Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to questions if they contained copoyrighted materials. After a very short while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg Churilov" cultist was ejected from askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.

Anonymous asked this question on 4/18/2000:

I heard that the church of scientology once tried to break into the IRS. Could you explain this to me?

Greg Churilov gave this absolutely insane, ranting lie on 4/18/2000:

They didn't try, they SUCCEEDED. :-) And it wasn't "The Church", but a few Scientologists acting on their own. This was in the '70s, and prior to the establishment of FOIA, the Freedom Of Information Act.

At the time, the IRS was using harrasment techniques against parishioners of Scientology. And yet it claimed it had no documents on Scientology.

[These are the lies that the Scientology cult's leaders tells its followers, it seems. In fact the cult was routinely punished for tax evasion and other money laundering crimes before Hubbard thought of trying to demand his criminal organization was some kind of religion.

And it wasn't just "a few Scientologists acting alone," either. Thanks to the many once-secret in-house documents that the Feds seized, we know that it was the crook's written policy and that Hubbard himself would have gone to prison if he hadn't of gone on the lam. As it was, Hubbard threw his own wife to the cops to take the fall.

Because the IRS was forcing the crooks to pay taxes, they instigated an operation they called "Snow White" which included a bewildering number of felonies including breaking and entering into giovernment buildings and either stealing or altering documents. It also included bribery, extortion, and blackmail.

But it's informative to see what the crooks are telling their remaining cult victims, any way - flr]

In 1977, eleven scientologists broke into the IRS headquarter documents the IRS had proving that a long history of illegal surveillance and harrassment had existed.

[And another lie. In fact there were far more than just the 11 cult ringleaders that eventualluy were sent to prison. What this cultist doesn't mention is that Hubbard made his own wife -- Mary Sue Hubbard -- one of his fall guys who took the rap and went down for it. Hubbard himself, along with many dozens of other criminals, were counted as "unindicted co-conspirators" in these felonies. And the crooks did a lot more felonies than just breaking into buildings.

As for "illegal surveillance," that's a new one. I wonder if this cultist came up with this on his own or whether the cult's ringleaders are trying this one out laterly. It's a bit amusing to think that when law enforcement agencies conduct sting operations or collect evidence, it somehow is "illegal." <smile> Amazing.

All of these criminal activities were ordered by Hubbard. He managed to escape the long arms of the law by going on the lam, hiding out on a ranch where he eventually died due to the drugs that he was injecting himself with. While on the lam, Hubbard continued to run his criminal organization by telephone, mail, and runners - flr]

When the IRS learned of this, their response was to prosecute these 11 persons. Unable to charge them with any other crimes, they were charged with "theft" of the blank copier paper used to make the copies.

[And it appears that the Scientology cult's ringleaders are telling their followers these amazing lies regardless of the fact that one can get on the Internet and review the court documents which debunk these amazing lies totally. One of the better documents that one can download that covers all of the felonies that this cult engaged in is a document called "stipulation of evidence." In effect it's a plea that kept the crooks out of prison for decades and also allowed numerous other conspirators from serving any time - flr]

I guess they should've brought their own paper. :-) While this caused quite a stir, it also blew open the source of false and slanderous "information" on Scientology, and eventually led to the termination of several IRS employees and, ultimately, to the 3 year review of Scientology by the IRS in the 1990s which led to the FULL RECOGNITION of the Church as a Bonafide Non-Profit Religious Charitable Organization.

[And there's those other freakish claims again. Neither the USSC nor the IRS have ever or will ever dictate what is and what is not a religion. That's not their jobs. It's also interesting to see that the cult is trying to make their remaining followers believe that all of the materials that the Feds seized are some how "false and slanderous." In fact over 23,000 once-secred, in-house documents were seized and made public through the Freedom of Information Act. What's ironic is that the crooks themselves lobbied for the Act to be passed. Funny, isn't it? - flr]

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.

Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.