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Russia: Police raid Saint Petersburg org, Sept. 25, 2014

mnql1

Patron Meritorious
At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 25, 2014, police raided the Church of Scientology located at 21 Rozenstein Street in Saint Peterburg, Russia. Authorities are investigating a "large-scale fraud" by the construction company "Olimp" whose directors are Scientologists Ekaterina and Mikhail Zaborskikh. Money that buyers paid to purchase apartments in buildings yet to be constructed was allegedly siphoned off to pay for Scientology courses or as donations to Scientology's "volunteer ministers." According to present estimates, 9 million rubles were stolen from defrauded investors.

A video posted on Russia's NTV website on September 27 shows some scenes from the raid. The speaker heard in the video is Vyacheslav Stepchenko, an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He states that the raid took place and summarizes the fraud allegations.

Sources (in Russian):
NTV video Sept. 27, 2014
NTV video Sept. 25,2014
Article, Sept. 25, 2014: Police raid Scientology business
 
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oneonewasaracecar

Gold Meritorious Patron
I'm going to reserve judgement on this.

Although it is likely that Scientology has engaged in fraud, I am not certain I support the tactics used.

By the looks of that video, nothing was shredded. They sent in commandos in ski masks.
 

dchoiceisalwaysrs

Gold Meritorious Patron
I'm going to reserve judgement on this.

Although it is likely that Scientology has engaged in fraud, I am not certain I support the tactics used.

By the looks of that video, nothing was shredded. They sent in commandos in ski masks.

did they bring caek and dance too... excuse me while I settle down, I think something was in that rice that I just fried.
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
I'm going to reserve judgement on this.

Although it is likely that Scientology has engaged in fraud, I am not certain I support the tactics used.

By the looks of that video, nothing was shredded. They sent in commandos in ski masks.


Yes, it IS likely. :yes:

If it's not fraud it's not Scientology. :whistling::biggrin:
 

Dean Blair

Silver Meritorious Patron
This was a pleasant morning surprise. It reminds me of the FDA raid on Washington DC and the FBI raid in Los Angeles. I am happy to see that the Russian Govt. has some balls. Looking forward to the time when our government takes some effective action against Scientology.:thumbsup:
 

Lone Star

Crusader
This was a pleasant morning surprise. It reminds me of the FDA raid on Washington DC and the FBI raid in Los Angeles. I am happy to see that the Russian Govt. has some balls. Looking forward to the time when our government takes some effective action against Scientology.:thumbsup:

You can look forward to the US government taking effective action, but it will never happen.

I think Russia is in part showing the US that they aren't going to put up with the US's damn cults, along with all the other bullshit it is doing in the Ukraine with the intelligence ops and staged coup earlier this year.

Go ahead Slappy, send Tom and JT to plead with Putin like they did with Helmut Kohl in the 90s. I'm sure that'll be effective. LOL...

Scientology may be getting caught up in the "new cold war". And hey, that's kinda funny. LOL....

But I'm a sick bastard. Love the ski masks myself, btw.... Get 'em!!! LOL..
 

Chris Shelton

Patron with Honors
This is not how Scientology is going to go down. My initial take on this is that it was a waste of time and is only going to serve the IAS to rally the whales and get them donating more money for some crusade in Russia. Is this going to hurt CSI or RTC or CST? Not in the slightest. Miscavige could close St Petersburg org entirely and not lose much of anything in terms of real lasting damage to Scientology. The Scientologists in Russia will rally as well around the common cause of fighting the "suppressive government" which of course may not be so untrue in the case of Russia. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll be proven wrong.
 

Lone Star

Crusader
This is not how Scientology is going to go down. My initial take on this is that it was a waste of time and is only going to serve the IAS to rally the whales and get them donating more money for some crusade in Russia. Is this going to hurt CSI or RTC or CST? Not in the slightest. Miscavige could close St Petersburg org entirely and not lose much of anything in terms of real lasting damage to Scientology. The Scientologists in Russia will rally as well around the common cause of fighting the "suppressive government" which of course may not be so untrue in the case of Russia. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll be proven wrong.

I agree that this will not take Scientology on the whole down. But it's days in Russia are numbered. The geopolitical scene is different now. Very different. And I do think this is in play here.

The Scientologists in Russia can rally all they want. They can also be rounded up and put in "Putin's Hole". There's not a damn thing the US State Department can do about it. Oh I suppose lifting the sanctions and promising to let Russia have eastern Ukraine could greatly help. LOL...

Yeah, that'll happen.
 
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Boojuum

Silver Meritorious Patron
This is just more nasty stuff that the COS gets dragged into that shows you the culture of high-roller, high-risk finance and iffy justifications that lives in Scientology circles.

The COS is a high-pressure sales organization and leads people into silly financial deals rife with deception, bankruptcy, bad credit, borrowing from rich friends, full of promise and short on delivery and lacking in financial or career integrity.

:thumbsup:
 

Lone Star

Crusader
This is just more nasty stuff that the COS gets dragged into that shows you the culture of high-roller, high-risk finance and iffy justifications that lives in Scientology circles.

