Portrait of a Ponzi Man| Portrait of a Ponzi Man | | Print | |
| Wednesday, 13 May 2009 15:22 | ||||||
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Scientology was intended to help people. Used correctly, it does just that. David Miscavige has turned it into a massive Ponzi scheme. Here’s how his carefully guarded system works: International EventsAfter Hubbard died in 1986, David Miscavige kicked off a schedule of “international” events. Each event is global in scope and all Scientologists are commanded to attend “to get briefed up on the latest wins, news, and new releases.” Per LRH, this is what the various Scientology magazines are for.
As you can see, there is a major event roughly every 2 months throughout the year. Propaganda Machine
Instead of managing Church affairs, the senior executives of Scientology at the highest (international) levels were put onto continually writing speeches and video scripts throughout the year. If they fail, they are declared suppressive and isolated in their offices for months on end. Crews were assigned to design and build extravagant stages for each event intended to dazzle spectators and put them into a state of hypnotic awe. With the exception of Hitler, no other ego in history has demanded such extravagant stages, not even the President of the United States! Why, Barack Obama needs nothing more than a microphone to garner support from the entire planet. Why do you think Miscavige requires an event stage large enough to house a 747? Every available marketing staff member was absorbed into the machine to constantly “repackage” all possible Scientology books and services on an endless treadmill, racing from one event to the next. Slave LaborEvery year, at the May, June and October events Miscavige announces new “dissemination campaigns” and shows the latest TV ads “to drive massive numbers of people into Scientology organizations.” The ads cost virtually nothing to produce because Miscavige uses his own slave labor to produce them with each laborer making well under minimum wage, about $0.40 an hour. So the beautiful TV ads cost nothing. But they look expensive. Massive FraudSo they make generous donations to help out. And if they don’t, they are coerced until they do. For example, a Scientologist is hauled in to watch the latest event (on DVD) “so he can get briefed.” The event contains speeches and videos with grossly exaggerated claims and flagrant generalities, such as “reaching some 1 billion people with the message of Source!” What does that mean? It means nothing. Nothing of that magnitude really happened at all.
I myself received a phone call from my local organization, from a person who I had never met, and who knew nothing about me whatsoever. I was not at home and so she left a voicemail asking me to please come in and donate $5,000 because “it would really help a lot.” When Scientology staff get to the point they will call up a total stranger and leave a voicemail requesting $5,000, you can imagine what happens to people they already know well whom they can pressure in person. They're getting hit up for 10 and even 100 times that amount. The Bernie Madoff HustleThe money, tens of millions of dollars every year, is funneled into the Church where a fat chunk goes to Miscavige every week. With it he buys $500 shirts, cars, motorcycles, suits, homes, buildings, cameras, flat-screen TVs, swimming pools, spy equipment, guns, home theaters... whatever he wants. He builds himself houses, offices, takes vacations, goes to the races and hangs with his millionaire friends like Tom Cruise. Here’s where the real Ponzi fakery comes in. The “dissemination campaigns” are launched but the TV ads that were shown to the Scientologists play for only a few weeks in spot markets instead of throughout the year as implied in the event. After all, every campaign is hyped up as “our biggest campaign ever!” In this way, the “dissemination programs” announced by Miscavige appear to be happening and Scientology seems to be really moving somewhere! Woo-hoo.
Spending a pittance to get a few ads made by slave labor, that’s cheap. Putting a smattering of ads on TV or radio for a few days or weeks, that’s cheap. Miscavige simply keeps all the cash. There is NO accountability for the funds. Not to the IRS because it’s a “church,” not to the SEC, not to anyone. Bad to the Last DropSo, on the model of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, Scientologists are coerced to “invest” in the dissemination of Scientology, a subject which they believe will help people. Miscavige makes a show of carrying through, but in reality he only puts up a few ads and then pulls the funding, or cross-orders the program, or transfers the marketing staff member who was running the program. Miscavige has numerous ways of stopping any actual dissemination since it would be expensive. In other words, he promises a river but delivers a drop. Anyone with rudimentary math skills can understand that the number of ongoing programs would quickly add up. However no extra staff are added into marketing to run the dissemination programs. In fact, the organization responsible for Church marketing has been decimated by Miscavige; they have gone from about 35 staff down to maybe 7 or 8. So there’s no one there to run any programs anyway. Shhhhh, Keep this Part Secret!But, just between us, you know the one thing a Ponzi man just hates? This website is fully backed up on multiple servers and set so that if anything happens to it, a duplicate website with the same information will go online overnight. We know the kind of person we are dealing with. We're expecting dirty tricks and we're prepared and ready for them. Bernard Madoff had his $50 billion ponzi scheme exposed. Robert Allen Stanford had his $8 billion ponzi scheme exposed. All we're saying is, "Psssst, look under the white robes of David Miscavige." Written by Thoughtful |
"Scientology has been taken over by a self-appointed dictator, David Miscavige, who has turned the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the Code of a Scientologist, and the Credo of a True Group Member on their heads and instituted the virtual practice of Reverse (Black) Dianetics..." 
