Showing posts with label fraud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fraud. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Cased closed

The European Court of Human Rights has dismissed Scientology's bid to challenge its convictions for organised fraud in France. A second such French conviction could threaten its very existence there.1

I confess I missed this one.
But then again, I don't think Scientology put out a press release on it.
I recently checked with the European Court of Human Rights about Scientology's bid to take France to task for having convicted the movement for organised fraud. (They were arguing that, for a number of reasons, they were denied a fair trial.2)
Here's the response I got back from the ECHR press unit on Rosenberg and Jacquart v. France.
“The application in question was declared inadmissible on 5 June 2014 by a Single-Judge formation.”
According to the court's rules, a single judge can sit to consider an application “where inadmissibility is clear from the outset”, they explained.
In other words, their case was such a non-starter the court did not even consider it necessary to gather a full bench to reject it.
And there's no appeal.
“Being a Single-Judge decision, there is no decision available but only the letter that was sent to the applicants to inform them of this decision,” they explained.
In October last year France's top court, the Cour de Cassation, rejected Scientology's final bid to have the convictions quashed. In 2012, an appeal court had already confirmed the original 2009 convictions.
The reason this was was such a big deal of course, was that unlike previous Scientology convictions in France – and there have been a few – this time the organisation itself had been found guilty, not just a few key members.
When the Cour de Cassation handed down its ruling, effectively ending the legal battle inside France, Scientology made it clear they would take the case to the Strasbourg court.
In a statement, the movement even described that latest setback as an opportunity.
Now it could “...bring this affair before an international jurisdiction ... where the legal debate can unfold in the legal domain, far from the pressures of the executive, in a dispassionate space sensitive to the respect of fundamental rights.”3
Beginning of the end?
Well, they got their dispassionate ruling over the summer – and now they have to face up to the reality of those French convictions.
They also have to deal with the possibility that, if convicted as an organisation for a second time, they could, under French law, face dissolution.
And since the existing fraud conviction characterises some of the Scientology's core practices as fraudulent this poses a serious problem to the movement.
The original 2009 judgment described the personality test used to pull in recruits as “devoid of any scientific value and analysed with the sole aim of selling various products and services”.
The appeal judgment agreed, pointing out that the test “is not recognised by the scientific community and has no scientific value”.4
The original ruling quoted extensively from L. Ron Hubbard's own writings to condemn the hard-sell techniques against paying customers.
The appeal court judgment followed exactly the same line of reasoning.
It referred to Scientology staffers' relentless pursuit of money, “the payment of which was sought at very short notice, without normal regard to the resources of the people concerned, which inevitably, far from solving their problems, had serious consequences on their personal situation...,” which the Scientologists dealing with clients knew would happen.5
These practices, together with the constant harassment by staffers for money – by post, by telephone and at one's home – were all hard-sell techniques sanctioned by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in his official writings.
This obsession with money was thus at the heart of the Scientology enterprise, the court concluded.
So this was more than just fraud committed by individuals, the appeal court judgment noted. The fraud had been committed by “people acting by a common resolution, in the framework of an elaborate system where the roles of each one was strictly defined and distributed...,” it insisted.6
That was what made it organised fraud, said the judgment: that was why the organisation as well as the individuals were convicted.
As I've reported previously, Scientology is facing at least two other investigations into alleged criminal activity here.
Perhaps most interesting is a case in 12 employees of a building firm say their employer forced them to take part in Scientology courses. Prosecutors in Versailles, near Paris, have opened a preliminary investigation into allegations of workplace harassment and abuse of weakness.7
Among those targeted in the investigation is one of the two Scientology organisations convicted of organised fraud: the Paris Celebrity Center, l’Association spirituelle de l’Eglise de scientologie (ASES-CC).
The other case is a long-running one resurrected last year by the Paris Court of Appeal. It concerns a private school that allegedly sneaked Scientology material on to its curriculum – and here again, the Paris Celebrity Centre is among the organisations targetted.8
It is a long road yet to any trials or convictions – assuming even that either case gets to court.
But since French law allows for the dissolution of an organisation that is twice convicted of a criminal offence, some of Scientology's most outspoken critics here say the movement's very existence here could eventually be in question.
For them, last year’s confirmation of the fraud convictions by the Cour de Cassation signalled the beginning of the end for Scientology in France.
How such a dissolution would work in practice of course, is another story. For some rights campaigners this would likely be a step too far.
Nor can there be any doubt that Scientology would seek to challenge any such sanction at the European Court of Human Rights.
And on that issue at least, they might get a more sympathetic hearing at the Strasbourg court.
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For a guide to Infinite Complacency's comprehensive coverage of the Paris fraud trial and convictions, see here.
1   This is a revised, extended version of the piece I filed at Tony Ortega's Underground Bunker on October 24: “Scientology had a big legal loss in Europe in June and we're just now finding out about it”
2   For an idea of what their case was, at least as presented to the Cour de Cassation, France's top court, see “An Impossible Defence”, elsewhere at this site.
3   “Porter l’affaire devant la cour européenne des droits de l’homme”, an October 16, 2013 release posted at the Scientologie Presse website. That reference to the “pressures of the executive” reflects Scientology's repeated allegations that the government had put pressure on the judiciary to get these convictions – and to make sure they stuck.
4   Page 25 of the February 2, 2012 Appeal Court judgment.
5   Page 26 of the February 2, 2012 Appeal Court judgment.
6   Page 28 of the February 2, 2012 Appeal Court judgment.
7   “French prosecutors investigating claims that a company forced Scientology on workers”, at Tony Ortega's Underground Bunker, July 25, 2014.
8   For more on this case, see the piece I filed at Tony Ortega's Underground Bunker on January 13, 2014: “New criminal case for Scientology in France could shut it down permanently in that country”

