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BERRY LETTER ON RIVERSIDE ORDINANCE. PLEASE SUPPORT.

Graham Berry

Patron with Honors
GRAHAM E. BERRY
ATTORNEY & COUNSELOR AT LAW
3384 McLAUGHLIN AVENUE
LOS ANGELES, CA 90066
Telephone and Facsimile: (310) 745-3771
Email: [email protected]

January 4, 2009


By Fax, Email and Hand Delivery.

The Chairman and Board of Supervisors
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
County Administrative Center
4080 Lemon Street-Fifth Floor
Riverside, CA 92501

Re: Proposed Ordinances 884 and 888: Targeted Residential Picketing
Board meeting January 6, 2009, Agenda Items 3.28 and 3.29 (Supervisor Stone)

Honorable Chairman and Gentlemen:

The real purpose of the two proposed ordinances is to prevent staff employed by the Church of Scientology Sea Organization from seeing or hearing the messages of persons engaged in peaceful First Amendment protected activity outside the Church of Scientology International Headquarters and Golden Era Productions facilities at 19625 Highway 79, Gilman Hot Springs, CA 92583. Scientology senior management call the property “Gold Base” and I shall too. In that regard, I urge you to do an Internet Google search of “gold base.” The Church’s only need for urgency is an anticipated public picket of Gold Base on January 24, 2009, and the orders of Scientology’s totalitarian, self- appointed leader, David Miscavige, that the picket be stopped irrespective of what doing that costs.

For over a decade, a steady stream of public pickets along the side of Highway 79 outside Gold Base have contributed to many Church of Scientology staff members finding a way out of what many ex-members describe as a forced labor and detention camp where some staff members have been confined for many years on what Scientology calls the “Rehabilitation Project Force” or the RPF, and the even more draconian RPF’s RPF. For example, it has been reported that over the past decade the number of Gold Base staff has declined from about 1,200 to about 400. Consequently, for nearly a decade Scientology’s leader has tried to deter these public protests with contrived arrests, contrived criminal charges and perjured civil claims. The flavor of some of this sordid history can be read through a Google search of the terms: hemet henson corruption. Indeed, an appeal of the travesty of justice in one of the Henson cases is now pending before the Fourth California District Court of Appeals. A more recent case involving hogtying by Scientology security goons, excessive force, false imprisonment and personal original is now commencing its journey through the criminal and civil courts.

Gold Base is not an ecclesiastical or fraternal dormitory as Scientology has argued elsewhere. Gold Base includes the offices and residences of Scientology’s senior international management staff, the RPF and RPF’s RPF which many former Gold Base staffers have compared to Soviet Gulags and Nazi concentration camps (where, ironically, work would also set the inmates free).

Gold Base also includes the very profitable manufacturing E-Meters (a form of lie detector), film production and the publishing facility for Scientology media as well as The Golden Era film studios which are also understood to be rented to non-Scientology entities from time to time. The Scientology E-Meters, which cost less than fifty dollars to manufacture, are sold to Scientologists at prices that range from a few thousand dollars to nearly thirty thousand dollars. Gold Base is, in reality, a slave labor camp as illustrated by the enclosed copy of a September 23, 2008, letter initiating a now pending California Labor Commission claim against Gold Base. Scientology staffers at Gold Base sign billion year employment contracts and work 100 hour plus weeks for about 39 cents per hour.

In addition, as you can read in the enclosed news article called “Selling Scientology,” many of these so-called life-long religious volunteers at Gold Base have been physically assaulted by Captain David Miscavige, the leader of the para-military church and “best friend” of Scientologist Tom Cruise who himself lobbies political and governmental officials on behalf of the Scientology enterprise. As you will also read among the enclosures with this letter, Gold Base includes fortified facilities complete with an armed sniper overlooking the City of Hemet.

