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We have another fun dive into Scientology history courtesy of correspondent Jeffrey Augustine. And this time, he’s starting out with a subject dear to us, the notorious burglarizing of federal government offices in the 1970s, an audacious operation Scientology called the “Snow White Program.” We love the 70s, Jeff! Take it away…
July 8, 1977: The FBI conducts a massive raid on the Church of Scientology to find evidence relating to its “Snow White Program.” The raid eventually leads to eleven top Scientology leaders being criminally charged and convicted for their role in the conspiracy to burglarize federal offices.  These Scientology defendants, including Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, needed a great deal of money for legal defense. So in 1978 Scientology’s notorious Guardian’s Office created the “Safe Environment Fund” (SEF) to pay for the significant legal expenses of the GO members who had been indicted. Essentially, the SEF was a GO legal slush fund that generated a significant amount of unrestricted donations.
Continue reading How Scientology’s 1970s infiltration scandal led to the creation of its IAS slush fund
![[Credit: John Russo]](https://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/johntravolta-300x281.jpg) [Credit: John Russo] In April, we announced a new project by Aaron Smith-Levin and Nick Lister. The two former Church of Scientology members were planning a YouTube channel that would feature the stories they felt were left out of Alex Gibney’s movie Going Clear — the stories of young people who had grown up in the church. Smith-Levin and Lister had each featured prominently in stories about families being ripped apart by Scientology’s “disconnection” policy. But they said they wanted to talk with other young Scientologists to get the full story about what it’s like to grow up in the organization. Now, they have the first video to show at their new channel, which they call “Growing Up in Scientology.” It’s a short portion from Aaron’s interview of Nick, and it features a fun and disturbing anecdote about John Travolta looking for a chiropractic adjustment at 2 in the morning… Continue reading ‘Growing Up in Scientology’ project launches with a new tale about John Travolta
It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about the Monique Rathbun lawsuit against Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige. The Texas lawsuit was put on hold when Scientology appealed a March 2014 ruling by Comal County Judge Dib Waldrip denying its “anti-SLAPP” motion. Arguments were made at a hearing before the Texas Third Court of Appeals in September, and since then we’ve been waiting for the appeals court to rule. Continue reading Monique Rathbun: Hey, Texas court, here’s something to chew on
[Scientologists, admiring the milestones of IAS enlightenment]
In November, we told you the saga of Richie Acunto. He was the once high-flying Scientologist who owned Survival Insurance in California, but then whose bankruptcy resulted not only in unhappy investors, but also the stunning auctioning off of his Scientology trophies. Continue reading Scientology’s trophy problem: Did David Miscavige lie, or did the IAS?
Scientology leader David Miscavige is scheduled to open the latest “Ideal Org” today, this time in Bogotá, Colombia, and we have a correspondent on the scene. It’s been less than three months since Miscavige opened an Ideal Org in Basel, Switzerland, which is a much faster pace than he set the last two years. (There was only one Ideal Org opened in all of 2014, in Sydney, though the existing Advanced Org in Copenhagen also got a facelift that year.) Continue reading LIVE REPORTS: Scientology leader David Miscavige opens “Ideal Org” in Colombia today
 Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet. He was kind enough to send us a new post.
Jon, we regret that we could only attend the first two days of your conference in Toronto. But we’ve been looking forward to your post-game analysis. How did things go for you last week? Continue reading Jon Atack: Looking back on a week of Scientology enturbulation in Toronto
 Prepare for Jeffrey Augustine to blow your mind as he takes us on another deep dive into Scientology’s finances, this time laying bare the IAS slush fund even more than he did last time. We think you’ll find this is Jeff’s best piece yet!
As discussed previously, the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) is not a church; it is an unincorporated membership organization. Per its charter, the IAS functions autonomously from the so-called “Mother Church” i.e. the Church of Scientology International (CSI): Continue reading Scientology’s billion-dollar slush fund, its slick operators, and how it gets around regulation
 Four years ago, we set out on this adventure to report about Scientology every day. And one of the results of that experiment is the amazing community that has built up around the Bunker. We set out to create a place where Scientology could be discussed, but without the wild rumors and mistaken myths that clog up so many other places. We wanted the facts, and we wanted them first.
Continue reading How to read a tabloid magazine story about the Church of Scientology: A primer
We don’t always see the newest issue of the Freewinds, a Scientology publication that gets passed around a little less often than Impact or Celebrity or International Scientology News. Continue reading Is David Miscavige really planning to extend Scientology’s ‘Bridge’?
 Ron Miscavige Sr., 79, the father to reclusive Scientology leader David Miscavige, 55, has signed a deal with major publisher St. Martin’s Press to issue his book about his son and Scientology titled “If He Dies, He Dies.”
The title is a reference to a now infamous story that came out in the Los Angeles Times this April about the arrest of two private investigators in Wisconsin who told police they were being paid $10,000 a week by David Miscavige to surveil his father, and had been doing so for more than a year. Continue reading Scientology leader’s father signs a book deal, for ‘IF HE DIES, HE DIES’
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These Scientology defendants, including Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, needed a great deal of money for legal defense. So in 1978 Scientology’s notorious Guardian’s Office created the “Safe Environment Fund” (SEF) to pay for the significant legal expenses of the GO members who had been indicted. Essentially, the SEF was a GO legal slush fund that generated a significant amount of unrestricted donations.![[Credit: John Russo]](http://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/johntravolta.jpg)
