





N A T I O N A L



(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE, TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG)





ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE







HIDDEN TIES BETWEEN IRS AND SCIENTOLOGY REVEALED

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 [sic--University

of Washington] 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. - 30 -

