Yesterday, we revealed that the operators of a Scientology rehab clinic in Compton, California are facing felony charges for defrauding the state Medi-Cal program. The charges come after an investigation by the state’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse which has lasted more than a year and also caught up three prominent educators in the Compton Unified School District, who lost their jobs as a result.
The state agency is alleging that the educators supplied students to the clinic (including the members of a legendary football program), where they were put through Scientology exercises — the same courses that beginning church members go through. The clinic then billed Medi-Cal as though the students had actually received counseling for drug addiction. (The students never knew they were part of a scheme to defraud the state.)
Often, here at the Underground Bunker, we post raw documents with our stories for our readers to see with their own eyes what we’re reporting on. In this case, however, the court documents we had obtained included supplemental material that included private addresses and other sensitive information we were not comfortable putting online. We’ve removed that material and can now show you the actual charging documents of the six people we mentioned — Hanan Islam (the founder of the drug rehab clinic), three of her children, and two other rehab counselors.
Also, since yesterday’s story broke we’ve been hearing from former Church of Scientology members and Narconon officials who tell us that the rehab clinic at the World Literacy Crusade in Compton, known as American Health and Education Clinics, was definitely an operation that was known about, licensed, and encouraged by the Church of Scientology itself.
Today, we’re going to hear from one of those former officials with his own eyewitness account. We’ll have more in coming days.
It was in 2004 that Hanan Islam and Rev. Alfreddie Johnson Jr. founded American Health and Education Clinics at the World Literacy Crusade in Compton. (Rev. Johnson has not been arrested or charged with any crime.) At that time, Eric Tenorio was working at the country’s flagship Scientology drug rehab clinic, Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma. Tenorio has since left his job working for Narconon, as well as Scientology itself, and was featured in a 2013 expose of Narconon by NBC’s Rock Center.
Tenorio tells us that in 2004, a woman (not Hanan Islam) was sent from the World Literacy Crusade to Narconon Arrowhead to receive instruction.
“She was there to train as a course supervisor,” he says.
About six months later, Tenorio was in Los Angeles and he was sent to visit the woman and check up on the program.
“It was a dump. It was in an industrial area. The sauna was in a garage — the room it was in had a garage door. The rest of it was just run down course rooms,” Tenorio remembers.
We asked if he saw any patients using the facility.
“There was one person in the sauna, and maybe two people on course,” he says.
It was obvious to Tenorio that the clinic at World Literacy Crusade was an official Narconon enterprise. Narconon centers can’t operate unless they’re licensed by Scientology’s umbrella groups — Narconon International and the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE).
“They wouldn’t be able to operate and send people to Arrowhead to train if they weren’t at least licensed by ABLE or Narconon International and in good standing,” Tenorio says.
Another former church official tells us that Hanan Islam’s clinic was specifically a special project of ABLE. We’ll have more on that soon.
For now, here are the charging documents for Hanan Islam, 56, two of her daughters and a son — Nimat Islam, 39, Zakiyyah Islam, 36, and Ronnie “Rizza” Islam, 25 — and two other clinic counselors, Bayon Beverly Washington, 42, and George Edward Newby III, 43.
Hanan Islam et al, charge documents
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Bonus photos from our tipsters
Here’s a fun photo that was posted to the official Instagram account of Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen, representative for the 3rd congressional district, which covers the western suburbs of Minneapolis. In this shot, he’s chatting with OT 8 actress Marisol Nichols, who is telling him about the Scientology human rights front organization she’s pushing, Foundation for a Slavery Free World. We have a feeling that she’s not talking about how Scientology has children as young as six years old sign billion-year contracts with its Sea Org, and that even twelve-year-olds work 98-hour weekly schedules for pennies an hour, when they’re paid at all. But hey! Pretty woman! TV actress! Here’s what Paulsen posted about it: “Always a good conversation with @marisolnichols when discussing the best ways to combat trafficking. She’s doing amazing work through her organization, Foundation for a Slavery Free World, to protect children from this horrific crime.”
Actual caption: “Very well done to Victor and Stacy who secured their full training packages AND Clear packages today at Tampa!”
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BOOK NOTES
We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.
Our book tour is concluded for now. (But you can re-experience it through this nifty interactive map!) We’ll let you know about future appearances. Previous events: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29), Sydney (10/23), Melbourne (10/25), Adelaide (10/28), Perth (10/30)
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 18, 2015 at 07:00
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