The COS is a high-pressure sales organization and leads people into silly financial deals rife with deception, bankruptcy, bad credit, borrowing from rich friends, full of promise and short on delivery and lacking in financial or career integrity.

:thumbsup:

Yes, and not to mention the unethical things Scilons do to one another. I know of at least one case in which one Scilon through trickery and deceit totally screwed another Scilon out of his successful business. Of course he was an on-purpose high contributor so the church didn't do anything about it.
 

Leland

Crusader
I think this is great.....and it will hurt the Org......IF they follow the money.

So a big construction company......plays funny with people's deposits....

Spends some at the local c of $

BUT,, if they follow the money......where does that money go....?

All the way to DM? All the way to Int? All the way to the russian or eastern european LO?

Does it go to that Australian Corporation....that runs everything in Europe and Britain....?

It certainly doesn't stop at the local St Petersburg c of $....

I can see the Pravda Headlines......Cult stole home buyers monies in St. Petersburg Russia....and it ends up in California USA....!! Great stuff IMO.
 
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mnql1

Patron Meritorious
Incidentally, the raid of the Church of Scientology in Saint Petersburg took place exactly one week before the European Court of Human Rights is scheduled to hand down a decision on Thursday, October 2, 2014 regarding Russia's refusal to register the Saint Petersburg org.

Source: Forthcoming judgments re: BG, CZ, FR, GR, MD, NO, PT, RU & UA 30.09-02.10.14
Church of Scientology of St Petersburg and Others v. Russia (no. 47191/06)

The applicants in this case are the Church of Scientology of St Petersburg, an unincorporated group
of Russian citizens formed for the collective study of Scientology, and six members of this group:
Galina Shurinova, Nadezhda Shchemeleva, Anastasiya Terentyeva, Ivan Matsitskiy, Yuliya Bryntseva,
and Galina Frolova, Russian nationals, born in 1954, 1955, 1979, 1975, 1977, and 1955 respectively.
The case concerns their complaint about the authorities refusing to register their Scientology group
as a legal-entity.

Between March 1995 and August 2003 the applicants’ Scientology group, led by Ms Shurinova since
the late 1980s, submitted six applications for registration. The registration authorities rejected all
their applications, each time citing new grounds for their refusal. The most recent refusal referred in
particular to the alleged unreliability of a document confirming that the group had been in existence
for 15 years, a legal requirement under Russian law for any new religious group to be registered. In
October 2003 the applicants challenged the refusals in court and, in December 2005, the
St Petersburg District Court held that the refusal to register their group as a legal entity had been
lawful, citing defects in the document confirming the existence of the religious group for 15 years.
This judgment was upheld on appeal in May 2006.

Relying in particular on Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) interpreted in the
light of Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association), the Scientology group complain that the
decisions refusing to register them as a legal entity were arbitrary.
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
From Tony O's Underground Bunker earlier this morning:

"...we asked Jonny Jacobsen about a raid that happened Thursday at the Scientology org in St. Petersburg, Russia. We heard about the raid early Friday afternoon, but our Russian translator cautioned us to be careful with the story. Our translator had concerns about the media organization reporting it, and said the involvement of the church itself was unclear."

So while the story came out on WWP yesterday, we waited and asked our man in Europe, Jonny Jacobsen, to make a quick study of what was going on. We’re glad we waited. Here’s what he sent us.

<snip>

Read Full Post: http://tonyortega.org/2014/09/28/ce...-jonny-jacobsen-on-russia-and-sunday-funnies/ (beginning of paragraph 4)
 

mnql1

Patron Meritorious
Posted on Monday, September 29, 2014 by Interfax:
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=11535
Police raid St. Petersburg Scientology church as part of fraud probe

St. Petersburg, September 29, Interfax - Police on Thursday searched the premises of the St. Petersburg Church of Scientology as part of an investigation into suspected large-scale fraud by the chief executive of a construction company, the police authority for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region said.

The searches resulted in "evidence confirming the existence of financial relations" between the suspect and the Scientologist church, the authority said in a statement.

Investigators claim that the chief executive handed over to the church about 9 million rubles that were allegedly investments from customers.

"Documents were seized in the course of the searches that confirm the transfer of about 17 million rubles to the religious group via a commercial organization controlled by them for donations and instruction," the statement said.

Police were continuing their investigations, it said.
 

Smurf

Gold Meritorious SP
I'm going to reserve judgement on this. Although it is likely that Scientology has engaged in fraud, I am not certain I support the tactics used. By the looks of that video, nothing was shredded. They sent in commandos in ski masks.

This is typical with Russian police & military ops. You will also notice in the videos that there are un-masked uniformed police milling about.

http://www.creditnet.ru/info/?id=8380788&&lang=en&report_id=1388354136369

The Scilon couple has a daughter living in the LA area.. she's anglicized her name. https://plus.google.com/107983162336857930903/posts

https://interactive.web.insurance.ca.gov/webuser/Licw_Indv_Det$.STARTUP?Z_INDV_ID=1599410&Z_IL_LIC_NBR=0I49763

https://www.facebook.com/angelika.zaborskikh
 
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