Subject: Economic Irregularities in Danish $cientology Date: 8 Feb 1996 23:07:05 GMT Sender: terra@tyr.diku.dk I'll eat some of my own words. I recently said that $cientology by and large had managed to keep out of the media. Not so anymore. Denmark's largest (or perhaps second largest) paper, Politiken, today presents a top-part, front-page article "Economical Mess in Scientology". I will ask permission to post the entire article later, for now you'll just get a few notes. The Danish version of the IRS has turned the financial parts of the cult upside-down over the last year and a half. A quote from the report: "Documentation is often inaccurate, difficult to get at, or does not exist. [...] In general the audit has revealed that the law regulating bookkeeping has not been followed." The head of the audit is quoted telling that the financial mess in the Co$ is "enourmous". The article also describes how the IRS, the phone company, and others several times have had to acquire the rights to some of Co$' buildings before they paid up. For instance, ATP [a pension fund] has had to do that FOUR times with the last SIX MONTHS because New Era Publications did not pay. New Era Publications is the sole owner of - Church of Scientology International [is this right, MW?] - New Era Publications Australia - New Era Publications France - New Era Publications Italy - New Era Publications Japan - New Era Publications Russia - New Era Publications Spain - New Era Publications Germany - New Era Publications Great Britain The local cult PR droid, Karna Jensen, does her best to down-play everything. It somehow doesn't work very well. Also, the cults lawyer has insisted that the above mentioned report be initiated with a remark stating that no evidence of violations of the criminal code has the found. [A funny thing to write there -- we have courts to decide that, not lawyers or civil servants.] According to the droid, "[Co$] has been expanding rapidly over the last two years." I like the language of the article; when the cults acquires a member it is termed "[sby] taking the bait". Now, let's see Andy turn this into a BigWin story. And perhaps Leisa will tell us about Xenu and that volcano. Morten In alt.religion.scientology, on 12 Feb 1996 22:45:40 GMT, terra@diku.dk (Morten Welinder) wrote: [Referring to Politiken, Feb-9-1996, business section, page 17.] Another article by Bj/orn Lambek and Jens Vilstrup has appeared. This time they have taken a look at New Era Publications International ApS. Being a co-op ("ApS" = anpartsselskab, a limited-liability company) there is some public insight into the company. The latest closed year is 1994 and the public accountants in a very unusual note distance themselves from part of the accounting: (1) 20.3Mkr ($3.5M) is unaccounted for. (2) The value of things the company owns with intent to sell (books, tapes, E-meters, ...) is artificially inflated. New Era claims it is worth 34.4Mkr. The turnovers: 1989: 224 Mkr 1992: 139 Mkr 1994: 67 Mkr The board was changed in 1994. All activities in South and Central America has been handed over to a US company. The branch in Spain is being dissolved. In 1994 the company has 79 employees earning 40Kkr on average. [That's something like half of unemployment benefits.] Are we're supposed to believe that these guys are expanding? This is, after all, the company that sells their books in all of the world but the US. Andy: tell us if these figures are wrong. If you do so then tell us what the right ones are, but believe me: I am going to check your figures. After all, this is a matter of public records. You wouldn't want to be caught with a lie, again. Morten Welinder terra@diku.dk