later days where Miscavige just took the money and sent it to Hubbard.
One of the big legal problems that initially the GO had and later the CMO (Commodores Messenger Organization) had was Hubbard really was running all this and money really was inureing to his personal benefit and there was the ever present danger that the likes of the IRS would find out, thus destroying any chance of tax exempt status for organized scientology’s corporations in the USA.
One “solution” earlier on was to have a phony corporation called “Religious Research Foundation” (“RRF”) that would hold all the funds paid for flag services from people and organizations outside of the USA. It seemed relatively easy to hide this money when Flag was on a ship so RRF’s funds were often used for sending money to Hubbard secretly that he never really earned legally. (RRF was hardly the only example but I just use it here to give some background behind what led to the IAS). At the very least it was felt that this information could be kept from the likes of the IRS and civil litigants.
Well, when flag moved to Florida and it was later decided that it would have to now officially become part of the corporation known as the church of scientology of California, suddenly for the first time those flag services were being performed within the USA and clearly under the jurisdiction of the IRS. Now the fact that millions of that money had inured to Hubbard’s benefit was a big issue and an additional cover-up was needed.
Although organized scientology feels that they have addressed issues like this and all was “made whole” with the 1993 tax agreement with the IRS and their paying the IRS $12.5 million, really they got away with a lot of lies.
The point in this posting is not to discuss the legal and tax aspects of RRF but rather to point out how organized scientology felt that they needed and wanted funds they could control that were outside the jurisdiction of the IRS or any other government entities.
Wrestling with such issues as this have constantly been problems with organized scientology in part due to the fact that they were hiding the fact that Hubbard really controlled things and actually got millions of dollars for same. It’s still a huge problem now as they try to hide the fact that Miscavige controls everything of substance.
Back in the mid 70s before flag came to shore in Florida and while “international funds” like those held in RRF accounts were used for Hubbard’s benefit, there were other attempts lead by Hubbard to hide all this and on the other hand deal with anything the IRS might do. For example, in the mid 70s Hubbard had the GO set up back-up corporations for all scientology “churches” in the USA in the event the IRS seized the then current churches’ bank accounts and other physical assets through what was known as “jeopardy assessment” (basically a fast seizure of assets without having to go through years of litigation).
We set up what was then secretly known as the “Greater Churches of Scientology” where, for example, we had the church of scientology of Boston, we also had a secret “Greater Church of Scientology of Boston” that could be used to take over if the IRS seized the assets of the existing Boston corporation. The new “Greater” corporations would be funded with money outside of the USA and outside of the reach of the IRS.
So again, we see organized scientology needing to have funds outside the reach of US governmental agencies yet still under the control of the powers that be (Hubbard and those running things under him and later Miscavige).
To accomplish this organized scientology would need a “corporate sortout” that could hide the real controls of things and that would make it prohibitively costly for ANYONE, government or private, to try to pierce all the corporate veils.
With the biggest money making parts of organized scientology now being in the USA (Flag, the major orgs in Los Angeles and international management that controlled almost all the funds of scientology around the world) something was needed to get funds going back out of the USA and outside the jurisdiction of the IRS.
This is PART of what was behind the IAS. (I will not here attempt to cover other ways of doing this here such as through various trusts then created, etc., etc.)
(An interesting sideline note here is that per its filings with the IRS, organized scientology has again set it up so that at least some of the funds paid for flag services from those outside of the US again go to an entity outside of the USA for holding until services are delivered. While this is in and of itself not illegal, it’s interesting. Could it be that history is repeating itself here and part of the money is misused? I don’t know but given their track record it should be looked into).
The other part of what was behind the “need” for the IAS had to do with so many millions of dollars of the funds of organized scientology being subject to refund claims. This was mostly the unused portions of advanced payments made for services at orgs.
Even in 1982 and 1983, although the total of potentially refundable advanced payments then were far less than they apparently are now, it was still a major issue and we were wrestling with this subject during the entire corporate evolution and its many changes.
One of the very attorneys who was working on this with myself and my crew, later just came up with the basic IAS plan legally as a way to deal with all the above.