Comments
The first people that invested made out, he was apparently good on his word, giving back $450 for the initial $300 investment. Some took the money, others begged him to keep their money and roll it over again. Pretty soon, people were lined up to give over their money for Ponzi to invest.
The scam? Ponzi was not investing any money, he was paying his initial investors out of new funds coming in. Of course, this is totally unsound, because, at some point there aren't enough people in the world to make it work.
It worked as long as it did due to greed, most folk wanted to roll their money back into the plan for higher profits, very few accepted the payout. Eventually, there was a crisis in confidence and everybody wanted their money back and Ponzi was nowhere to be found, but found he was and thrown in prison, and eventually deported back to Italy.
Pete
Looking forward to your response. Thank you.
You aren't "differing" with me, you are just uninformed.
You aren't even confronting anything beyond one key word: "current" as in "the current marketing campaign has been running..." Your words.
Now first of all, I want to remind you that it is in the nature of being a Scientologist to actually confront life. You will remember there is a drill for that, called TR-0 where people are supposed to learn how to confront.
Plus and I don't mean to be indelicate here, but what about the previous unfulfilled 24 YEARS worth of marketing campaigns -- each promised to be "our biggest ever"? Doesn't that seem like an important detail to you?
Lemme see... after promising Scientologists for 24 years, Miscavige finally decides to run a sustained marketing campaign in the summer of 2009. Gee whiz, I wonder why now? After 24 years of stringing people on, why only now, does he change?
Do you have any idea how many campaigns were put together in those 24 years? How many TV ads that were never used or hardly used at all?
(Ring, ring! Ring, ring!)
Excuse me, it's my dang phone.
"Hello." (Oh, it's Sherlock Holmes!)
"Yes, Mr. Holmes how are you? I thought you were dead?"
(Mr. Holmes wants me to remind everyone that this very article exposing David Miscavige as a Ponzi thief was published on May 13, 2009 right before the ads started. I don't know what that has to do with Miscavige's decision to actually break from his pattern and sustain this particular campaign, but I'm no Sherlock Holmes.)
Anyway, sorry for the interruption. As I was saying, Miscavige has been getting straight donations for "dissemination campaigns" for many years. Regging for the Super Power Project started in 1985.
That's 20-something years that Miscavige has been regging straight donations -- which are totally illegal, off policy and out-ethics.
(Ring, ring! Ring, ring!)
Woops... "Hello? Yes, Mr. Holmes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, I'll tell them."
Holmes says, the shift in marketing has a technical name: it's called "CYA" which apparently stands for "Cover Your Ass." Yep, since he's been caught out on lying to people for decades, taking their donations specified for one purpose and then spending them on something else. Holmes says that when someone takes donations for the Super Power building and then actually spends the money on the Oaks Hotel, as Miscavige did recently, well, apparently people can go to jail for that.
Wiley E. Miscavige doesn't want to go to jail right off, so maybe he decided to actually sustain a marketing campaign for once. Who knows?
Hey, it's never too late to get honest, right? Right?? I mean, a lot of criminals would say it's okay to steal and lie and destroy people, as long as RIGHT BEFORE THE FBI ARRIVES you change your tune!
Like the Master Racers from Nazi Germany. When the allies came in, boom, what do you know? They got quiet and moved off to South America. Not that Miscavige is going to move off to South America, not when he's got the Freewinds as a hide out... I mean, religious retreat. Besides, I think a lot of people down in South America gave a lot of money for dissemination campaigns and other stuff that never somehow happened... excuse me -- until now, Mr. Sharp-as-a-Tack.
I don't know, but down in Mexico they might mistake him for a piñata. Especially with those oglingly hateful eyes of his (they look like they're glued on, you know).
Anyway, I'm getting way off the subject. I don't even remember what we were talking about.
Oh, yeah, "How to Pull a Fast One and Get Away with it for 24 Years and only in the 25th Year Start to Keep Your Promises" by David Miscavige.
I was just wondering: Are you the kind of person who would look at a convicted child molester, when he was brought into court, and say, "Well, he's not molesting any children right now. So he must be okay!"