What happens to all the money from the sale of these E-meters, books, videos, courses, auditing (counseling) hours, etc.? This is how it has been recently explained including approximate amounts, percentages, etc., herein for illustrative purposes only. In 1999, there was a reporting change in the income system and then again in 2007 there was another change in connection with reporting book sale revenue. However, it has been explained that the Church of Scientology now uses secret Merrill Lynch numbered bank accounts for these monies. Approximately 50-75% of the money “earned” is deposited into numbered Merrill Lynch accounts in Los Angeles and Antigua. Apparently, there are about forty numbered “Pool Accounts” in secret Scientology accounts with Merrill Lynch in Antigua. After its deposit into these accounts, the money is then apparently transferred elsewhere offshore. Almost all of the Scientology money goes through the numbered Merrill Lynch accounts so that there is no way to trace it. Scientology’s totalitarian leader, Captain David Miscavige, has absolute power over the money. There is no accounting to anyone else within the Church of Scientology International, The Religious Technology Center or Scientology’s apex corporation the shadowy Church of Spiritual Technology. Please Google these various entities. Because the 1993 settlement agreement between the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Scientology conglomerate makes the Scientology enterprise responsible for its own tax compliance, the Church does not have to worry about the IRS ever seeing the second set of financial records. Allegedly, the Church of Scientology has largely ignored most of the requirements of the secret tax agreement that also gives individual Scientologists, the Churches and Corporations of Scientology special tax advantages and exemptions that are not permitted to any other United States taxpayer or church. Google: Sklar v. IRS.

It has also been alleged that Merrill Lynch itself is infiltrated by Scientology operatives. The amount of Church of Scientology money that regularly is moving offshore through the secret numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts is apparently in the many tens of millions of dollars. It is said there are Pool Accounts in Los Angeles, CA. and Clearwater, FL. Additionally, Bridge Publications Inc., apparently has a numbered account in Merrill Lynch New York and the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) has a numbered account at Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles as well. There are also secret numbered Merrill Lynch accounts in Europe; for example: Merrill Lynch in London.

In mid April/May 2003, there was a problem in the Church of Scientology “Incomm” finance system. Many longs hours were required to provide a proper paper trail to deal with all the money that was just sitting in the Incomm. “Pool” accounts. There was an “invoice drive” to create six years of invoices for things that were never received. This would be false invoicing and apparently Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon was extensively involved. It took a good deal of effort involving a big push to get all of the false invoicing completed by a certain date. Mr. Moxon was in his office pushing the Incomm staff to get it done 24/7 to fix “the Flap.” The “shore story” was that there was lost data and un-transferred data between the old and new Incomm. systems. It is claimed that about $25 million had to be cleaned up in this allegedly attorney supervised fraud.

Let’s use the example of a $1,000 course payment paid to a Scientology Class IV Church or “Org.” Once a week, the Org pays its revenues into the Church’s electronic “Incomm” finance system where it is transferred to the Treasury Secretary at the Flag Banking Office. Some money is retained at Flag for the provision of services. The rest of the money goes to a “Pool Account” which is a numbered account inside the Scientology Finance System. The payment itself is also assigned a number. Donations, invoiced payments and debits are then paid into different secondary accounts within the numbered Merrill Lynch accounts. Returning to our $1,000 course payment example, $500 would be deposited “on account” into a Services account and the other $500 for an OT package (usually costing many thousands of dollars) into the “Pool Account.” Of this, 30% would be transferred via Merrill Lynch to the Religious Technology Center (“RTC”) secret numbered account in Los Angeles for the various RTC licensing fees [then up to Church of Spiritual Technology or CST]. The other 70% would also be paid into a Merrill Lynch numbered account, but transferred offshore to another numbered Merrill Lynch account in Antigua.

