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 Jodie Fleischer at WSB-TV in Atlanta revealed today just how extensive authorities in Georgia believe the insurance fraud was at Scientology’s Atlanta drug rehab center.
State and county law enforcement officials raided Narconon Georgia on April 26 and hauled away a truckload of documents and computer equipment. As the coordinated local news team of WSB Radio, WSB-TV and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been reporting, state regulators yanked the facility’s license (pending appeal) and now are investigating Narconon for both insurance and credit card fraud. In the affidavit for the search warrants that law enforcement officers were armed with, we can see just how extensive the false billing of doctors is suspected to be. Continue reading Search Warrant Affidavit: Scientology’s Atlanta Drug Rehab Billed $3 Million in Insurance Fraud
 Laura DeCrescenzo [ALSO, BELOW: The EEOC files a civil rights lawsuit against a Miami chiropractor for forcing his employees to take Scientology courses.] Wow — Dianetics Day 2013 just gets more and more interesting. We just heard from Laura DeCrescenzo, who updated us on the latest going on in her forced-abortion lawsuit. The Church of Scientology is fighting tooth and nail against a court order that it turn over thousands of documents that were compiled while DeCrescenzo was a “Sea Org” member and undergoing intense confessional interrogations. Scientology has petitioned the California Supreme Court, arguing that being forced to turn over those documents is unconstitutional because it would violate the church’s priest-penitent privilege — even though it’s the penitent (Laura) who is asking for them. We’ve just learned that the Supreme Court asked Laura’s team for a response to the church’s petition, and we have the document that her attorneys filed. Continue reading CA SUPREME COURT ASKS FOR LAURA D.’S RESPONSE TO SCIENTOLOGY PETITION Advertisement
 We were the first to break the news last year that Ron Miscavige Sr., father to Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, had managed to escape from Scientology’s secretive International Base in an embarrassing blow to his son and another sign of crisis in the organization.
Ron Sr. traveled to Virginia, where he joined another Miscavige church defector, his oldest son, Ron Jr. Since then, we’ve been told that Ron Sr. has been adjusting to life outside a church he belonged to for 35 years. His granddaughter, Jenna Miscavige Hill, told us that he was doing well when we met her as she was touring for her recent book, Beyond Belief. And now, Ron Miscavige Sr. is speaking out for himself. Continue reading FATHER OF SCIENTOLOGY LEADER PENS MEMOIR AFTER ESCAPING FROM CHURCH
 Lori Hodgson and her mother, Dee McMurdie, parked their rental car, walked into Woods Fun Center, and went straight for the counter at the back, where they knew they’d find the parts department of the Austin, Texas motorcycle shop.
At the counter were two employees. Lori walked up to them and said, “Is Jeremy here?” As soon as she did, she spotted Jeremy Leake — her son — in a side room, eating his lunch. “He was completely suprised. He was shocked. He looked like he almost choked on his food,” Lori told us last night in a telephone call. Continue reading Lori Hodgson Defies Scientology’s “Disconnection,” Surprises Her Son in Texas
 Gov. Mary Fallin Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin today signed SB 295, turning “Stacy’s Bill” into “Stacy’s Law.” On July 19, 2012, Stacy Dawn Murphy died of an overdose at Narconon Arrowhead, the Church of Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility near Canadian, Oklahoma. Hers was the third patient death in only nine months, and it launched county and state investigations, multiple lawsuits, and now a new law that will give the state greater oversight of the facility. Governor Fallin took less than a week to sign the bill after it was forwarded to her by the state legislature. “I think she did it because it gives the state agencies more time to formulate the new rules. And it keeps Scientology from lobbying her not to sign it,” says Stacy’s father, Robert Murphy. Continue reading OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR SIGNS LAW AIMED AT SCIENTOLOGY DRUG REHAB
 Jodie Fleischer of WSB-TV reported today that things just got a lot worse for Scientology’s drug rehab program in the Atlanta area.
When state investigators and county police raided Narconon Georgia on April 26, we knew they were looking for evidence of insurance fraud. But now Gwinnett County DA Danny Porter tells Fleischer that he’s also looking into multiple cases of credit card fraud at the facility that resulted from Narconon officials allegedly taking out cards in the names of patients without their permission — and then charging them to their maximum extent. If that sounds familiar, you may remember our story from March 21, when attorney Gary Richardson filed five new lawsuits against Scientology’s flagship rehab center in Oklahoma, Narconon Arrowhead. In one of those lawsuits, former Narconon patient Sue Anne Newman alleged that two credit cards had been taken out in her name by Narconon officials, and she was charged $14,500 without her knowledge or permission. Continue reading Investigation of Scientology Drug Rehab Program in Georgia Shifts to Credit Card Fraud
 In Salt Lake City, a retired schoolteacher and her son are suing a group of people they accuse of running a Ponzi scheme involving — and designed to benefit — the Church of Scientology in Utah.
