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IRS and Scientology
HIDDEN TIES BETWEEN IRS AND SCIENTOLOGY REVEALED
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Public Research Foundation
PUBLIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION
HCR 38, BOX 66
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89124
PHONE: 702-873-2343
FAX: 702-873-2115
E-MAIL: prf@mailcity.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November(?) 1997
Meade Emory, former Assistant to the Commissioner of the Internal
Revenue Service, co-founded Scientology's most senior
organization--Church of Spiritual Technology--according to
recently uncovered records of the United States Claims Court.
Emory is currently Director of the Washington State University
Law School's Graduate Program in Taxation in Seattle.
The Emory-co-founded Church of Spiritual Technology (CST),
doing business as the "L. Ron Hubbard Library," now controls the
copyrights for all of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual
properties--once valued at close to $100 million. CST also enjoys
ultimate authority over all Scientology-related trademarks,
including the name "L. Ron Hubbard."
Emory was Assistant to the Commissioner of the IRS from 1975
through 1977. Strangely, those were the same years in which an
IRS employee, Gerald Wolfe, was covertly passing IRS documents to
Scientology's Guardian's Office. In 1976, Wolfe even provided
forged federal I.D. to a Scientology staff member, Michael
Meisner, and together they used the forged credentials to pilfer
copies of documents from the IRS and other federal agencies.
Wolfe and Meisner's activities ultimately resulted in federal
criminal convictions against high-level Scientology executives.
Most notable among those was L. Ron Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue
Hubbard.
The fact that she was Hubbard's wife tended to overshadow
more important facts: Hubbard himself had disappeared in February
of 1980 under mysterious circumstances still not satisfactorily
explained, and Mary Sue Hubbard--with the aid of the Guardian's
Office--had been left with the duty and the power to safeguard
his copyrights and trademarks.
But in July of 1981, Mary Sue Hubbard was overthrown,
losing her long-held control over Scientology's copyrights and
trademarks. Soon after, the Guardian's Office was disbanded. Then
by May of 1982--less than a year later--Emory had helped to set
up CST, the corporation that eventually assumed control of all
rights to L. Ron Hubbard's works.
According to the June 29, 1992 ruling in U.S. Claims Court
case No. 581-88T, CHURCH OF SPIRITUAL TECHNOLOGY v. THE UNITED
STATES, "CST was founded in 1982 by Lyman Spurlock, Meade Emory,
Esq., Leon Misterek, Esq., and Sherman Lenske, Esq. CST...
subsequently sought tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue
Code."
That tax-exempt status was granted on October 1, 1993, in a
sealed, secret, 4"-thick agreement with IRS. None of the terms of
the agreement have ever been made known, either by CST or IRS.
The only clue to any of the terms came at the event celebrating
the exemptions, when David Miscavige, head of Religious
Technology Center (RTC) and Scientology's highest-ranking
spokesperson, said, "There will be no billion-dollar tax bill
that we cannot pay!" Oddly, while proclaiming the long list of
Scientology entities that had received exempt status, Miscavige
made no mention of CST's inclusion--even though that is the
senior-most corporation of all, and the one that benefitted most
from the sudden IRS change of heart.
Other oddities have also surfaced:
1. According to the U.S. Claims Court ruling, "None of the
founders of CST, with the exception of Mr. Spurlock, has any
stated religious connection with Scientology."
2. The October 1993 IRS tax-exempt blessing on CST was
granted just months after Norman F. Starkey, executor of the
estate of L. Ron Hubbard, had finally secured control of every
intellectual property ever produced by L. Ron Hubbard.
3. On November 29, 1993, scarcely two months after CST had
been granted tax exemption, Starkey transferred the rights for
all 7,730 of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual properties to CST.
Many questions remain regarding Meade Emory's possible role
in bringing about the tax exemption for CST, but questions also
surround Emory's fellow CST co-founder, attorney Sherman Lenske.
According to court records, "Lenske and two other
non-Scientologists have the status of Special Directors of CST."
The two others are Lenske's brother, attorney Stephen Lenske, and
another attorney, Lawrence Heller.
But Sherman Lenske's involvement goes all the way back to
1981. In a sworn declaration, Lenske says he was hired in April
1981 to be attorney "in all aspects of estate planning" for L.
Ron Hubbard.
Therein lies another strange coincidence: Lenske appeared on
the scene only after Hubbard had disappeared, and only three
months before Mary Sue Hubbard was overthrown, then became a key
figure in every step that led to CST's take-over of the
multi-million-dollar intellectual properties she had previously
controlled, and to which she was rightful heir:
1. Lenske drafted all wills and trusts having anything to do
with final distribution of Hubbard's assets and intellectual
properties.
2. Lenske was a consultant in the corporate restructuring
that created CST.
3. Lenske represented Norman F. Starkey, the executor of
Hubbard's estate, right up through the point when Starkey
transferred the intellectual property rights to CST.
4. In addition to his role as a Special Director of CST,
Lenske is its Registered Agent, is Registered Agent for Religious
Technology Center (which currently licenses the trademarks under
CST's aegis), and is Registered Agent for Author Services, Inc.,
which represents Hubbard's fiction works.
5. Lenske created the fictitious business name, "L. Ron
Hubbard Library," filing it first for Norman F. Starkey's use as
executor, then filing it again in 1993 for CST, right after CST
received all the intellectual property rights from Starkey.
How did an attorney who does not even subscribe to the
religious philosophy of Scientology become its most influential
figure, with ultimate authority over the entire body of work?
What role did Meade Emory's inside-the-Beltway connections
have on the sudden, secret turn-around by IRS?
Is it possible, as one observer has speculated, that all of
Scientology went into receivership to IRS, and is now being
run--as a corporation--by the federal government?
Is that why the agreement is such a closely-held secret?
All these questions still wait for answers. But the
previously-suppressed connection to IRS may provide a new place
to look for them.
-END OF RELEASE-
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