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Richest Scientologist in the world is one of the donors behind offensive Arkansas radio ad

[Trish Duggan getting a trophy from David Miscavige in 2017]

Yesterday, a political radio ad playing in Arkansas went viral nationally to widespread criticism when it was pointed out that a conservative group was endorsing a white Republican incumbent congressman by using black voices in a pretty unseemly way.

“White Democrats will be lynching black folk again,” an unidentified woman in the ad says as the group “Black Americans for the President’s Agenda” endorsed white Republican US Representative French Hill for re-election.

Hill himself denounced the ad. “I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms. There’s no place in Arkansas for this nonsense,” he told CNN.

 

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Thanks to reader Madame Duran, we learned that some observers had already discovered that among the top donors to Black Americans for the President’s Agenda was a wealthy white woman named Patricia Duggan.

 

 
Readers here at the Underground Bunker know that name well. Trish Duggan is the richest Scientologist in the world.

For years we’ve been keeping tabs on Scientology’s biggest donors, and biggest of all was Trish and her husband Bob, who split in 2015. The Duggans made their fortune in pharmaceuticals when a cancer drug being developed by Bob’s company, Pharmacyclics, proved effective and the value of the company skyrocketed. In 2015 Pharmacyclics was bought by the pharma giant Abbvie for $21 billion, and Bob’s personal take was about $3.5 billion in the sale.

We found records confirming that the rich couple divvied up their properties at that point as they went their separate ways, and it was Trish who continued to show up for the “Patron’s Ball” held each October in East Grinstead, England to receive her annual trophy as Scientology’s biggest donor from church leader David Miscavige.

 

 
We’ve detailed how the Duggans used their windfall from Abbvie, the maker of Humira, the biggest-selling drug in the world, to set up a foundation that will be delivering more than $3 million a year to Scientology in perpetuity through the use of Abbvie stock…

 

 
It was also Trish Duggan we spotted in photos at the Inauguration in 2017, hobnobbing with the new president…

 

 
Black Americans for the President’s Agenda is run by a North Carolina man, Vernon Robinson, who spoke to CNN about the radio ad…

Vernon Lucius Robinson, a conservative political activist and the co-founder of Black Americans for the President’s Agenda, told CNN the radio ad is currently running and will run until next week.

“Yes, Black Americans for the President’s Agenda paid for that ad,” Robinson said. “The Me Too movement overreached and the biggest threat with switching the presumption of innocence to the presumption of guilt is to black men.”

Asked about the use of lynching in the ad and the fact that Hill’s campaign condemned it, Robinson said he didn’t care.

 
Although Trish Duggan has shown in multiple ways that she supports Donald Trump, there was an intriguing report last year that the president himself might favor taking tax exempt status away from the Church of Scientology. The Huffington Post reported that a close aide to the Trump family, Lynne Patton, told Leah Remini privately that the president was in favor of taking tax exempt status away, but there has been no independent confirmation of that.

We pointed out that if Trump were interested in Scientology’s tax exempt status being reviewed, by law his Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, could order the IRS to begin an investigation.

 
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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 5,242 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 1,875 days
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 418 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 306 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 1,481 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,255 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,029 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 2,375 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 10,941 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 2,609 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,869 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,909 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 1,621 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,147 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,236 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 2,376 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,696 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 7,552 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,671 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,027 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 5,329 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 1,435 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 1,838 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,709 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,292 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 1,797 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,041 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,150 days.

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3D-UnbreakablePosted by Tony Ortega on October 19, 2018 at 10:45

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates

Join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news

 

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