In short, it would result in the bulk of the monies being able to be outside of the USA, it could potentially build millions of non refundable money and, it was hoped by them, it would all be out of the jurisdiction of the IRS and other federal US governmental agencies (even safe from damages claimants) so DM and his folks could pretty much do whatever they wanted with it.
The trick now was how to sell it to scientologists using PR and lies. Public scientologists were already paying fortunes for auditing and training. How could organized scientology get them to ALSO pay to the IAS (memberships and straightforward donations)?
Missions were sent to research membership organizations and other such things. Also missions were sent to pull off one of the greatest scams on public scientologists in the history or organized scientology. It was made to look like somehow all these concerned scientologists from around the world somehow joined together for freedom or whatever, wrote the founding document for the IAS and somehow voted it into existence.
Organized scientology actually pulled it off to make it look like this was somehow like the signing of the declaration of independence in the USA, some great, spontaneous, altruistic and brave deed towards freedom
The truth was very different. Missions actually vetted what public scientologists would go to the key events to pull this all off, the founding document was drafted by attorneys and PR people not “the public” and in short it was a well timed operation pulled off by DM and his folks to trick the public into thinking they were behind all this and somehow the IAS was put into existence for altruistic purposes.
Just like was done in so many other areas of the “corporate evolution” of organized scientology, the public was fooled with the set-up of the IAS.
There are three people who can give evidence to prove all aspects of this and more are willing to speak out as well.
(Wait until the truth is published about such things as WISE, for example, where you will see the Hubbard telexes and the like to show it was initially a covert way to fund the GO criminal defenses (for MarySue, Jane Kember, etc.) and then evolved to be a way to control all public scientologists in business and get more money from them. The GO was getting funded by missions back then but it was not enough to also cover the criminal defenses).
I can tell you with zero doubt that there were tremendous lies behind the formation of organized scientology’s corporate structure and that it was built around total central control reflecting both Hubbard’s and DM’s paranoia.. It was to hide assets from others and to “protect” and hide those that covertly ran organized scientology.
Understanding the above being behind the formation of the IAS, leads me to form my own opinions behind what is behind the “ideal org” buildings. I have seen many things about the funds being raised for these buildings including events, newsletters, mass emails, etc.
For example, there was that Vancouver Ideal Org newsletter that I talked about on one of the radio programs I was on with Bruce Hines. They raised a million or so in money and pledges using celebrities at events and creating award levels to “recognize” donors like they did with the IAS.
Another example is that in the past four months or so I have seen at least a dozen emails from the head of the San Diego “church” pleading for others to donate funds for buying their ideal org building. One email even begged them to sell their jewelry and other valuables to donate for purchasing the building. Again, like the IAS, it pushed levels of recognition for donors, the greater recognition for the greater amounts of money donated.
But look at something here. It is well documented that orgs getting these new buildings are actually contracting and not expanding. Their PR that they are expanding and thus need new buildings is total bull. Once again organized scientology lives off lies and false perceptions.
And once again as it did with some of the IAS funds, organized scientology is deceiving its own public to give it non refundable funds that it can control from a central source and hopefully (in its view) keep away from government bodies and/or damages claimants.
If the local churches needed bigger premises as they were expanding so quickly, why can they not pay for same? The reasons are: 1) they are NOT expanding and 2) international management rips off all the money they can from local orgs leaving them without even enough to take care of their own staff. Then the public are deceived into paying more.
Scientology is not just built on lies to the broad “wog” public at large. It is also built by deceiving its own public and staff.
The thing is when you confront most scientologists with things like this, they will argue with you as they truly have no idea they have been deceived by their own “church” top management. They are in the main not bad people at all. They have been duped and truly have no clue of the real facts.
So there you have it, IMHO.
Much more to come.
Larry Brennan - LovingLife625 (SME)
1) facts behind the IAS which too few know;
2) some things about “Ideal Org” buildings that have similarities to what has been done with the IAS; and
3) why scientologists are kept in the dark about all this.
The first part here is about the IAS (International Association of Scientologists). This is a very little bit of what will be a bigger chapter in an upcoming book about the lies behind organized scientology’s “corporate sortout”.
The information listed here is a small part of the available information that will eventually be published and, IMHO, will be covered by several witnesses in future criminal and/or civil litigation.