The frequent and numerous Scientology “special events” also provide a vehicle for pushing money around offshore in numbered accounts. For example, there may be a M.V. Freewind’s event. Some of the money would be paid to the Org and transferred into the “Pool Account.” Thirty per cent of that might be paid to RTC for its license fees. The rest of the money would be paid to the ship’s account offshore from which another 30% would be paid to RTC for its license fees. Here we see that RTC is, in effect, “double dipping.” Thus from a $10,000 payment, $5,000 would be paid to the Org from which $1, 500 (30%) would be paid to RTC and $5,000 would be paid offshore to the ship from which about $1,500 would also be paid to RTC.

There is also a great deal of money flowing into the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (“WISE”) every week. Some of the money stays in the local chapter for operating costs. Most of the money goes to WISE Int. (International). From WISE Int., (1) a variable amount (more than 30%; likely 40-50%) goes to RTC; (2) the rest is paid into the WISE Chapter “Pool Account.” It is used for buying church buildings and for forming real estate companies to buy buildings (e.g. Waterfront, Inc., in Hamburg, Germany). Consequently, tax exempt IRS section 501 (c) (3) religious monies are allegedly being paid into offshore numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts and then invested into various for profit projects and into for profit corporate accounts. It has been alleged to me that many of these companies (false fronts) then declare bankruptcy, the documents disappear and on the W.I.S.E. account books you merely see “company ceased operations.”

All Scientologists must belong to the International Association of Scientologists (“IAS”) which has multiple levels of very expensive memberships. Officially the IAS monies are paid to the U.K. but this is another “Scientology shore [or false] story” for the United States tax authorities. In fact, IAS monies get bundled and are paid into a Merrill Lynch Pool numbered bank account, one of about forty different numbered Merrill Lynch pool accounts maintained by the Church. For example, there is might be IAS membership drive requiring every Org to raise $20,000-$30,000. A total of five million dollars is bundled. Then a certain amount of that bundle is transferred to the Church accounts in the U.K. The Church then waits until the currency exchange rate is as high as possible. However, as between IAS [CoS] and Merrill Lynch there is an agreement that currency exchanges and transfers will be made at a fixed exchange rate. Allegedly, only the lower rate is reported to the U.S. IRS. The IAS has a trading account with Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch has one with Travel Ex (on behalf of the Church of Scientology). Subsequently the difference between the higher exchange rate and the lower exchange rate is transferred to the numbered Merrill Lynch accounts in Antigua. The rest of the money [of say $5 million] from the IAS drive [say $2.5 million] goes to the IAS goal drive. So the Scientology public is [fraudulently] told that all the money goes to the U.K. but in reality it is only a small percentage of what is actually raised. Most of the money has been transferred to a secret numbered Merrill Lynch offshore bank account in Antigua (and other favorable havens).

The next step of one of these alleged frauds may well go like this: IAS might launch a new campaign by the Scientology front-group Citizen’s Commission for Human Rights (“CCHR”) a group opposed to the mental health profession. It requires publications and videos which will be produced by Gold Base at Gilman Hot Springs, CA. For example, Gold Base might charge the IAS $2 million for the video but the actual cost to the IAS will be only $1 million. So there is the invoiced amount and the amount actually paid. Then, say $1 million is paid by Gold Base to RTC for the use of the LRH copyrights. The same type of scheme is used for the book sales by Bridge Publications (BPI).

Other sources of Scientology income are also amendable to this alleged fraud by the Church. For example, the Scientology “chapel” might be rented out for cash, say $1,500 per month. This cash all goes into the “Pool Account” and then to one of the secret Scientology offshore numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts in Antigua. Meanwhile, for operating purposes, the Church of Scientology maintains many local bank accounts. For example, with Bank of America and Washington Mutual.

