Scientology sued for Fraud! It's going DOWN like bird sh**! (The Garcia Suit)

Well... IANAL, but
Scientology will argue "we're a religion, churches don't return donations, etc."
Garcia will say "you're a business," call on a 6-foot-long list of witnesses, at which point Scientology will want to settle.

It's like the internet was invented to mock scientology.

It's looking that way at the moment.

Next Up, Childs & Tobin!

Couple's lawsuit accuses Church of Scientology of fraud, deception
http://www.tampabay.com/news/scient...rch-of-scientology-of-fraud-deception/1271893

Cult will settle - they always do.

The alternative is the financials going public during discovery and possibly calling Miscavige to the stand.

Will never happen.

5 anonbucks says this is the year Miscavige blows.

Well, in that case he is going to settle with "hundreds" of people...
Still a win

I didn't know that they also had a "Small and Short and Furious" store for our tiny brethren ...learning something new everyday!

From T1kk's lawfag input on The Underground Bunker:
http://tonyortega.org/2013/01/23/sc...d-over-refund-scheme-more-plaintiffs-to-come/

I'm only halfway thru reading this juicy complaint, but Holy Xenu - the WOW factor is quite impressive.

Hey, Miscavige:




Enjoy your villa's now you still can.

Problem is, if they settle, it will open the floodgate for others to get their money back too. This may turn into a very nice Catch 22 for the cult.

Couple's lawsuit accuses Church of Scientology of fraud, deception - Tampa Bay Times

By Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, Times Staff Writers

Posted: Jan 23, 2013 01:44 PM

The Garcias were among dozens of Scientology parishioners featured in a 2011 Tampa Bay Times investigative series, "The Money Machine," which reported that church workers drove up contributions using tactics described as intrusive, heavy handed, coercive and relentless.

All told, the Garcias say they donated about $1.3 million to various Scientology causes during their 28 years in the church. They left in 2010, weary of the church's money demands and convinced its spiritual practices had been "corrupted.''

The Garcias, both immigrants, met in their early 20s while working as laborers in Los Angeles. Four years later, they invested all they had — $300 — in a business services start-up they initially ran out of their kitchen. Over the next 18 years, they built it into a commercial printing operation with more than 100 employees and annual revenues topping $14 million.

Throughout that period, they were devout Scientologists. They joined the church in 1982 after Luis Garcia acted on the advice of a stranger and read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He found it absorbing.

The Garcias traveled several times to Scientology's worldwide spiritual center in Clearwater to take courses and receive church counseling called auditing. Luis Garcia progressed to "Operating Thetan VIII," a spiritual level at the top of Scientology's "Bridge to Total Freedom." His wife reached the level known as OT VI. The couple spent $300,000 on Scientology services, Garcia has said.

They also contributed $340,000 to the "Super Power" building and gave $510,000 to build a new community church — an "Ideal Org'' — near their home in Orange County.

In addition, the couple spent $50,000 on memberships to the International Association of Scientologists, which supports efforts to expand the religion. Their lawsuit details more than $40,000 in donations to IAS projects that they contend the church misled them into giving.

"In fact, these projects did not actually exist or only a small fraction of the money has been spent to create the appearance of extensive humanitarian activities to support the false statements by he IAS," the lawsuit states.

Seven stories tall and sitting on a full city block in downtown Clearwater, the Super Power building has been under construction since November 1998. Five years into the project, the building was finished on the outside but the church halted work, offering no explanation.

Six years passed. Annoyed an abandoned construction site was attracting weeds and trash, the city imposed a $250-a-day fine for code violations. That bill swelled quickly but church officials expressed no concern.

After resuming work in 2009, the building was largely finished in 2011 and the church paid the city $413,500 in fines. Still, the building has not opened.

City permitting records indicate that work inside the building has continued in recent months.
Inside are space-age machines the church says are key to delivering what it calls Scientology's "super power rundown,'' a lengthy series of drills and study sessions purporting to bestow super human capabilities.

Church spokeswoman Karin Pouw told the Times in late 2011 that the building would open soon to Scientology parishioners. But that hasn't happened.