To understand the IAS and what is really behind it one has to go back to the years prior to the IAS.
For years Hubbard took money from organized scientology (millions of dollars) while preaching to scientologists that he never got such money.
It would be too lengthy to go into a full history of this but suffice to say there were often pools of funds that were used to funnel money to Hubbard whether it be in the days the guardians office worked with “LRH Accounts” on same or later days where Miscavige just took the money and sent it to Hubbard.
One of the big legal problems that initially the GO had and later the CMO (Commodores Messenger Organization) had was Hubbard really was running all this and money really was inureing to his personal benefit and there was the ever present danger that the likes of the IRS would find out, thus destroying any chance of tax exempt status for organized scientology’s corporations in the USA.
One “solution” earlier on was to have a phony corporation called “Religious Research Foundation” (“RRF”) that would hold all the funds paid for flag services from people and organizations outside of the USA. It seemed relatively easy to hide this money when Flag was on a ship so RRF’s funds were often used for sending money to Hubbard secretly that he never really earned legally. (RRF was hardly the only example but I just use it here to give some background behind what led to the IAS). At the very least it was felt that this information could be kept from the likes of the IRS and civil litigants.
Well, when flag moved to Florida and it was later decided that it would have to now officially become part of the corporation known as the church of scientology of California, suddenly for the first time those flag services were being performed within the USA and clearly under the jurisdiction of the IRS. Now the fact that millions of that money had inured to Hubbard’s benefit was a big issue and an additional cover-up was needed.
Although organized scientology feels that they have addressed issues like this and all was “made whole” with the 1993 tax agreement with the IRS and their paying the IRS $12.5 million, really they got away with a lot of lies.
The point in this posting is not to discuss the legal and tax aspects of RRF but rather to point out how organized scientology felt that they needed and wanted funds they could control that were outside the jurisdiction of the IRS or any other government entities.
Wrestling with such issues as this have constantly been problems with organized scientology in part due to the fact that they were hiding the fact that Hubbard really controlled things and actually got millions of dollars for same. It’s still a huge problem now as they try to hide the fact that Miscavige controls everything of substance.
Back in the mid 70s before flag came to shore in Florida and while “international funds” like those held in RRF accounts were used for Hubbard’s benefit, there were other attempts lead by Hubbard to hide all this and on the other hand deal with anything the IRS might do. For example, in the mid 70s Hubbard had the GO set up back-up corporations for all scientology “churches” in the USA in the event the IRS seized the then current churches’ bank accounts and other physical assets through what was known as “jeopardy assessment” (basically a fast seizure of assets without having to go through years of litigation).
We set up what was then secretly known as the “Greater Churches of Scientology” where, for example, we had the church of scientology of Boston, we also had a secret “Greater Church of Scientology of Boston” that could be used to take over if the IRS seized the assets of the existing Boston corporation. The new “Greater” corporations would be funded with money outside of the USA and outside of the reach of the IRS.
So again, we see organized scientology needing to have funds outside the reach of US governmental agencies yet still under the control of the powers that be (Hubbard and those running things under him and later Miscavige).
To accomplish this organized scientology would need a “corporate sortout” that could hide the real controls of things and that would make it prohibitively costly for ANYONE, government or private, to try to pierce all the corporate veils.
With the biggest money making parts of organized scientology now being in the USA (Flag, the major orgs in Los Angeles and international management that controlled almost all the funds of scientology around the world) something was needed to get funds going back out of the USA and outside the jurisdiction of the IRS.
This is PART of what was behind the IAS. (I will not here attempt to cover other ways of doing this here such as through various trusts then created, etc., etc.)
(An interesting sideline note here is that per its filings with the IRS, organized scientology has again set it up so that at least some of the funds paid for flag services from those outside of the US again go to an entity outside of the USA for holding until services are delivered. While this is in and of itself not illegal, it’s interesting. Could it be that history is repeating itself here and part of the money is misused? I don’t know but given their track record it should be looked into).
The other part of what was behind the “need” for the IAS had to do with so many millions of dollars of the funds of organized scientology being subject to refund claims. This was mostly the unused portions of advanced payments made for services at orgs.
