From: jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB)
Date: 11 May 2000 07:24:28 GMT

Several months ago I was a participant in a meeting with the IRS. This meeting took place at the Criminal Investigations Division office in downtown Chicago. At this meeting were other persons associated with CAN ( the real Cult Awareness Network), two special agents with the Criminal Investigations Division and an agent from the Tax-exemption Division. Naturally, I can't disclose details of this meeting but some important points came to the surface that I feel are important enough to bring to your attention.

First, let me say that the IRS is absolutely closemouthed about any investigations that may or may not be underway. And it has been my experience to find that the Special agents with the CID Division of the IRS are very smart, dedicated, hardworking and sincere men & women. And add to this...very frustrated. I will get to this shortly.

I believe that many people are under the general impression that the IRS and/or the Dept. of Justice are somewhere investigating the church of Scientology. Don't EVER assume this. The CID of the IRS does NOT, as a general rule, initiate investigations on their own suspicions. The IRS DOES respond to legitimate complaints. I cannot stress enough how important this is to know and to act from.

What I have to say on this is my conjecture and is not written in stone. The IRS agents are frustrated in that they have enough information to know that there is plenty of fraud and tax cheating involving the Church of Scientology to proceed with serious investigations. BUT they do not have the orders to proceed from higher up. And they probably will not get those orders until and unless YOU the public demand it and YOU the public supply the complaints and legitmate information for them to go with.

The way the IRS works in Criminal Investigations is that they begin a local investigation, based upon a legitimate complaint, that can then be expanded to a regional investigation and from there to a national investigation. This is very important to know, to remember and to act from.

There are many of you out there who have been defrauded, harassed and abused by the Church of Scientology. There is major tax cheating going on plus the improper use of tax-exempt funds to harass and cheat you. But most of you have not written to the IRS with a complaint and information. This is what has to be done and it has to be done now. If you are serious about bringing this cult to justice then you must get going on this. .

The IRS has CID offices in major cities and regions around the country. Call the IRS to find the one nearest you or write to the general IRS address and put attn: Criminal Investigations Division on the envelope. It will get sent on to the CID office nearest to you. If you were lured into the Church of Scientology and you were sold quack psychotherapy courses and counseling while claiming to be a religion...you have been defrauded. Write up a cohesive, coherent complaint. Give the amounts of money that you were defrauded of and that you believe the IRS is being cheated of taxes on...it is important to stress the tax cheating. Give the name, address, phone number etc. of the Org or Center involved. Give the names of scientology staff members who are involved and give their home addresses, phone numbers and any pertinent information. Give social security numbers if you can. If you were lured in by non-staff scientologists give that information with names, addresses, phone etc. Stress they they are receiving commissions and are probably not declaring it on taxes. What happens very often is that non-staff may get x amount of money and will declare half of it as miscellaneous income and skip the rest. Non-staff and staff are often awarded free courses and auditing in lieu of cash. To the IRS this is the same as money and must be declared.

Send in your complaint and send a copy to the IRS Commissioner in Washington D.C. Someone in the CID should contact you after they evaluate your complaint. If you don't hear from them, write a brief note about it and/or call and try to get the number of the CID in your area. Generally, however, they will not give out this number so you have to keep writing and calling the general number.

The CID is a somewhat secret outfit so keep that in mind. If they ask you in for a meeting, they are serious and don't want there names and location revealed. I had an incident where a scientologist revealed in a taunting letter to me that he knew they name of a CID agent who had asked me in for a meeting ( he got this info from the CAN spy, Laura, whom I had told about this). I turned this over to the CID who were not happy about it and within days there were two agents at my home collecting information.

So...all of you PLEASE take the time to write up your complaint, send it in and send a copy to the IRS Commioner. And write and send copies to your Congressmen and Senators. This is equally important and here is why. It is probably going to take congressional action to get the scientology's tax-exempt status revoked. Here is what the tax-exempt agent told us at this meeting. He used the catholic church as an example. He said that once a tax-exempt status has been granted it is very tough to get it revoked. He said that the Catholic church was using millions in tax-exempt funds to pay off many complaints against pedophile priests but the IRS can't just revoke their tax-exempt status. But he said..."We can rap their knuckles." He did not elaborate on this.

It is very important that you write and contact your congress members. Ask for a meeting, you can often get one and use it to present present information. We had very productive meetings with three leading Congressmen.

It is also important that you write Janet Reno and the Dept. of Justice. Reno has stonewalled pleas for investigations but if enough of you will write and demand an investigation and give information they will have to act.

If you need any ideas or suggestions, contact me.

Once again. I cannot stress enough how important this is.

Jim Beebe

Here are some addresses.

James Martin
Criminal Investigations Division
Internal Revenue Service
230 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, Il 60604
1-800-950-5114

Charles O. Rissotti
Commissioner
Internal Revenue service
Dept. of the Treasury
500 No. Capitol St. NW 1st. floor
Washington, D.C. 20221

Hon. Janet Reno
Attorney General of the U.S.
Dept. of Justice Rm 5111
10th & Constitution NW
Washington D.C. 20224