Online Disinformation Op
Retrieved August 28, 2008 from http://web.archive.org/web
SUBJECT: Conference used by CST principals to propagate lies about the corporate structure and about the trademarks
PARTIES: Lawrence E. Heller, Special Director of Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), partner with Sherman and Stephen Lenske in law firm of Lenske, Lenske & Heller; Lyman Spurlock, co-founder of CST with IRS’s Meade Emory, Leon Misterek, and Sherman Lenske
BACKGROUND AND NOTES
This 17 October 1982 Mission Holders’ Conference is infamous for many reasons, not the least of which was the wholesale destruction of the Franchise/Mission system that had been in place virtually since Scientology’s inception, and the wholesale expulsion of many noted and valued Scientology Mission Holders. It certainly deserved its infamy for all of that.
But perhaps one of its greatest infamies has never received any attention at all, or indeed very little. That is the knowing, willful, arrogant, egregious lies and deceits perpetrated by two principals connected with the corporation known as Church of Spiritual Technology (CST): co-founder Lyman Spurlock, and Special Director Lawrence E. “Larry” Heller.
CST had been incorporated five months before this conference occurred . These two men intimately associated with CST at the highest levels were even the first two speakers at the event: Heller with a talk on trademarks, Spurlock with a talk, purportedly, about the new corporate structure. They knew full well that CST was intended to be the primary beneficiary of L. Ron Hubbard’s estate, because it had already been written by Meade Emory into Author’s Family Trust (later to be restated as Author’s Family Trust-B). They knew, as is seen in the actual, not doctored, transcript excerpts below, that the commercial rights in the key trademarks Heller discusses had been withheld for the benefit of the Hubbard estate, later destined to be transferred to CST, by order of IRS, as part of Author’s Family Trust-B. They knew at the moment they were speaking that CST already had custody and control of all the intellectual property. (At least the part they hadn’t allowed their co-conspirator Gerald Armstrong to steal. But they knew they would be getting that back later in a planned pay-off “settlement” with Armstrong, which of course ultimately was arranged by Heller himself). They both knew damned well that CST was in control, and that Sherman Lenske, Stephen Lenske, and Lawrence E. Heller were in complete control of CST.
Yet throughout their talks at this conference, not once did either of them even mention the existence of CST. They conspired to conceal its very existence. Then they went further and told material lies to anodize the fraud that they were knowing parties to.
The fraud began the moment each was introduced: Heller was introduced only as a “church attorney,” Spurlock as “Corporate Affairs Director”–itself a completely fraudulent title.
Heller speaks first and lies about the supposed “gift” of trademarks by “L. Ron Hubbard” to Religious Technology Center (RTC–which he incorrectly calls “Religious Technologies Corporation) when that was a complete fraud. And Heller knew it. Even Heller slips up and tells the truth in places, which later was whitewashed out of the “official” published transcript. But we have a verbatim transcript of portions of the actual tape itself, and while most of what is in the excerpts below is from the “official” transcript, we have included the relevant transcript excerpts from the actual tape in the places where Heller’s spoken words betray the truth–that the trademarks were really only licensed–while the “official” transcript presents only the fraud version of the story–that the trademarks were fully assigned to RTC a “gift.”
Spurlock gives what he purports to be a briefing on the new corporate structure, only leaving out the most senior and important corporation of all, CST, which he had co-founded. But it’s only more of the same fraud that has been entirely consistent with everyone connected with CST: to keep it hidden, thereby hiding the involvement and control of Meade Emory and the IRS.
Spurlock also wanders into the area of the trademarks, apparently only for the purpose of lying, and may even have been trying to cover up for Heller having slipped up and told the truth. Briefly. Although we’ve elected to leave out most of Spurlock’s tripe, we’ve included an important section where he talks about the Scientology missions all being forced into becoming corporations. This is consistent with and necessary to the IRS’s intended takeover through CST; the way the franchise/mission system had been set up before would have prevented IRS from gaining tax code control. Former Assistant Commissioner of IRS Meade Emory, who mastermined the entire scam, knew that all the organization would have to be forced into becoming corporations “described under Section 501(C)(3) of the Code.”
And that is exactly what Spurlock, himself a co-conspirator with IRS and Emory, is pushing in on the Mission Holders. The ones who complained or resisted were expelled on the spot.
To top it off, Spurlock’s characterization that a few of them “got together and took a look at the corporate structure” completly contradicts his fellow-co-founder Sherman Lenske’s accounts of how and why the “estate plan” came into being. But the liars connected to CST, including Meade Emory and IRS, and their endless cross-contradictions are everywhere throughout the documents and reports on our site.
Here are the excerpts from the “official” whitewashed transcript of the Mission Holders’ Conference, with inclusion of the actual transcript in relevant sections for comparison:
17 October 1982 Mission Holders’ Conference
San Francisco, California
Excerpts from “official” transcript issued by
Executive Director International, Guillaume Lesevre
Church of Scientology International, Inc.,:
LAWRENCE E. HELLER, CST SPECIAL DIRECTOR
“Scientology, as all of you know, also has trademarks. Most of you are familiar with what those trademarks are.