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Thursday, 27 March 2014

Scientology sent for trial in Belgium

A Belgian court has sent Scientologists and two of the movement's organisations for trial on fraud and other charges: but it is still a long road to the courtroom.
A court in Belgium on Thursday sent two Scientology organisations and 11 Scientologists for trial on fraud and other charges, the Belga news agency reported.
Two Belgian non-profits targetted
The Chambre de Conseil had for several months been considering whether two criminal investigations against the movement, one dating back as far as 1997, should go to court.
The cases, now merged into one, involve accusations of fraud, illegal practice of medicine and the non-respect of privacy laws.
One allegation police investigated was over the placing of false job adverts that gave the impression that paid work was available when in fact it was for unpaid work.
Perhaps the most important feature of Thursday's ruling is that it names two Scientology non-profit organisations in Belgium and not just members of the movement.
Prosecutors are going after the Church of Scientology in Belgium and the Brussels-based European Office for Public Affairs and Human Rights.
Since federal prosecutors are characterising Scientology as a criminal organisation, that might mean it could be banned in Belgium if convicted – at least according to Belgian press reports.
The court ordered that the case regarding a 11th Scientologist should be transferred to a separate court because he is an English-speaker.
And it ruled that the statute of limitations for the offences alleged in the case of at least one other Scientologist had expired.
The individuals and the two organisations sent for trial have the right to appeal the Belgian court's decision within 15 days, which they are doing.
A ‘modern inquisition’
Scientology has already issued a statement attacking the ruling and vowing to defend itself.
All those sent for trial have 15 days in which to lodge an appeal and Scientology has already made it clear that it will fight all the way.
“We cannot help but hope that this interminable investigation is nothing less than a modern inquisition and an affront to freedom of religion and the rights of the defence,” said a Scientology statement.
The time the investigation had taken — the earliest of the two dates back to 1997 — showed that the facts were “non-existent” and that the case was “made up of rumours, attributing motives and lies to what the Scientology religion really is,” the statement added.
Scientology should not be treated any differently from other religions, it insisted, concluding that the movement would fight to the very end any “any biased criminal proceedings that violates their basic rights”.
Belgian broadcaster RTBF spoke to lawyers on either side of the case.
Maître Bruno Dayez, who represents some of the plaintiffs, welcomed the fact that the criminal case was being sent for trial.
“It’s already really one point clearly in our favour,” he told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.
As for the rest, even if there are procedural obstacles, we are still entitled to act at the civil level — so even if the case were to collapse on the criminal side that would not mean for all that that I would not pursue compensation for my clients to the end.”
After 17 years of investigation however, Scientology’s lawyers will argue that the case has dragged on too long for it to come to trial.
“It does pose a problem, to have such long proceedings,” Maître Pierre Monville, who represents one of the defendants, told RTBF.
“The infractions stretch back into time and are hidden and so it is difficult to see what someone is being accused of when you go through 20 years in the life of an association,” he added.
The charge sheet, RTBF reported, includes accusations of the illegal practice of medicine; fraud; extortion; false representation; the non-respect of privacy; and criminal organisation.

