In other words, “the cult” is using OPM(Other People’s Money) to acquire this real estate; thus even if the real estate market drops, “the cult” will make money for itself if it has to sell those buildings at a loss. It is the public who donated for the buildings, who have been driven into bankruptcy.

By the way, by “the cult”, I understand it to be David Miscavige who I believe controls the titles to those buildings.

In general, you’re correct that they’re not getting a good return on their reserves. But they don’t need to — they are not a for-profit organzation which is responsible for maximizing profits to their share holders.

A couple of important points:

1) Money laundering has a very narrow definition. It is defined as the attempt to make the money earned from criminal enterprises (drug dealing) appear to be income from legitimate sources (landromats, etc). You can move money around that you have gained from immoral means (high pressure “regging” of people at Scientology events) all you want without fear of being accused of money laundering. There is a big difference between immorally earned income and criminally earned income.

2) There is a big difference between seeing sales go down (which I believe is the case) and “losing money.” If you manage expenses carefully, you can see a big drop in sales and still be profitable, even making the same profit percentage as when you were seeing sales increase. If the cult spent more money than they took in, then they would have to eat into reserves to pay their bills. I don’t believe the cult overall is losing money, though the local orgs almost certainly are, either at the individual org level or at the consolidated level.

3) The fact that the commercial real estate market is hurting is only a problem if you have to sell. The cult buys all its buildings for cash. Even if the current value of the building is less than what they paid, that does not affect their operational cash position at all. The current value of the buildings are only relevant if they are selling or if they are going bankrupt (or selling the business, something you can’t really do with a cult).

In general, you’re correct that they’re not getting a good return on their reserves. But they don’t need to — they are not a for-profit organzation which is responsible for maximizing profits to their share holders.

A couple of important points:

1) Money laundering has a very narrow definition. It is defined as the attempt to make the money earned from criminal enterprises (drug dealing) appear to be income from legitimate sources (landromats, etc). You can move money around that you have gained from immoral means (high pressure “regging” of people at Scientology events) all you want without fear of being accused of money laundering. There is a big difference between immorally earned income and criminally earned income.

2) There is a big difference between seeing sales go down (which I believe is the case) and “losing money.” If you manage expenses carefully, you can see a big drop in sales and still be profitable, even making the same profit percentage as when you were seeing sales increase. If the cult spent more money than they took in, then they would have to eat into reserves to pay their bills. I don’t believe the cult overall is losing money, though the local orgs almost certainly are, either at the individual org level or at the consolidated level.

3) The fact that the commercial real estate market is hurting is only a problem if you have to sell. The cult buys all its buildings for cash. Even if the current value of the building is less than what they paid, that does not affect their operational cash position at all. The current value of the buildings are only relevant if they are selling or if they are going bankrupt (or selling the business, something you can’t really do with a cult).

thats gross,thats pschopathic..fact…ugh

“It seems to be a variant of that “If you build it they will come” imperative from “Field of Dreams.”

Love you John P 🙂

“It seems to be a variant of that “If you build it they will come” imperative from “Field of Dreams.”

Love you John P 🙂