Let me give one recent example to those celebrity opinion leaders who say the Church of Scientology is a harmless mainstream church that should be ignored and allowed to go about its business of making money. Allow me give one example of how insidious and despicably deceitful, dangerous and deadly this faux church is, even to its own celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

In 1987, the Church of Scientology bought the 5,000 ton cruise ship the M.V. Freewinds. At the time, the Church of Scientology knew that the ship was riddled with blue asbestos. It said this all over the plans and they were told that by the engineer in charge of converting the ship to Scientology use. David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology intentionally and negligently ignored the warnings. Why? Because the ship would be used by upper level Scientologists who are immune to all disease or injury, and because Scientology E-meter monitored auditing will cure all injuries or illnesses anyway, including, by way of example, cancer, and since Hubbard never wrote that asbestos can cause cancer, it cannot be true. In 1991, there was another reminder that the M.V. Freewinds was a killer ship exposing its passengers and crew to deadly cancer causing blue asbestos. The affidavit of Lawrence Woodcraft, the man who advised Miscavige of the cancer causing blue asbestos was posted on the Internet. Three months ago, the Scientology killer ship, M.V. Freewinds, was arrested in Curacao, because of asbestos contamination. Experts say the ship cannot be fully stripped of the deadly substance. Scientology is stripping away what asbestos it can, with its slave labor who believe that Scientology will protect them from asbestosis.

Today, Scientology staff is callously still being exposed to deadly cancer causing agents. Asbestos is being dangerously dumped in landfills. This is a public health and safety outrage involving thousands of people knowingly and intentionally being exposed to asbestos and the potential of Asbestiosis. Tom Cruise, John Travolta and all of the other Scientology celebrities have been intentionally, knowingly and negligently exposed to cancer causing blue asbestos, which is the very worst sort of asbestos. Scientology has ignored the problem. Scientology denies it. Scientology is now selling cruises and Scientology courses on the Freewinds in spite of the asbestos contamination. This is a public health and safety threat, and a huge looming public health cost. The Riverside County Supervisors should not be supporting the Church of Scientology in its attempts to prevent its staff members at Gold Base from receiving information and regular monitoring for asbestosis. Suppressing freedom of speech to prevent Scientology staffers from learning, among other things, of their potential exposure to deadly blue asbestos is despicable. You should Google: “Scientology and IRS” and “Blown for Good” and you should also read: www.xenu.net/ and www.whyweprotest.net/ and www.forum.exscn.net/ and http://www.exseaorg.com/ and www.lermanet.com/ and www.whyaretheydead.net/ and www.scientology-kills.org/ , and the many dozens of related web sites critical of the criminal conduct, human and civil rights violations, and other abusive conduct of the corporations and churches of scientology.

I urge each of you vote against the proposed ordinances in any form that might arguably be applied to limit the proximity of public protests along the edge of Highway 79 outside the Church of Scientology’s Gold Base at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet.

In addition, I urge each of you to introduce and/or support a full, transparent and public investigation, with public submissions and public hearings, into any actual unlawful activities, unlawful conduct or human rights/civil rights/labor rights violations that have occurred in, and in connection with, the Scientology facilities known as Gold Base. Remember Jonestown and Waco. Your oaths of office require nothing less.

Respectfully,


Graham E. Berry

Map of Scientology’s International Headquarters:
http://www.portlandmercury.com/extras/pdf/feature/base-map.pdf from: Selling Scientology, A Former Scientologist Marketing Guru Turns against the Church by Matt Davis http://www.portlandmercury.com/news/selling_scientology/Content?oid=862344

www.grahamberry.com


Ccs: Per separate list. Enclosures: Per separate list.


Supervisor Roy Wilson, Chairman
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor
Riverside, CA 92502

[email protected]
Fax: (951) 955-2194

Tel: (951) 955-1040

Supervisor Bob Buster
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor
Riverside, CA 92502

[email protected]
Fax: 951-955-1019
Phone: 951-955-1010

Supervisor Marion Ashley
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor
Riverside, CA 92502

[email protected]

(951) 955-1050

Supervisor John Tavaglione
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
4080 Lemon Street, 5th Floor
Riverside, California 92501

[email protected]

(951) 955-1020

Supervisor Jeff Stone
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
4080 Lemon St., 5th Floor
Riverside, CA 92501

[email protected]
Faxes: (951) 955-2194, (951) 301-8571, (951) 791-3465

(951) 955-1030

Press Enterprise: Riverside News Fax (951) 368-9023; Hemet News Fax (9510) 763-3450

Los Angeles Times: [email protected] [email protected]
 

sallydannce

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thank you Graham Berry!