According to one media report, the ruling was sufficiently well formulated to provoke the admiration of one of the defence lawyers. “Magnifique,” he said after it had been read out in court Thursday morning.
But there is still a way to go before the case gets to trial — if indeed it ever does.
Once the appeals are lodged, it could take months for the higher court to deliver its ruling, Belgian media reported. And if that goes against Scientology, it might even be possible for the defendants to find grounds for a further appeal on a point of law.
This would not be the first time the movement has tried to kill off the case against it.
Scientology has already tried to get the earlier of the two cases involved here thrown out.
Their lawyers argued that prosecutors’ comments to the news media in the years following the launch of the 1997 investigation had prejudiced their right to a fair trial.
After arguing their case in vain in the Belgian courts, they filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights, but the Strasbourg-based court also rejected their complaint, as reported here at the time.
Thursday's ruling in Belgium follows the definitive conviction last year in France of two Scientology organisations – and several Scientologists – for fraud.
And as we have reported here before, there is every sign that Belgian investigators have learned from the approach taken in France.
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This report is a revised version of the material filed earlier to Tony Ortega’s site, The Underground Bunker.
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Monday, 11 November 2013

The Paris Trial coverage: 2009-2014

Start here for exhaustive coverage of the Paris trial of Scientology for organised fraud: reports from inside the courtrooms and details of the broader political controversy.

Listed below is Infinite Complacency's complete coverage of the Paris trial of Scientology for fraud, organised fraud and the illegal practice of pharmacy.

You will find reports from the original trial in 2009, the 2011 appeal, all the way through to the final ruling at the Court of Cassation, France's top court, in 2013. There is extensive analysis too of the battles fought outside the courtroom.

And since Scientology tried to take its case to the European Court of Human Rights, I covered that in the final article, "Case Closed".




A Paris court is to try six Scientologists and two of the movement’s associations in a case that could lead to much of its operations in France being shut down.


After the first plaintiff had testified, the defendant accused of having defrauded her gave his side of the story.


On the third day of the Paris trial of Scientology, the judge questioned another defendant, one of the movement’s top salesmen.


A second plaintiff told the court how her Scientologist employer had put her under ever-increasing pressure to take the movement’s courses.


Scientology’s techniques abuse the transference process familiar to all therapists, a psychiatrist told the court.


A Paris court heard how a company director's massive spending on Scientology put his business at risk.



As a Paris court considered the high doses of vitamins used in Scientology's Purification Rundown, an expert witness dismissed the programme as quackery.


Scientology's Purification Rundown – combining exercise, sauna sessions and massive doses of vitamins – is not just a religious ritual but can also cure radiation, one defendant told the court.


The onetime executive director of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre, presented a vigorous defence to the court – to the point that he had to be called to order by his own lawyer.


Questioned closely by the judge about the substantial amounts of money taken from clients, the former executive director of the Celebrity Centre insisted that Scientology was about “ethics, honesty, respect”.


Between tears and anger, the former president of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre denounced what she called the persecution of her church – and her own harassment by critics of the movement.


Under hostile questioning from the plaintiffs' lawyers and the prosecution, the former president of the Celebrity Centre became increasingly emotional.


Scientology called two expert witnesses to defend the effectiveness of the e-meter used in their counselling sessions – but did not quite get what they had bargained for.


This short annexe explains why one expert thought that Scientologists didn't know how to operate their own e-meter.



Veteran politician Jean-Pierre Brard sketched a damning profile of Scientology in a presentation that ranged from its financial structure to theories of mind control.


Scientology’s personality test is fixed to exaggerate people’s weaknesses and Scientologists themselves are trained to lie to the court, former member Roger Gonnet told the court.


Scientology’s Purification Rundown is so dangerous it almost killed one of his clients, former Scientologist Roger Gonnet told the Paris court.


A US doctor mounted a vigorous defence of Scientology’s Purification Rundown, the controversial treatment at the centre of the Paris trial.


A succession of defence witnesses lined up to defend Scientology, including an internationally recognised concert pianist, a distinguished academic – even a psychiatrist.


More witnesses stepped forward to speak up for the defendants and denounce what they said was French persecution of their religion.


As more Scientologists spoke up for the defendants and their own beliefs, the gulf between their vision of accused and that of the plaintiffs grew ever wider.


Should UNADFI, the French anti-cult federation, be allowed the status of plaintiff in the case against Scientology? UNADFI president Catherine Picard debated the issue with the movement's lawyers.


The personality test is not a major recruitment tool, all refund requests are granted and “hard sell” means taking care of people, a Scientologist told the court.


The Purification Rundown is a religious purification rite that cures nothing, Scientologist Eric Roux told the court.


Scientology’s network of bookshops in France is entirely independent of the Paris Celebrity Centre, its representative insisted, defending a key plank of their joint defence against fraud charges.


As the third week of the trial drew to a close the main plaintiff, Aude-Claire Malton, fended off a final challenge from the defence lawyers.



Medicinal claims made for Scientology’s Purification Rundown – and the high doses of vitamins used – amount to the illegal practice of pharmacy, said the lawyer representing France's Order of Pharmacists.


