Is Scientology breaking the law?

Allegations of labor law violations, extortion, and fraud by Scientology

Excerpted from http://www.scientology-lies.com/re.cgi?http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/mystory/kenlong8.txt . Please see that page for the full text.

Emphasis added in red . Editorial comments, when added, are in purple .


Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology

From: [email protected] (Ken Long)

Subject: Revelations...

Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 03:40:23 GMT

 

Some interesting revelations while comparing my treatment by Church staff, regarding the work I did for them, to some of California's penal codes:

 

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PENAL CODE

 

SECTION 518

Extortion is the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, ... induced by a wrongful use of force or fear.

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Labor is defined as "property" by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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SECTION 519

519. Fear, such as will constitute extortion, may be induced by a threat, either:

1. To do an unlawful injury to the person or property of the individual threatened or of a third person; or,

2. To accuse the individual threatened, or any relative of his, or member of his family, of any crime; or,

3. To expose, or to impute to him or them any deformity, disgrace or crime; or,

4. To expose any secret affecting him or them.

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#3 is the definitive one in my situation, but #4 is often used on others. It could be the false "secret" that you are "SP" or were all along and it was just determined.

One threat was of being stuck in Florida - 2,500 miles from home - after having spent most of my money to get there, with only $60 and 5 pieces of luggage to my name, if I did not sign up and begin, as previously, verbally agreed.

Then, another threat was of being labeled suppressive, denied further benefit of spiritual recovery technology, and the turning of all my Church friends against me, and being "tossed into the streets" of a city 2,500 miles from home with no money, if work done for the specified time period was not performed, and, being called a "freeloader" with an additional debt attached. And this regardless of not being delivered what was promised in exchange, or regardless of any work done until such time.

In other words, threat of disgrace, slander, hardship, debt and "eternal damnation" in order to obtain the property (labor). Conversely, since I was being enticed with the potential of getting what *was* promised to me, this generated the fear that I would risk not getting what was promised if I didn't work for the agreed time period.

Mine is NOT an isolated instance of such practice on their part.

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SECTION 484 LARCENY

(a) Every person who shall ... knowingly and designedly, by any false or fraudulent representation or pretense, defraud any other person of ... labor ... or who causes or procures others to report falsely of his wealth or mercantile character and by thus imposing upon any person, obtains credit and thereby fraudulently gets or ... obtains the labor or service of another, is guilty of theft.

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Note: A corporation is a legal "person." The "Flag Service Org, Inc." (the employer) is a corporation.

 

It's deemed "knowingly and designedly" because attempts to get the Church to pay up have not resulted in getting paid . If it were due to a "mistake" then they would have been corrected it, in keeping with their policy.

Knowing that they were not certain that I would be delivered what I was promised, and knowing that means for delivery of what I was being promised was not established and set up and operating and in place, I was told that I would be delivered what I was promised anyway, in order to get me to arrive to deliver skilled labor to the Flag Land Base.

When directly asked if I would actually receive what I was being offered, I was told, "Sure!" and "It's regular staff enhancement," by representatives of the Commodore's Messenger Org, representing LRH, on behalf of "Flag Service Org, Inc." This was an interstate telephone enticement.

Further written misrepresentation or pretense, made on the contract, was that "official Church policy" would be followed on the part of my employer, and said such policy would also be used should any disputes arise in the course of our work relationship.

Official Church Policies such as "We always deliver what we promise," and "A good worker deserves the fastest route to OT," and other such, as to describe and define a scene where production would be rewarded. Said "official" policies used to entince work arrangements, which were then not so followed. There is nothing wrong with the policy. There is something wrong with using it as a lure to gain agreement then not using it to keep the agreement.

The "false report of wealth or mercantile character" was in the "wealth of standardness" by reason of being "Flag" and "the Mecca of Technical Perfection" and being a Sea Org organization (the "elite of Scientology") and, as such, there was also a "wealth" of employees receiving their allocated 2.5 hours of Church services for every eight hours work, on a regularly scheduled basis. This, again, was a set of falsehoods made FOR THE PURPOSE of getting me to arrive, sign up and start work. Once started, signature obtained, continued work could be more easily extorted from me, as above mentioned. Being bound by my own honor, I obliged myself to deliver what *I* promised. But, evidently the FSO (or it's overseers) do NOT see that they are bound by honor, Scientology or the law.

