Duggans abandon scheme, give $48.8 million in AbbVie stock directly to Scientology

Two years ago, we told you that before splitting up, Scientology’s richest couple Bob and Trish Duggan set aside $59 million in stock from the pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, maker of Humira, the most profitable drug in the world, so that it would generate about $2.9 million in revenue each year which they planned to grant to various Scientology initiatives.

As long as AbbVie stock continued to keep its value, Scientology would have a reliable source of about $2.9 million a year in perpetuity. At least, that was the plan.

Bob and Trish set aside that AbbVie stock in a foundation they owned in the last week of 2015, too late to show any disbursements from revenue that year. And so for the last two years we’ve been waiting patiently for the foundation to reveal what it did in tax year 2016, and to show how it distributed any grants to Scientology.

This week, we finally received a copy of the foundation’s 2016 report, and it was not what we expected.

After changing its name from the “Bob & Trish Duggan Foundation” to the “Trish Joy Foundation,” the organization essentially gave away its assets, turning over $61 million directly to Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige.

Abandoned was the scheme of holding on to the stock and disbursing annual grants to Scientology from its revenue. After unloading the stock and cash to Miscavige directly, the foundation was left only with an art collection it says is worth $4.3 million.

“Miscavige wants cash now, now, now,” Jeffrey Augustine said after examining the documents with us. “He can’t stand to have money sitting in some foundation.”

The change in direction is stunning.

Bob and Trish Duggan were Scientology’s richest couple, personally worth about $4 billion, when they broke up at the end of 2015. A longtime entrepreneur, Bob Duggan had become a billionaire after investing in a small company called Pharmacyclics that enjoyed a bonanza over a promising new cancer drug. In 2015, Pharmayclics was acquired by the pharma giant AbbVie for $21 billion.

Besides Humira, AbbVie makes many other prescription drugs, including depakote, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder. (Scientology is normally opposed to all drugs used in psychiatry.)

From the sale of Pharmacyclics, which had made him a billionaire, Duggan moved 1 million shares of AbbVie stock into the couple’s foundation. At that time the stock was worth about $59 million. According to the 2015 tax filing, the Duggans expected it would generate about $2.9 million a year in income, which they would only be giving to Scientology: “The Foundation restricts its contributions to 501(C) organizations that are churches of Scientology and affiliates social betterment organizations,” the document stated.

But in 2016, they made a radical change in plans. According to the 2016 tax filing, the foundation took in about $2.2 million in new contributions ($200,000 from Bob, $200,000 from Trish, and $1.8 million from a company they owned) and generated about $1.4 million in revenue from interest. In all, the foundation took in about $5.3 million in revenue in 2016.

And then, the document details the stunning amounts the foundation handed over to David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology…

To the Flag Service Organization, which runs the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, for the “dissemination and delivery of religious services”: $2.65 million

To the Church of Scientology/Church of Scientology International for “acquisition of church property”: $5.25 million.

To the Delphian school in Oregon, for “facilities improvements”: $9 million.

And to the International Association of Scientologists for “social betterment/purchase buildings”: $44.1 million.

(The foundation also donated books — probably by L. Ron Hubbard — that they claimed were worth $94,180 to the Toys for Tots program.)

In addition, the filing indicates that $48.8 million of those contributions were in the form not of cash, but of AbbVie stock.

At the end of 2016, AbbVie stock was trading at about $62 a share. By January 2018, it had ballooned to a high of $123 a share, doubling its worth after it had been donated to Miscavige. The price of the stock eventually came back to earth, but it’s still trading at about $75 a share today.

Since those distributions were made in 2016, has Miscavige held onto that AbbVie stock, or has he sold it? If he has held onto it, the tie between AbbVie’s stock performance and the Church of Scientology’s fortunes are even more direct as Miscavige cut the middleman — the Duggans — out of the picture.

Assuming that Miscavige has held on to at least part of that stock, more than ever it’s true that Humira, the world’s bestselling drug, is helping Scientology stay afloat into the future.

 
Here’s the document…

Trish Joy Foundation 990: 2016 by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Meanwhile, in Canada…

 
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Source Code

“We have learned that it does no good in America to advertise. It doesn’t do any good to advertise. We get everybody we get by word of mouth. You understand, I’m merely talking on percentiles. Something like three out of fifty or three out of twenty-five come in because of ads. That is our average for all over the country.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 18, 1956

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“In ones own subjective universe, anything is literally possible and time does not have to go forward and many universes can occur together — as many as a mind can invent. But that is not how the Eighth Dynamic and its visible physical Universe of the 6th Dynamic works. Therefore I am wary of the science fiction and intelligence agency campaigns to mess with our minds and entice us into doubting that we are at cause and in control to some small but significant extent, of our own reality in this larger Reality.”

 
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Random Howdy

“I asked vaLLarrr the Sci troll one time if any new OT levels were released, and they didn’t include Hubbard’s handwriting on some level, would s/he consider them genuine and s/he said ‘no’.”

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Read the ‘disconnection letter’ from a brother telling his sis — Sylvia DeWall — so long forever
[TWO years ago] Scientology slut-shames Mimi Faust after destroying her family because … it’s a church!
[THREE years ago] Trademark lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehab network settles weeks before trial
[FOUR years ago] Countdown to Friday: ‘Scientology’s Dirty Tricks’ on the menu in Sydney
[FIVE years ago] Tom Cruise shows up with his Scientology ‘Freedom Medal of Valor’ in London
[SIX years ago] Scientology Drug Rehab: New Evidence in the Disturbing Case of Richard Teague
[SEVEN years ago] A Yoga Master’s Question For Scientology OT 8’s: Can You Show Cause Over Matter?
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology Petition Going to the Wire: Will Obama Be Forced to Say Something?

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 18, 2019 at 07:00

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