If one follows many points that I and countless others have made on
here and elsewhere, they can clearly see that David Miscavige ("DM")
runs complete control over the many and varied corporations,
associations, trusts and other legal fictions of organized
scientology.
This is despite many statements he has made to the contrary in courts
and elsewhere.
To just list one of many different examples that has not already been
used many times before, I could point out that "the church" has said
things like the following in one of its submissions to the IRS on the
subject of control and use of "church funds":
"The ecclesiastical body within the hierarchical church's Finance
Network with primary responsibility for managing central reserves is
the Reserves Committee. At present, each member of the Reserves
Committee is a full-time staff member of CSI holding a high
ecclesiastical position. The purpose of the Reserves Committee is to
ensure that central reserves are kept safe, expended only for purposes
of the religion, and are increased to
assure continued expansion of the church and broader defense and
dissemination of the religion........
The Reserves Committee itself consists of five CSI staff personnel -
WDC Chairman, WDC Reserves, International Finance Director, SOR Chief,
and Reserves Board Finance Officer.
The specific responsibilities and functions of each of these members;
are:
1. WDC Chairman. WDC Chairman, CSI's most senior ecclesiastical
official, chairs the Watchdog Committee ("WDC"), which oversees the
ecclesiastical management structure of the Church. WDC Chairman serves
as the chief executive officer of WDC.
2. WDC Reserves. WDC Reserves is CSI's highest ecclesiastical
authority with respect to central reserves. WDC Reserves is the member
of WDC who oversees the finance network and reserves system of the
religion. WDC Reserves has the responsibility of keeping WDC informed
as to all financial matters of the Church.
3. International Finance Director. ......
4. Sea Org Reserves Chief. The Sea Org Reserves Chief ("SOR Chief")
.......
5. Reserves Flag Banking Officer........
Ideally, proposals for expenditures from central reserves will be
prepared long before the expenditure is necessary so they can be
incorporated into the Finance Network's annual budget projections for
large, known expenses and into proposed projects for the upcoming
year. These long-term budget projections are used to establish a
stable base against which more detailed budgets are developed for each
month and week of the ensuing year, as well as for coordinating with
management on planning and execution. However, since the need for
funding from central reserves can arise at any time during the year,
organizations often submit their proposals for reserves expenditures
when the need arises. Regardless of when submitted, all proposals are
processed by the Reserves Committee under the same procedure, as
outlined above.
The Reserves Committee does not have unfettered control over reserves
accounts, however, if a proposal involves any large, unusual
expenditure for a particular church or trust, it must be approved by
the Board of Directors or Trustees of the church or trust concerned,
but only after ecclesiastical approval by management and financial
approval by WDC and the Reserves Committee".
OK, there are a lot of things interesting about just this relatively
small quote with respect to control of the funds. For example if you
know any of it to be false (local Board of Directors and Trustees
having to approve these expenditures, which is ludicrous in
scientology as the locals have no control of this, etc.) , you could
supply that information as part of the Factnet questionnaire mentioned
below.
It's kind of "cute" how they use such terms as "ecclesiastical body",
"ecclesiastical management structure" and "hierarchical church" in
submissions when they want the religious cloaking and protection
afforded by US law but will in a heartbeat claim no central control
and hide behind corporate veils when matters of potential legal
liability surface. When they do this, they leave a trail of provable
lies.
But I point this out to show another angle of how they lie about DM's
control of the funds. They "point out" to the IRS that there are these
five staff members within CSI on the "Reserves Committee" apparently
some how controlling the usage of these millions of dollars. But they
neglect to point out things like the fact that DM has busted, beaten,
sent to hard labor and/or otherwise abused most if not all of those
folks and ran many of their duties himself. Interesting omission!
What DM has is the ultimate control of "the church's" many millions,
if not now billions of dollars scattered throughout the world.
Many of us know how he brutally seized control of first all "the
church" entities and their accounts and then did the same with
Hubbard's fortune after Hubbard died.
Countless people have been beaten, financially destroyed and/or
otherwise horribly abused as part of this takeover.
And countless lies have been made in courts, to the IRS, other
government bodies and the like to cover this all up.
Much of this has been covered many times in many posts so I will not
be elaborating on this area specifically as part of this post.
But, as I often do these days, I do want to refer all concerned again
to the ongoing investigation into crimes and abuses as covered in the
attached link. And I highly recommend anyone who has information, and
who is comfortable with doing this, to share the information as per
that post.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/browse_thread...
That said, what I would like to focus on in this post is financial
accountability and something that might be called "socially conscious
investing" for all that money controlled by DM.
What of the monies might have gone to DM's personal use and/or to his
friends is another matter. That is covered in the above link about the
Factnet questionnaire.
What I am talking about now is how are those funds really invested and
is that done in a socially conscious way as you might expect a church
to invest.
Other churches of which I am aware have oversight committees or other
people or bodies who oversee their investments to try to ensure they
are as wise as possible and that they are socially conscious
investments that are consistent with the stated aims and purposes of
the church.
For example most churches would thus not want to invest in activities
they would consider harmful or contrary to the public good such as
currency speculation that might lead to the collapse of local
economies or forms of short selling that depend on destroying
companies and lost jobs so that you might gain a high financial
return.
Even Hubbard spoke out against such types of manipulation he
considered was taken by the likes of many he considered to be his
enemies such as "the world bank" in their "unscrupulous" actions of
money speculation and such.
So is DM engaging in such socially beneficial investments on behalf of
his "church" as he would like the world to believe? Are their
investment activities compatible with the glowing PR they send out all
over the world about how wonderful they are?
In what have they really been investing, besides real property, in the
past 25 years under DM?
Well, the public does not know and there are ZERO oversight committees
or persons checking on or having any real say in what DM does with the
money of his "church".
That in and of itself should be a red flag. Especially as I am
understanding information now coming in from those once connected such
as DM demanding some 25% return on investments and, to get same, some
highly speculative, high risk and non socially conscious investing
being done.
This investigation is in an early stage but red flags are flying here
and I would highly recommend that anyone newly out with information of
a public interest on this matter share it as part of the Factnet
inquiry.
How very odd that so very many millions invested by what promotes
itself as a "church", yet is solely controlled by one man, who has
made much personal financial gain from same and who has a reputation
of lies, abuse and the like has no real oversight whatsoever.
IMHO
SME