Wow! Not making full sense to me yet but why would a labyrinth like this make sense at first glance? It doesn't. But it will!!!!!!!!!

Thanks again.
 

Tim Skog

Silver Meritorious Patron
Graham Welcome to ESMB and I hope the letter gets the attention of the Riverside board members. The cult does not deserve any preferential treatment by Riverside. The right to assemble and protest is one of the basic rights of the Constitution.:thumbsup:
 

Been Done Had

Patron with Honors
Mr. Berry...

Good Lord!

So if the bulk of the money is offshored, where is it ending up?

The linchpin that enables the entire alleged fraud to operate is the IRS agreement. Any idea if the Sklars are planning a new suit?

Someone needs to check completion lists against the Merril Lynch phone directory. Banking fraud tools available now are incredibly powerful. A random drug or terror case could split the whole thing open if it touches any of the entities conducting the alleged laundering.

It is simply a matter of time before the conspiracy unwinds, it is too complex, too notorious. And too much tort liability has been incurred by too many of our trusted civil servants.

Good luck at the hearing tomorrow. Now would be a good time to contact media as there will be intense scrutiny due to the recent tragic events.

If the ordinance passes, some brave folks should step up and protest, take the arrest and test it in the courts. Obviously the County has received counsel that the ordinance will survive an appeals hit. Someone should prove them wrong.
 

lionheart

Gold Meritorious Patron
Graham, what would you like us to do to support this action!

Well done on telling it how it is! :thumbsup:
 

sallydannce

Gold Meritorious Patron
- snip-

It is simply a matter of time before the conspiracy unwinds, it is too complex, too notorious. And too much tort liability has been incurred by too many of our trusted civil servants.-snip-

Don't know about anyone else but I can hear a very loud clock ticking. I am NOT being smart here. I trust my instincts (they got me out of the spiritual deception so they are in working-order) and I feel the tension in the air.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
Graham that information is amazing. I hope it is heard! I don't know what I can do from across the planet, though I will be cheering you all on. :clap:
 

scooter

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thank you Graham for what you have done and what you are doing - best of luck with it.
 

Axiom142

Gold Meritorious Patron
Graham,

That is some very interesting information on the financial shenanigans of the CoS. Would you care to say where you got this information?

Also, I’d be interested in seeing any documented proof of this.

I’m not saying that I don’t believe it, I know full well that the CoS is perfectly capable of doing this sort of thing, but I think that some hard evidence will be required in order to convince the relevant authorities to do some investigating of their own.

Axiom142
 

feline

Patron Meritorious
Graham, I am more than a bit interested in what happens with this. I grew up not far from there and would like to hope that the Board of Supervisors will at least pursue this information before handing down a ruling.

What additional actions, if any, can those of us who are not local to Riverside, CA take? I'm always willing to spend some time on the phone or sending paper mail.
 

Graham Berry

Patron with Honors
I believe that “the fix” was in before the meeting was even convened. Yesterday I faxed and emailed each of the Supervisors and others my January 5, 2009 letter which can be seen at www.angrygaypope.com or www.grahamberry.com. I also emailed each Supervisor an assortment of Additional Enclosures. This additional document, and my Argument Notes, are (or soon will be) available on www.angrygaypope.com. If anyone wants a PDF copy just email me a request. This morning each of the Supervisors received a bound copy of the same materials. Watching each of the Supervisors looking through it I got the impression that some were seeing it for the first time. In the past the cult has placed people in the mail and fax rooms of government and other offices for the express purpose of “culling entheta” [material adverse to Scientology] and as part of Operation Snow White to remove all anti-Scientology material from government files, court files and public libraries.

