The Church of Scientology has been engaged in numerous financial schemes for well over 50 years. With the ‘Bridge to Total Freedom’ costing parishioners anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million, staff members operate under constant pressure to develop strategies that generate income for the Church.
Today, former Scientology executive Chris Shelton and I took a deep dive into Scientology’s money-making activities, such as the fraudulent ‘Chase Wave’ scandal, the Scientology Credit Union and how the US tax-exempt Church of Scientology International profits from loaning money to overseas entities.
Watch the full discussion below:
You can read more about Scientology’s UK operations and it’s $100 million debt problem here.
4 responses
This is starting to look more and more like just another way to make money with interest. I don’t think it’s laundering however I think like Chris said it something very shady seems to be going on and it seems that being tax exempt in the united states they are defiantly making money in the process. Interest adds up especially when tens of Millions are involved. Factor in not paying taxes on it? I refer back to you Alex, what is this the first Tax exempt bank in history?
Very well said. The deeper I dive into these documents, the more questions I have and the darker it looks. Scientology very clearly has a sophisticated web of corporate machinery in place to mask it’s operations and will do anything and everything it can to generate revenue. As Chris mentioned, they tread very closely to the line of legality – the question is when will they cross over that line, if they haven’t already?
This is starting to look more and more like just another way to make money with interest. I don’t think it’s laundering however I think like Chris said it something very shady seems to be going on and it seems that being tax exempt in the united states they are defiantly making money in the process. Interest adds up especially when tens of Millions are involved. Factor in not paying taxes on it? I refer back to you Alex, what is this the first Tax exempt bank in history?
Very well said. The deeper I dive into these documents, the more questions I have and the darker it looks. Scientology very clearly has a sophisticated web of corporate machinery in place to mask it’s operations and will do anything and everything it can to generate revenue. As Chris mentioned, they tread very closely to the line of legality – the question is when will they cross over that line, if they haven’t already?