Unscrupulous organisations can gain a psychological hold on people, argued the lawyer for the plaintiffs -- and Scientology is a past master at the art.


The prosecutors’ closing arguments created a sensation at the trial: as well as calling for convictions for the individual defendants, they argued for the dissolution of the two organisations charged.


The second half of the prosecution’s closing arguments focussed on the evidence of fraud – by the individual defendants and the two Scientology organisations charged.


A round-up of the sentences the prosecution called for.


The go-between who supplied vitamins for the Purification Rundown is a victim of France’s obsession with prosecuting ‘cults’ and its refusal to respect European law on food supplements, her lawyer argued.


The Scientologist who supervised the Purification Rundown had no case to answer: her accusers had decided she was guilty simply because of her beliefs, her lawyer argued.


The former president of the Celebrity Centre is a scapegoat in a symbolic trial against Scientology, said her lawyer, citing a host of distinguished legal authorities on freedom of religion.


A devoted Scientologist risks being convicted for his beliefs because the government has left the job of dealing with Scientology to the courts instead of assuming its responsibilities, his lawyer argued.


The Scientologist and salesman accused of fraud has been tried in an atmosphere tainted by media hysteria and soured by a prosecution summing up that smacks of the Inquisition, his lawyer argued.


The former executive director of Scientology's Celebrity Centre should not be convicted because three people out of thousands of happy Scientologists had filed complaints, his lawyer argued.


SEL, France's network of Scientology bookshops, is the victim of a modern witch hunt in which the trappings of the movement's beliefs have been interpreted as evidence of its guilt, said SEL's lawyer.


The Celebrity Centre should not be convicted on the basis of prejudice and preconceptions against Scientology, lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve argued, as the trial drew to a close.


A hitherto unnoticed change in French law will prevent a court from dissolving the two Scientology organisations charged in the Paris trial, as prosecutors had recommended.

A summary of the verdict and sentences in the Paris trial of Scientology, following the same format as What the Prosecution Wants, posted earlier.


A detailed review and analysis of the original court judgment ahead of the trial on appeal.


Even before its appeal trial opened, Scientology fought back against the 2009 fraud convictions with accusations of judicial bias and suggestions of political pressure.


Scientology had vowed to expose the case against them as empty. In court however, the procedural motions launched by their lawyers' delayed any examination of the facts of the case.


Scientology’s lawyers took three hours to attack counter-cult group UNADFI’s bid to be admitted as a plaintiff in the Paris appeal trial. Ten minutes into their lawyer’s response, the proceedings degenerated into a shouting match.


The judge in Scientology’s Paris appeal trial deferred a decision on French counter-cult group UNADFI’s status at the trial, effectively allowing them to play a full role in proceedings – a major blow to the defence.


On the sixth day of the trial on appeal, after the court rejected Scientology's final bid to exclude the counter-cult group UNADFI from the proceedings, the defendants and their lawyers walked out, claiming they were being denied a fair trial.


The prosecutor in the Paris appeal trial of Scientology called for the fines handed down to the two Scientology organisations convicted at the original trial to be more than doubled.


The Court of Appeal in Paris confirmed the convictions of the two Scientology organisations for organised fraud, a decision which some say is the beginning of the end for the movement.


Leading opponents of Scientology say the Paris appeal court convictions of two of its organisations mark the beginning of the end for the movement in France. It is no idle threat.


Scientology is arguing that the magistrate who prepared the organised fraud case against it was “indoctrinated”: the latest in a series of bids to get its conviction overturned.


Scientology's campaign to present its Paris convictions as a miscarriage of justice betrays the movement's conspiratorial mindset.



France's top court will next week rule whether the appeal court's fraud convictions against Scientology should stand. Here is how we got here.


It was not the role of the Paris Court of Appeal to act as a chamber of inquisition, a Scientology lawyer told France's top court.


Vitamins used in Scientology's Purification Rundown are no more medicines than sweets or beauty products, a Scientology lawyer told France's top court.


Scientology's religious freedom defence is irrelevant, the lawyer for counter-cult group UNADFI argued, as the state prosecutor denounced the movement as a “villainous enterprise”.


Four years after the first court ruling against the movement, Scientology has lost its appeal against fraud convictions at France's top court.


A French court has awarded Scientology damages for delays in the long legal battle that ended in fraud convictions against it last year. But it's not quite the victory they were hoping for.


A Scientologist who tried to get France’s counter-cult group UNADFI sanctioned over its role in a major court case against the movement got a taste of her own medicine.

 57 Case Closed

The European Court of Human Rights has dismissed Scientology's bid to challenge its conviction for organised fraud in France. A second conviction in France could threaten its very existence there.
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