Gold Base is within Riverside County Board Supervisor Jeff Stone’s district. At this morning’s meeting Jeff Stone was first sworn in for a new term and then unanimously elected as the new County Chairman for the next year. He was curious as to anyone’s links to Anonymous, adamant he was not a Scientologist, proud to live in a country that recognizes religious diversity, and insistent that Scientologists should be able to live without the presence of picketing. He said that recent events at Gold Base had prompted the need for the new ordinance (after making a swearing-in speech condemning the passage of more laws!). He also said that the Scientologists and his staff had been working on this ordinance for sometime and that it had been upheld as constitutional by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. In these circumstances there would have been much pressure by Jeff Stone’s staff on the other four staffs to support the Scientology ordinance because “the new Chairman really wanted it.” This is what happened when Berendo Street was renamed L. Ron Hubbard Way (whose way was not the American way!). It was also the sort of scientology government infiltration that former Scientology staffer John Duignan writes about in ‘The Complex.’


The County’s legal counsel, and several Supervisors, insisted that the ordinance would not preclude picketing outside all parts of Gold Base. It only precluded targeted residential picketing and picketing could occur from across the other side of Highway 79 even though Scientology has property and accommodations at several different locations on both sides of the road. Personally, I think you can have a lawful picket anywhere along the edge of Highway 79 provided it is not “targeted at a particular dwelling.” In other words, only “targeted picketing” as defined in ordinances 884 and 884 is an offense. Certainly, I expect we will need test the issue before the courts with an arrest in circumstances of our choosing.


There were over 100 other people in the meeting room. Only Scientology’s real estate, land use and zoning attorney (a Lutheran) spoke for the cult’s ordinance and tried to shut down discussion of cult abuse. Six people spoke against the cult’s ordinance.

http://209.128.123.171/ppportal/agenda/ViewAgenda.aspx?GUID=93968ac8-6432-4eb0-810b-e78e5be07cd8


If you click on the hyperlinks for agenda #3.28, it will take you directly to the video portion of our speeches with the Board. The link for 3.29 is the board discussion of the ordinances & the final votes [Anon Poet starts at 56:52, Scarff starts at 1:01, Berry starts at 1:04, etc.].


When the Scientology ordinance was unanimously approved almost the entire audience departed. The Scientology contingent and our band of brothers and sisters also departed the auditorium and gathered outside. Jeff Stone’s wife and son had also been present for Mr. Stone’s swearing-in and his new chairmanship. They also departed with the rest of us. However, they stopped in conversation for at least 10-15 minutes with Muriel Dufresne from Scientology’s Gold Base and several with her. It was clear that Muriel Dufresne, Mrs. Stone and Stone junior were very well and warmly acquainted. I was stunned although I should not have been surprised. The family of Supervisor Stone cavorting with a senior Scientology Gold Base staffer! Perhaps the scientology connections and benefits run more broadly than some have suggested. Certainly I have often been told that Riverside County is one of the most corrupt counties in the United States (considered to be the 18th least corrupt nation on the planet).

Graham Berry [email protected]
 

Once bitten

Patron Meritorious
Thank you for all that you are doing, Graham. It's all just too much to take in at one go ... corruption is an understatement.

I'm not sure what we can do in l'l old NZ, but we're doing all that we can. Nothing would surprise me about this cult. Nothing.
 

Patricia Curtis

Patron with Honors
I, too, a was bit confused by the document as it originally stood, but following a brief conversation with the man in the foyer of Riverside County's hall of justice this morning, I am convinced he and his document are full of sooth.

Wise Graham is wise.

So, no worries, um...you know...maties. I mean, mates. Wait. Is it maties or mates? Damn the Euro dollar for screwing up the American language.
 

Roberto

Patron
Corruption eventually fails..

Corruption eventually cannot sustain itself...it has no values...it must pay for loyalty (or fear!)...it has few winners and many losers. Eventually the overpowering number of the righteous overcome the corrupt...it just takes strong good people like yourself to give the lead. Thank you.
 
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