Let's journey back for a moment. If you were around in 1998, you may recall we had 2 LRH books become national bestsellers: Fundamentals of Thought and New Slant on Life. The ads are dated now, but they sold books. In fact they sold so many books that both titles became national bestsellers as measured by Ingram's the largest book distributor in the United States. Miscavige let those campaigns run for about 2 months and then pulled the plug. He had one girl, Manu Spencer running the campaigns and they were a total success -- the first time LRH's Scientology books had become so popular. Miscavige pulled all funding for the campaign. Most of the ads never even ran on TV one time.
In 1991, Miscavige pulled all funding for the Dianetics campaign, something that was started by my friend Jeff Hawkins in 1982. It carried forward until it was stopped by Miscavige.
In addition, there were all kinds of other campaigns that never went anywhere because David Miscavige controls the money.
Here's another point to consider. Whether Miscavige delivers ads or not is beside the point: regging straight donations is against LRH policy. But if you're not on LRH's side, you don't care. You've got "New LRH" -- shorter, more hateful, and expensive.
Anyway, it all goes still deeper. I got it that NOW Miscavige is finally running some "ads" in a sustained campaign. But even these ads are a waste of money for two reasons:
1) Per HCO PL 10 Feb 65, Ad and Book Policies, LRH says, "4. Only books may be advertised. Processing, training and services may not be advertised." Try to find what book the current ads are selling. They aren't selling anything. Orgs are empty. But here's the bright side: since the ads don't sell anything, there's no way to measure their success... "or failure" says Sherlock Holmes (he's on speaker).
2) Here's the real doozy. Scientology has somehow, I don't know how, but somehow it's gotten a bad reputation as a cult. Maybe it's because of Miscavige's insane antics on Night Line years ago. Maybe it's because he started wars with people online. Maybe it's because he tries to discredit whistle blowers. Maybe it's because he's stolen and has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe it's because of all the forced abortions in the Sea Org which kinda flies in the face of LRH saying there's 8 dynamics. Maybe it's because of the many people in his wake who have died. Maybe it's because of all the marriages in the Sea Org that he's crushed. Or people he's destroyed. Or billing Sea Org veterans who leave for $80,000 each which is illegal due to labor laws. Or maybe it has something to do with decades of human trafficking. Maybe it's because of all the people he's violently assaulted and threatened.
I don't know. I'm not Sherlock Holmes.
Then again, maybe it's because of a few "Scientologists" who seem entirely unable to differentiate the logical from the illogical even when the facts are right in front of their face, thereby helping to convince the world that apparently mindless Zombies really do "Walk Among Us."
I'm sorry I can't be of any more help. But I do know that neither you nor anyone else can disseminate Scientology in the face of being a cult.
So Target #1 on any dissemination campaign would have to be "De-cultify Scientology." But somehow in 24 years, David Miscavige has overlooked the first, most obvious, most essential, most important, most vital target.
Thanks again for letting me know that the current campaign is still running! I'm amazed and astonished as since I live alone in at the bottom of a cave with no outside contact with the world at large, I had no idea Miscavige was running ads in a pathetic attempt to prove he is honest after all, only he put the wrong kind of ads on since (god forbid) he didn't want to really sell any LRH books, but mainly just stay out of prison as long as he can since the authorities are asleep at the wheel. Or are they?
By the way, when this Ponzi thief goes down, you're going to look pretty foolish for having blindly supported a criminal. So I recommend you stay anonymous least you go to jail along with David Miscavige.
But Miscavige ran a huge advertising campaign for Dianetics in the 1990s, putting Hubbard's book on the best seller list.
You accuse Miscavige of running a Ponzi scheme. Miscavige is a sadist, a tyrant and a crook, but he has not been running a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme targets investors, not donors. Like all cons, it relies on the larceny in the hearts of its victims to work.
To repeat: a Ponzi scheme is one that people enter out of financial self interest, not altruism.
Jeff built up an entire org, called SBMU: Strategic Books Marketing Unit. Located in LA, SBMU had 12 or 15 staff and all they did was market Dianetics under Jeff's direction. Jeff answered to no one but LRH.
About March 1987 SBMU was absorbed into the new CMU (Central Marketing Unit) but left "hands off" so it continued to function. I joined CMU (transferring from FSO) in May 1987. Jeff got Dianetics back on the New York Times bestseller list. Also instrumental in that was Bill Dendiu, who was the D/CO CMU. Bill acted as the product manager for the trade Dianetics campaign. And of course there were others who contributed heavily.
Then in 1988, David Miscavige began to cross order SBMU off it's successful program (Jeff and his unit were in the condition of Power). By 1989 SBMU no longer existed and all staff were re-posted and loaded up with other duties, utterly cross ordering and destroying the entire activity. David Miscavige did that personally.
