an OPEN LETTER to anyone who asks about
THE MERIT of "HIGH RETURN INVESTMENTS"
(OR UNSECURED LOANS)
 run by scientologists

Promises of untold riches arising from small to medium investments abound amongst Scientologists

Blinded by the lure of  lavish returns and the problems resulting from the need to raise the hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars demanded by the Church, every year more people fall prey to schemes that would make any banker or professional investor hair stand on end.

In fact a large number of "ex-scientologists" became so as the direct result of their disenchantment when they realized that their gullibility had purposely been nurtured for years in order to incourage them to make large investments or loans when they actually were nothing but complex stratagems to funnel millions into the Church coffers.

Anyone honest and with verificable experience in Investing will tell people that the greater the potential for return the greater the risk and the odds that one will loose everything rather than make a small fortune. It if were not true, the numbers of millionaires in America would not be in the thousands, but rather in the millions.

I do not know for a fact that the promises of any specific individual someone is referring me to actually fall under that category, but based on my experience in life and an extensive one with Investing, I would advise anyone extreme caution before embarking on any schemes promising extremely high returns, especially when no verifiable track of success can be provided.

When returns or promises fail to materialize, it is typical to see a series of stalling messages given to investors or lenders. Because taking legal action by a Scientologist against another, (even when fraud or crimes are involved) is subject to shunning by wife, children and business partners as well as subject to public expulsion, persecution and will be officially condemned by curses of eternal damnation (Scientologese jargon actual means the same) authors of scams are typically given  free rein to operate within the Church as long as they contribute to the filling of Church coffers (War chest in their own words) until the day where they eventually create a legal problem of large magnitude or get Scientology banned in their own country. At that time the church will inevitably plead its innocence and vigorously place itself on the long list of their victim, quietly disregarding the fact it profited obscene amounts of money from them.

I have personally met thousands of individuals on both sides of the fence in and out of the Church of Scientology.

As long as Scientology's name was kept out of the newspapers or legislators agenda, the Church would turn the cold shoulder to the hundreds of desperate pleas by those who claimed they had been fleeced and had now become destitute, since they were now obviously useless to them. (downstat in Scientology jargon)

Over my two decades at Flag (the highest center in Scientology, located in Clearwater, Florida), I  was called to obtain the written (and therefore entirely actionable) confessions of the perpetrators (and more unpleasantly, provide counselling to address the upset and despondency from its victims) for dozens upon dozens of scams, swindles, pyramid or ponzi schemes and other empty promises and fraudulent loans.

For years I wrote reports on the perpetrators of such scams. Nothing came out of it, except for my being listed as a "trouble maker" and eventually marked for "orderly disposal".

Some of the victims of those schemes became dangerously despondent and found themselves destitute. In extreme cases, suicides or murderous rages were the final result.

One of the most touching stories documenting such abuses to be posted on the Internet is "Albert Jaquier, diary of a dying scientologist". I personally knew Albert very well. Based on my first hand experience with Albert, I can state that his story as compelling as it was is merely the tip of a monstruous and most pernicious iceberg. I know first hand dozens of stories equally devastating (see the link for a more detailed account)

I feel no compunction to withold any of this data, because in each case prior to the the travesty of  a confessional that I was ordered to give on behalf of the Church of Scientology each parishioner was told prior to it that "This is not auditing (Scientology word for counselling) and that everything revealed would be written up in triplicate and forwarded to a number of lay people and to the Church Intelligence agency, where privacy concerns are officially acknowledged as entirely irrelevant by long standing policy.

In every case, I was under the obligation to write a full and detailed report of the transgressions revealed to me by the parishioners, as well as any hearsay involving others, so that the Church could use it for its own lay purposes. When I eventually objected that covertly using Confession as a double standard to extort blackmail materials from its parishioners and publicly revealing their details was morally objectionable, I found myself threatened by expulsion and blackmail. I eventually felt utter contempt for a Church acting that way, especially in the light that it has always insisted in the court and legal system that all such confessions are "priest-penitent
privileged" and has the folders containing such "confessions" so stamped. A number of disenchanted Scientology celebrities are currently being kept at bay through the "intelligence" so gathered through such chicanery. Without doubt the same fate awaits any current Church celebrity should they one day decide to defect.

It is my view that the amount of money that was lost by well meaning individuals through questionable schemes between 1980 and 1992 (the years I worked for the Church) to be well in excess of 100 millions American dollars.

In most cases the sole beneficiaries were the Church of Scientology and International Association of Scientologists, who blissfully received the millions of dollars funelled through the amoral schemes.

In the worst cases suicides were even directly linked when such schemes failed. In 1992 Scientology was almost banned in France as a result.The story of people I personally know who found themselves facing shattered lives, financial ruin and who left Scientology as a result could fill up a very large book. I also know equally well the unholy story and details of those who defrauded them.

Best Regards

Pierre Ethier