So, in a line, they offered to give me what I needed or wanted in exchange for what they needed or wanted, and I delivered what I promised but they did not do likewise, and have been trying to avoid doing likewise ever since.

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(484...) In determining the value of ... services received the contract price shall be the test. If there be no contract price, the reasonable and going wage for the service rendered shall govern.

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The "contract price" was 2.5 hours of Church services for every 8 hours worked. Since this is an indeterminable amount in value (except as to time versus average service price) the value of the services I delivered would be the least difficult value to estimate. This value is a minimum of $307,865 for the 10,000 hours.

The 3,125 hours of services I should have received would have to be assigned an hourly value based on the average price per hour of Church services, and the monetary value of that be used. What is it? $605 an hour? That's $1,890,625 for 3,125 hours.

I believe that Ken is here trying to determine the monetary amount in which Scientology ripped him off. He states that he was promised 2.5 hours of Church services in exchange for every 8 hours of work. He estimates the value of his labor at a minimum of $307,865 (if he worked exactly 10,000 hours, that's $3.08 an hour - according to the graph at http://www.scientology-lies.com/re.cgi?http://www.cnn.com/US/9608/20/minimum.wage.sign/graph_mimimum.wage.gif , in 1984, minimum wage was $3.35.

Based on the estimated cost of the services promised, had he paid for them instead of exchanging labor for them, the value of the services he was promised but did not receive is estimated here at $1,890,625.

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(484...) For the purposes of this section, any false or fraudulent representation or pretense made shall be treated as continuing, so as to cover ... service received as a result thereof, and the complaint, information or indictment may charge that the crime was committed on any date during the particular period in question.

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This time period extends to the present because representatives of the Employer fraudulently lead me to believe an injustice was, in fact, perceived by the Employer and its representatives, and that I would be recompensed for my work, and that the work was considered to be of value to the Employer. I now perceive it to have been a stall to ensure time limitations for filing claims or charges to expire. Such filing was also warded off by invoking fear as in Section 519.

But has it expired? No. The original false representation has been perpetuated for the last 11 years by the Church (from Feb. 1984), by eluding making good the promise. That eluding is part of the original misdeed.

Given that Church members are required to resolve disputes through Church channels, rather than exercising their rights in a court of law, and given that the Church repeatedly misled him about the likelihood of amicably resolving his case, it seems reasonable that he should be entitled to extra time in which to pursue legal remedies.

 

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(484...) The hiring of any additional employee or employees without advising each of them of every labor claim due and unpaid and every judgment that the employer has been unable to meet shall be prima facie evidence of intent to defraud.

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Lots of other people were hired, including non-Scientologists, after I had began seeking to be recompensed for my work as promised. But, I was seeking to get this compensation through "standard" Church lines, rather than through the State Labor Commission or Judicial System. The reason for which was that I was misled to believe that I would, in fact, get the situation corrected on "standard" Church lines. The odd thing is that many (though not all) were recompensed for their work. Why not me, as well?

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SECTION 532

532. (a) Every person who knowingly and designedly, by any false or fraudulent representation or pretense, defrauds any other person of ... labor ... or who causes or procures others to report falsely of his or her wealth or mercantile character, and by thus imposing upon any person obtains credit, and thereby fraudulently gets possession of money or property, or obtains the labor or service of another, is punishable in the same manner and to the same extent as for larceny of the money or property so obtained.

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In other words, it's looked upon as if the monetary value of the 10,000 hours of work was stolen from me, in the eyes of the law, just as if it was cash. The "credit" obtained was the "work now, get exchange later." Then "later" was never arranged no matter what I did to get it arranged. -----

This is yet another "ethics gradient" in my quest to get fair exchange for my work I did for them.

The last thing I did, on Church Lines, to get this corrected was to talk to a Flag Chaplain named Sergio Mora. He had been given a file folder nearly 3/4 inch thick containing copies of all letters and knowledge reports, as well as some detailed chronological information, I had on this situation. I was told by the person who gave it to Sergio that he had read the entire thing. But then I heard nothing.

I told Sergio that the person who was instrumental in hiring me to do the work at Flag - the person in charge of the Fort Harrison restorations - was now the Captain of Flag Crew, and that she could vouch for the quality and magnitude of my work. He told me he would talk to her. Months passed and I heard nothing.

California penal codes are not Florida penal codes, but they could not be too much different. These Church staff don't seem to care about them, though - at least as they pertained to my treatment.

-Ken-

 

This page was last updated on May 8, 1999.