Carol Bee and Brian Bagley are suing a group of investors in a state court action, but also have filed a complaint in the bankruptcy of Barry and Kimberly Hunter, two Scientologists who became insolvent when the financial services company they were trying to get off the ground, Portfolio Manager International, failed in 2011. The Hunters have responded in detailed court filings denying that PMI was a Ponzi scheme, and they say that Bee and Bagley were harmed not by PMI but by a man named Christopher Hales, who is currently serving 7.5 years in federal prison for bank fraud. The Hunters say that they actually tried to help Bee and Bagley once they realized Hales was acting strangely about the investments that Bee and Bagley had given him. But since the Hunters made those responses, Bee and Bagley have now filed a beefed-up amended complaint asserting that Barry Hunter and his other partners formed PMI in 2005 as a fraudulent scheme that would in part raise money for a Scientology foundation. Continue reading Lawsuit Alleges Church of Scientology in Utah Involved in Ponzi Scheme
 Yeah, we know this is a stretch Welcome to the Cinco de Mayo edition of Scientology Sunday Funnies! We really can’t think of any sort of connection between our weekly collection of wacky Scientology mailers and a meaningless American holiday that celebrates binge drinking. But what the heck! We will toast David Miscavige with our first margarita tonight. So anyway, our tipsters have come through with another collection of church come-ons, and it’s a good day for a chuckle, because we have a feeling that things are really going to heat up on the blog this week. Not only do we have several big investigative stories working, but we hear that some big legal proceedings we’ve been following are going to pop at any moment. This week is like a big fat piñata filled with little tequila bottles just waiting to burst open! All right, enough with the Battle of Puebla. Let’s get on with the Funnies.
Continue reading Cinco De Funnies: Getting Drunk on the Wisdom of Ron! Advertisement
 Earlier this week we told you that Laura DeCrescenzo’s forced-abortion lawsuit against the Church of Scientology had reached a crucial stage, and that the church is scrambling to prevent a release of thousands of pages of documents that could bolster DeCrescenzo’s case.
The documents come from Laura’s “pc folders,” which were compiled as she spent years undergoing brutal interrogations as a member of the church’s “Sea Org.” Unlike in a Catholic confessional, DeCrescenzo’s auditing sessions were not only recorded by auditors, but those notes were reviewed and shared by case supervisors and other church employees — the church itself admits that some 250 officials compiled or reviewed these notes, which contain intimate secrets about DeCrescenzo’s private life. When she demanded the documents — which fill about 140 folders and were compiled over a decade — the church tried to keep them secret under California law that protects priest-penitent confessions (even though it was the penitent — DeCrescenzo — who wanted the material). The superior court in Los Angeles ruled that because Laura’s notes were shared by so many church employees, that law didn’t apply, and the church has already lost an appeal of that decision. So now the church has petitioned the state’s supreme court, arguing that the law itself is unconstitutional because it discriminates against Scientology’s concept of confessional confidentiality. We now have the church’s petition, and we’re sharing it with our readers. Continue reading SCIENTOLOGY TO CALIFORNIA SUPREMES: State’s Priest-Penitent Law is Unconstitutional
 Former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder has been using his blog to document just how desperate the church is getting as it pursues its “Ideal Org” strategy.
Church leader David Miscavige seems more determined than ever to raise money from church members in order to purchase and renovate downtown landmarks in cities around the world, even though they seem unneeded and then go largely empty. (Rinder documented just how empty in a remarkable story about one of the first Ideal Orgs, in Johannesburg.) Years of effort goes into the fundraising and rehabbing of these buildings, and everything about these efforts suggest that Miscavige seems to believe that their grand opening ceremonies present huge public relations opportunities for Scientology, which has, in the last year, been suffering through the worst publicity of its existence. Continue reading Scientology is Staking Everything On Portland Like It Actually Matters
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Jodie Fleischer at WSB-TV in Atlanta revealed today just how extensive authorities in Georgia believe the insurance fraud was at Scientology’s Atlanta drug rehab center.