Even in 1982 and 1983, although the total of potentially refundable advanced payments then were far less than they apparently are now, it was still a major issue and we were wrestling with this subject during the entire corporate evolution and its many changes.
One of the very attorneys who was working on this with myself and my crew, later just came up with the basic IAS plan legally as a way to deal with all the above.
In short, it would result in the bulk of the monies being able to be outside of the USA, it could potentially build millions of non refundable money and, it was hoped by them, it would all be out of the jurisdiction of the IRS and other federal US governmental agencies (even safe from damages claimants) so DM and his folks could pretty much do whatever they wanted with it.
The trick now was how to sell it to scientologists using PR and lies. Public scientologists were already paying fortunes for auditing and training. How could organized scientology get them to ALSO pay to the IAS (memberships and straightforward donations)?
Missions were sent to research membership organizations and other such things. Also missions were sent to pull off one of the greatest scams on public scientologists in the history or organized scientology. It was made to look like somehow all these concerned scientologists from around the world somehow joined together for freedom or whatever, wrote the founding document for the IAS and somehow voted it into existence.
Organized scientology actually pulled it off to make it look like this was somehow like the signing of the declaration of independence in the USA, some great, spontaneous, altruistic and brave deed towards freedom
The truth was very different. Missions actually vetted what public scientologists would go to the key events to pull this all off, the founding document was drafted by attorneys and PR people not “the public” and in short it was a well timed operation pulled off by DM and his folks to trick the public into thinking they were behind all this and somehow the IAS was put into existence for altruistic purposes.
Just like was done in so many other areas of the “corporate evolution” of organized scientology, the public was fooled with the set-up of the IAS.
There are three people who can give evidence to prove all aspects of this and more are willing to speak out as well.
(Wait until the truth is published about such things as WISE, for example, where you will see the Hubbard telexes and the like to show it was initially a covert way to fund the GO criminal defenses (for MarySue, Jane Kember, etc.) and then evolved to be a way to control all public scientologists in business and get more money from them. The GO was getting funded by missions back then but it was not enough to also cover the criminal defenses).
I can tell you with zero doubt that there were tremendous lies behind the formation of organized scientology’s corporate structure and that it was built around total central control reflecting both Hubbard’s and DM’s paranoia.. It was to hide assets from others and to “protect” and hide those that covertly ran organized scientology.
Understanding the above being behind the formation of the IAS, leads me to form my own opinions behind what is behind the “ideal org” buildings. I have seen many things about the funds being raised for these buildings including events, newsletters, mass emails, etc.
For example, there was that Vancouver Ideal Org newsletter that I talked about on one of the radio programs I was on with Bruce Hines. They raised a million or so in money and pledges using celebrities at events and creating award levels to “recognize” donors like they did with the IAS.
Another example is that in the past four months or so I have seen at least a dozen emails from the head of the San Diego “church” pleading for others to donate funds for buying their ideal org building. One email even begged them to sell their jewelry and other valuables to donate for purchasing the building. Again, like the IAS, it pushed levels of recognition for donors, the greater recognition for the greater amounts of money donated.
But look at something here. It is well documented that orgs getting these new buildings are actually contracting and not expanding. Their PR that they are expanding and thus need new buildings is total bull. Once again organized scientology lives off lies and false perceptions.
And once again as it did with some of the IAS funds, organized scientology is deceiving its own public to give it non refundable funds that it can control from a central source and hopefully (in its view) keep away from government bodies and/or damages claimants.
If the local churches needed bigger premises as they were expanding so quickly, why can they not pay for same? The reasons are: 1) they are NOT expanding and 2) international management rips off all the money they can from local orgs leaving them without even enough to take care of their own staff. Then the public are deceived into paying more.
Scientology is not just built on lies to the broad “wog” public at large. It is also built by deceiving its own public and staff.
The thing is when you confront most scientologists with things like this, they will argue with you as they truly have no idea they have been deceived by their own “church” top management. They are in the main not bad people at all. They have been duped and truly have no clue of the real facts.
So there you have it, IMHO.
Much more to come.
Larry Brennan - LovingLife625 (SME)
