Arizona Republic: Scientology returns stolen funds
Man who bilked elderly gets 17 years in thefts
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0628scam28.html
A former Carefree man who pleaded guilty to spending elderly investors'
money on planes, luxury cars, and jewels was sentenced Friday to 17 1/2
years in prison.
Benjamin Franklin Cook III, 55, who has been jailed since October 1999,
agreed to plead guilty to three theft counts in exchange for the dismissal
of more than 30 other charges.
Admitting that "mistakes had been made," Cook asked for
probation so he could try to repay about 300 investors more than
$43 million he collected between Jan 1, 1998, and March 15, 1999.
But Judge Greg Martin of Maricopa County Superior Court wasn't buying it.
"If this isn't an aggravated case, I don't know what is,"
he told Cook, who once lived on a 10-acre spread in Carefree.
"This is so much money and the fraud is so gross, there just
has to be a major sanction against you."
Cook's Dennel Financial Limited collapsed after a nearly three-year
investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Arizona
Corporation Commission, the U.S. Customs Service and state Attorney
General's Office. Prosecutors said Cook promised to sink investors' money
into a secretive European Bank Trading Program but spent it on two planes,
a 31-foot cabin cruiser, jewels and fat commissions for top salesmen,
including a BMW.
Lawrence Warfield, a certified public accountant appointed as the receiver
in the Cook case, testified Friday that the money was never invested and
the type of foreign investment Cook promised "doesn't exist."
Warfield's seizure and sale of Cook's home and other assets netted about
$15 million. That includes the $1.5 million Cook donated to the Church of
Scientology, which handed over the money as part of a civil suit.
About $12.5 million has been returned to investors, many of whom wrote
Martin, telling him that Cook robbed them of their retirement money.
Still, Cook has many supporters. Leroy Robinson of Chandler, who sold Cook
his two planes, said in an interview that he invested $400,000 and was
getting regular interest payments of $2,000 a month until Dennel Financial
was shut down.
"If he ever gets out of this, I'd invest with him again," he said.
But Martin said he wasn't convinced that Cook's supporters understood that
they were being paid by the money Cook took from new investors.
"I feel for them," Martin said of Cook's supporters.
The Arizona Republic
June 28, 2003 12:00 AM
by Carol Sowers
[Note: The
Scientology®
organization has at best estimate approximately
45,000 to 50,000 followers world wide -- contrary to the 8 million figure
that the organization has been claiming for the past few years or so.
While that number continues to drop (thanks in part to the Internet) few
of the remaining followers are even aware of the unending series of police
raids, indictments, and prison terms their leaders and fellow cultists are
subjected to routinely. Few are allowed to know about their organization's
criminal history, or its current racketeering activities. Even fewer of
the cult's remaining followers are privy to their messiah's written
policies which dictates the criminal behavior that keeps getting their
organization raided (see Xenu.NET for
suitable references of Scientology policy) Scientology management
is the problem, not the thousands of honest believers who are good,
honest citizens; themselves victims of Scientology - flr]
The name "Narconon"® is trademarked to the Scientology organization through one of their many front groups. The name "Scientology"® is also trademarked to the "Church" of Scientology. Neither this web page, nor this web site, nor any of the individuals mentioned herein assisting to educate the public about the dangers of the Narconon scam are members of or representitives of the Scientology organization.
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