And in 1990 David Miscavige cancelled the Dianetics campaign and killed all funding.
Starting in 1997, I wrote all the ads for Scientology and Dianetics. DM only pretended to run them broadly. Actually, they were barely run.
I understand that donors are not investors, per se; however, Scientologists DO consider they are investing -- in the welfare of their own 4th dynamic. There money was supposed to be invested by expanding Scientology into and across the world and as a way to create a better, safer, saner world which they will occupy.
The payback is in terms of purchasing a better world. If Miscavige doesn't actually DO the advertising campaign and expand Scientology, then there is NO payback, just as in a Ponzi scheme. He's just using the money to run some token ads, then he spends the rest on "4D program" -- a total lie, which really means he spends the money any way he pleases, like on new clothes for himself, new buildings for himself, vacations for himself, new homes for himself, etc.
You are missing the point that Scientology donors are NOT just about altruism. An exchange is most definitely expected. In fact, "exchange" is a fundamental principle of Scientology.
So either (A) You don't understand what Scientologists believe, or (B) you are just an OSA plant beating the drum for Miscavige.
If it's "A" then you should know that Scientologists believe they are spiritual beings who will return in a new body next life. So when they donate to 4D programs, it is with an expectation that they are making it better not only for others, but also for themselves NEXT LIFE. If that betterment is not purchased with the dollars they invested, then they were in fact cheated.
If it's "B" then your obvious target is to establish that Scn donors neither expect nor deserve anything in exchange, which lets Miscavige off the hook for having done a bait and switch. This is called "lessening the overt" in Scientology lingo.
Crazy shit.
First, anyone with business online knows that Google and YouTube have got to be nearly the cheapest way to target your product. Scientology.org ads don't pop up when you Google "France" after all; French hotels, travel packages, etc. do. However, DM must know that when people type "Scientology" into these sites, all that comes up is Anonymous, anti-LRH media reports from the 80's, crazy people filming protesters in Clearwater and LA, and critics' interviews!! Thus, by running these relatively cheap ads, DM can at least water down the negativity that often focuses on his personal CRIMINAL DEEDS. This, unlike actually running Dissem campaigns would fit DM's huge ego and inability to accept legitimate criticism. Like buying motorcylces, etc....
Secondly, in addition to not hyping Dianetics per LRH, the ads serve his Ponzi scheme by (a) not costing alot to produce; (b) not having a tangible measurement of success; and most importantly, (c) STIMULATING 'HITS' ONTO SCIENTOLOGY.ORG THAT MAINLY COME FROM CRITICS, PEOPLE WHO THINK ITS A UFO CULT AND WANT LAUGHS, OR SARCASTIC TEENAGERS WHO SAW SOUTH PARK. No one is really clicking to get on course or even buy a damn single book. But to Scientologists, this can be spun to show how their "internet presence is expanding".
Last, In fact, I think the new campaign shows how DM is spending even less on Dissem. As a marketer, I know the huge difference between, say, internet and local-market cable commercials, and the New York Times, USA Today, ABC, NBC, Billboards, etc. The first time I EVER heard of Dianetics was on a huge billboard with a volcano that was on the side of a freeway in Northern California. Thus, as the originally posted article stated, DM is funneling tens of millions into an internet/cable 'marketing campaign' that is somehow dwarfed by no-name rappers who haven't even gone platinum, small businesses (matress discounters?), or even obscure fashion designers. All of these industries are taxed and have huge overhead. Yet I see them advertised EVERYWHERE. Even with MILLIONS of free dollars, DM can't get a billboard anymore???
DM is the ultimate SP for this quarter-century farce.
In France, they use the job like a very persuasive argument to recruit people. They present themselves like a protective organization.
Go to any used car dealer---DO they have flashy watches? act like they know something you don't? seem to be "just like you"? try to be your friend?
Yeah you understand! Miscavige IS Xenu! Now how do you feel? Like you have been raped?
Our evil demon in Australia was a man named Henderson, a CMO missionaire who was as bad as Miscavige. And what ever happened to Reynolds the infamous "Int Finance Dictator"?
The down under dude.
But--& trhis is a bit mean--what amuses me beyond measure are that the massive use of members' $$$ are often spent on such ill-chosen set designs for SCN Rallies/in-person dissemination of lies.
It is not just the costly, tacky eyesores he seems to demand... my giggles come from his complete ignorance of the visual effect.
No crime in being short, but still, it is clear nobody dares tell him those vast, cheesy CB Demille-style sets make him look like a wee sock puppet in the center of Yankee Stadium.
Miscavige's ignorance & meager education may at least help him sleep soundly at night. He has no clue that dictatorial leaders almost inevitably come to a bad end.
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