Millions of dollars rolled in for the project. A Times' analysis in late 2011 showed the church raised at least $145 million for the project — well above the $100 million price tag the church had cited through the many years of construction and delays.

The complete article, and open comments, are at
www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/couples-lawsuit-accuses-church-of-scientology-of-fraud-deception/1271893

CoS gets forked.

Even if they do, there are several other claimants, completely independent from the current suit. The the settlement between Garcia and CoS will not be binding on tens if not hundreds of others who want their money back.

I feel that this will go quietly and without much that will help us, but still, Davey having such a bad year is
delicious!

No, the suit already covered that part. The suit said - we're not disputing Scientology's status as a religion, we're saying that the donations were solicited through fraudulent practices for a certain purpose, i.e. the opening of the Super Power building "next year" which never happened. So we were lied to and now we want our money back. Also, money that we paid were not a "donation" but a quid-pro-quo payment for services.

Scientology is like T-34 TANK. It has no feelings. Just like you have no feelings about them.

CoS has always depended on a process for refunds that would make Kafka run in horror: They do claim to give refunds, but you have to take your request to several people scattered across the world, and their job is to invent reasons not to give you that refund.

It's about time that a really big hole was blasted through that nonsense.

This is what gives me the most hope, finding Davey with his fingers in the pie.

Fraud can be prosecuted criminally if a statute violation exists, otherwise it can be prosecuted as a civil matter.

This story will get covered in a lot of media now that The Associated Press has picked it up:

Calif. couple sues over donations to Scientology - Florida Wires - MiamiHerald.com

By Matt Sedensky, The Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A California couple has filed a lawsuit claiming the Church of Scientology duped them into giving hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes that were misrepresented.

Luis and Maria Garcia of Irvine, Calif., filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday in Tampa against several church-affiliated organizations. Their attorney says it is the first of numerous lawsuits to be filed by former Scientologists charging fraud.

Among the accusations leveled by the Garcias is that they were repeatedly strong-armed into supporting disaster relief efforts only to find the money never went where it was supposed to. Their attorney says it was an elaborate scheme that ultimately benefitted the church coffers and the pockets of its leader.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/23/3196849/calif-couple-sues-over-donations.html

The nice thing about this suit is that the case of fraud nullifies all the "release and waiver" docs that former cult dupes signed to get some of their money back.

not that they need more, but the library scam is also well, a scam
members donate tons of money for the books to be put in the libraries and they simply are not there.

The cult absolutely has to get this lawsuit dismissed by the judge, otherwise they are finished. They will go to any lengths to achieve this.

If he's not on their like-list, their first step will be to dismiss the judge.

It's not a good Scientology case unless they've swapped judges at least two times. Double that in Florida.

Sure. Expect them to answer it with a summary motion for dismissal.

True, the question is only how. It is already in the court, the internet hate machine is watching and the layers appear to be top notch. It is going to be very, very difficult for them to just make this one disappear. Even their usual tactic of launching a number of counter suits is likely to blow up on them now.

It's about fucking time.

If they're forced to refund, they will do EVERYTHING to appeal and delay.

But with over 9000 cases and more, complaints to the IRS should be in the hundreds, per day.

If the victims of the cult were as annoying as the clams, the cult would have been shut down years ago, and little Davey's ass would be receiving Bubba's dick in the jailhouse every night already.

Message to the exes is clear.

Investigate, litigate, do it noisily. The purpose is to harass, not to win.

Play the cult at its own game, and win.

Because they only have OSA.

We have Anonymous.

The current Karen Pouw is probably a guy. Awkward...

And the summary motion for dismissal will be dismissed. Next.

I think their strategy will be to find dirt on the lawyer. To do to him what they did to Moxon. Because it's not just one case....we're talking tens of cases. I hope the lawyer has no pets.

I raise my glass of wine at dinner tonight in adding more snow and some noise to this ever growing avalanche.
At this point, COS is just shoveling waves back into the ocean

The judge can't be unbiased if they have drowned his dog and have told him they did it. I hope that any judge would recuse himself from the case if that were to happen, in the interests of justice.

Babbitt: Says he knows of hundreds of other former Scientologists who are just waiting for a lawsuit like this. He thinks he will end up representing many of them.