“They relate to Dianetics, they relate to Scientology, they relate to L. Ron Hubbard. Those trademarks, just like the Coca-Cola trademarks, represents a symbol which assures the public of a certain quality of service which they are going to receive if they purchase something or receive services under that trademark.
“All of the Scientology/Dianetics trademarks were previously owned by L. Ron Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard has donated the vast majority of those to a corporation which some of you have probably heard of, by the name of Religious Technology Center.”
ACTUAL TAPE OF HELLER AT THE EVENT; DIFFERENCES IN ITALICS:
“All of the Scientology/Dianetic trademarks are owned and will be owned in perpetuity by L. Ron Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard has licensed those trademarks, or the vast majority and the use of them, to a corporation which some of you have probably heard of, by the name of Religious Technologies Corporation [sic].”
“In donating those trademarks, L. Ron Hubbard imposed the duty on Religious Technology Center (RTC) of assuring that the source of those trademarks, the technology that those trademarks represent, are given and disseminated to the public in the way that he formulated those trademarks. …”
ACTUAL TAPE OF HELLER AT THE EVENT; DIFFERENCES IN ITALICS:
“In licensing those trademarks, L. Ron Hubbard imposed the duty on Religious Technologies Corporation of assuring that the source of those trademarks, the technology that those trademarks represent, are given and disseminated to the public in the way that he formulated those trademarks.”
“The duty imposed upon RTC to properly police those trademarks, to assure that Source is applied in their use by anyone to whom RTC sub-licenses them, is not only a very heavy spiritual burden but is, well, a great legal duty. RTC is legally under a duty to assure that anyone it permits to use these trademarks utilizes them according to Source as formulated by L. Ron Hubbard.
“…My law firm [Lenske, Lenske & Heller; partners are the three Special Directors of CST: Sherman Lenske, Stephen Lenske, and the speaker, Heller, which he doesn't mention] has been instructed to make sure that if there is in fact an unauthorized use of any of these trademarks, if it is determined that the mark was not used in accordance with Source, that we enforce RTC’s rights which I’ve Just described to you, throughout the judicial procedure to get a Superior Court or US Court judgement and then enforce that judgement through contempt and criminal proceedings.
LYMAN SPURLOCK, CO-FOUNDER OF CST
(introduced and listed in transcript only as “Corporate Affairs Director”):
“…Prior to the end of 1981, a few of us got together and took a look at the corporate structure of the Church with the view in mind of making it more defensible and more regular, and to make an overall improvement.
…So, in late 1981 we took a look at this and said, this can’t go on; it’s not very defensible. It doesn’t make sense. Let’s line it up as the Church hierarchy is lined up.
…So here’s corporately how the authority flows. It flows from Church of Scientology International to [Scientology Missions International] SMI to the Missions. Now it is the intention that Scientology Missions International will manage the Mission Network…and Church of Scientology International will manage the orgs.
…Now along with this set-up, as Mr. Heller just mentioned, we formed a new corporation to hold the trademarks of Scientology. Trademarks of Scientology, by the way, are the words, “Dianetics”, “Scientology”, the S and double triangle, the name “L. Ron Hubbard”, the signature L. Ron Hubbard, the initials “LRH”, the pointed cross, the Sea Org symbol - those are all registered trademarks, okay. Now where do we position RTC, Religious Technology Center? Its actual formal name is Religious Technology Center. It is a Church corporation, okay.
It’s up above. Why is it up above? It’s UP above not because it’s a management unit but because it owns the trademarks. It has authority over any echelon in Scientology that is delivering services under the marks. Okay, and this does not just include down to the mission level. It will include the Field Auditors very shortly. It does include the Field Auditors now, we’re about to license them.
…Once before it was kind of loosey-goosey. Missions could be a sole proprietorship. You reported on something called the schedule C of your tax return or it could have been a partnership or something like that.
From now on all missions will be corporations. There’s very good reasons for this. A lot of you may know that you just recently received new corporate papers, let’s see some nods, okay. These new corporate papers are designed to make the whole structure impregnable, especially as regards to the IRS. Have any of you read the religious language in these corporate papers? Okay. …Well those corporate papers are the proper legal communication of what is this entity, a mission of the Church of Scientology. It’s actually an incorporated Church. It’s like any other Church and Scientology is aligned as a Church hierarchy as is almost every other successful religion is.
…Okay, the central point to terms of ecclesiastical guidance is CSI. The protector of the religion is RTC. RTC is charged with the responsibility of seeing that Scientology is kept standard. …LRH, seeing this new corporate structure, having a group of people in RTC that he had confidence in, donated the trademarks. Up to the point of May of this year it was always LRH who would step in and save the day to the trademark owner. Now he’s entrusted this group of people to carry on that function and that’s how the now corporate line-up is.