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From: martinottmann@yahoo.com (Martin Ottmann)
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Subject: Federal Complaint II - Violations (e)
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April 9th, 2002 – At the contempt hearing in the "breach of contract"
case Minton revealed that he had issued two checks in the value of $
500,000 and $ 250,000 to the attorney of the estate, Dandar, which he
had not disclosed in earlier depositions. Minton now claimed in court
that Dandar had asked him never to reveal these payments [Exh. No.
124]:

[ … ] Rosen: "Would you do so. Are there any payments made by you to
either Ken Dandar or his firm over and above those that 1.3 million
reflected in personal checks of yours?"

Minton: "Just let me clarify one thing. The checks that you put in
front of me in terms of Exhibit 1, this is a sample of those 1.3
million …"

Q: "All of them are not there, they are just the ones we have, but
beyond the 1.3 million of personal checks that you signed made out to
either Ken Dandar or Dandar & Dandar for purposes of defraying the
cost, the expenses of the wrongful death case, did you, sir, provide
any additional monies for that purpose to either Ken Dandar or the
firm of Dandar & Dandar?"

A: "Yes, I did."

Q: "Will you tell us, please, what you did?

A: "I caused two checks, one in the amount of five hundred thousand
dollars to be issued to I believe it was Ken Dandar and around May of
2001 [sic] and an additional check for two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars I caused to be issued to Mr. Dandar in February or early
March, late February, early March time frame of this year."

Q: "And were those checks of the same kind, mainly checks drawn on
your personal account and signed by you?"

A: "No, sir."

Q: "What kind of checks were these?"

A: "These were checks that were issued by Union Bank of Switzerland."

Q: "The New York office of that bank?"

A: "No, the Zurich office. They were payable - no, they were issued by
the Geneva office of Union Bank of Switzerland. I think they were
payable at Union Bank of Switzerland New York."

Q: "So these are in the nature of bank checks that don't have a
depositor's name on it like Robert Minton, but have the name of the
bank?"

A: "Correct."

Q: "And both of these checks, five hundred thousand and two hundred
and fifty thousand, were made out to whom, sir?"

A: "I believe they were both made out to Ken Dandar."

Q: "Can you tell me how it came about by way of discussion with Mr.
Dandar, Ken Dandar as to how you came to issue these two checks for
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars total?"

A: "Well, sometime in Springish [sic] of 2001, Mr. Dandar said, you
know, he needed money to continue with the case and basically bring
the case to trial and, you know, he requested that I get him some
money. And, you know, and he said that he wanted to do this in such a
way that it didn't appear that the money came from me. He mentioned
several reasons why he didn't want it to appear to come from me.
Number one, that the wrongful death case was getting to be extremely
messy because of my financial contributions to the case. Secondly,
that he did not wish to run this money through his trust account. That
he had another means of hiding this money from the Scientologists as
well as some of his employees. He mentioned specifically Michael Garko
and Tom Haverty where I think Mr. Dandar was trying to, as he
explained to me, trying to cut back on payments to them in order to
conserve money to continue the case."
Q: "Did Mr. Dandar say anything to you on the subject of whether you
should or should not disclose these payments?"

A: "Yes. He said, you be known that they appear from recently as March
he said, you know, that these should not you and you shouldn't - as
know, I haven't revealed these payments to the Court and you shouldn't
reveal them to the Court."

Q: "Now, Mr. Minton, there then came a point in May of 2001 that you
were served with a duces tecum subpoena for deposition in this case
which then resulted in contempt proceedings, contempt order, do you
remember that?"

A: "Yes, sir."

Q: "That duces tecum subpoena, and I quote from the May 22 subpoena at
paragraph one, required you to produce ‘All documents relating to
payment by you or by the Lisa McPherson Trust to Ken Dandar, Thomas
Dandar or the law firm.' You did not produce anything relating to
these two checks you're telling us about today did you, sir?"

A: "No, I didn't."

Q: "Can you tell us why you did not produce them?"

A: "I didn't have copies of them, number one, and Mr. Dandar had asked
me not to reveal that those checks came from me."

Q: "Sir, I understand you didn't have copies but as the one who caused
the checks to be issued, if you wanted to get copies from the bank,
you could do that, correct?"

A: "I didn't have a relationship with that particular institution."

Q: "Okay. You then appeared in this Court on October 4th of 2001 in
connection with a contempt proceeding that was originally scheduled to
be your sentencing before Judge Baird, right?"

A: "I believe that's right."

Q: "And at that time you advised Judge Baird that you would testify.
You would testify honestly and purge yourself for the contempt,
right?"

A: "Yes, sir."

Q: "As a result of that there were - a deposition of you was scheduled
for a week later, October 11th and October 12th, is that correct?"

A: "That's correct."

Q: "Did you again, did you have any further conversation with Ken
Dandar in relation to that deposition on the subject of disclosing
these checks?"

A: "Not at that time, no."

Q: "How many different times did you have conversations with Ken
Dandar on the subject of not disclosing these checks?"

A: "At least six or eight times."
Q: "Have you now, sir, purged yourself of that contempt by fully
testifying truthfully as to the item identified in paragraph one,
namely any and all payments made to Ken Dandar, Tom Dandar or the law
firm?"

A: "Yes, sir, I have." [ … ]

At the end of the hearing the Scientology attorneys announced that
they had filed a motion asking for a disqualification of Kennan Dandar
from the case and that they would file claims against him for abuse of
process and conspiracy as well.

April 17th, 2002 - Before an upcoming hearing in the McPherson case,
Robert Minton filed an affidavit, in which he recanted prior
testimony. Among other things he admitted that he had made false
statements during the April 9th hearing. Concerning his financial
contributions to Dandar, he stated [Exh. No. 125]:

" [ … ] 11. I have previously made statements under oath in this cause
that I had paid to the Plaintiff, the ESTATE OF LISA MCPHERSON,
through Kennan Dandar either $ 1,050,000 or $ 1.3 million in support
of his litigation. These statements were false. In truth, I have given
substantially in excess of 1.3 million. In addition to the amounts in
my previous testimony, I have given Kennan Dandar two checks, one
dated May 1, 2000, in the amount of $ 500,000, and another dated March
7, 2002, in the amount of $ 250,000, and I have reason to believe that
an additional check for $ 100,000 given to Kennan Dandar was not
discovered. [ … ] "

April 19th, 2002 - At the next hearing in the "breach of contract"
case Samuel Rosen renewed the examination of Robert Minton. On this
occasion copies of the two checks to Dandar were entered into evidence
[Exh. No. 126]:

[ … ] Rosen: "Mr. Minton, last time - I just want to bring you back to
something. You offered some testimony about two checks that were drawn
on a Swiss bank that were given - that you gave to Mr. Dandar."

Minton: "Yes, sir, I remember that."

Q: "And when was the - what was the date or approximate date of the
first of those checks, those - we'll call them Swiss checks, Swiss
bank checks?"

A: "I believe I stated last time it was May 2001, but, in fact, it was
May 2000."

Q: "Okay. Now could you tell …"

A: "And the other check was March 7th, 2002."

Q: "I'm sorry. Say that again."

A: "The second check for $ 250,000 - I'm sorry. The first check was
for 500,000, that was March 2000. The second check was for 250,000 and
that was dated March 7th, 2002."

Q: "All right. I'll ask you to open the folder in front of you that
was marked Exhibit 5, sir."

A: "Five?"

Q: "Five, yes."

A: "Yes, sir."

Q: "Would you tell the Court what that is?"

A: "That's the May 2000 check for five - May 1st, 2000 check for $
500,000." [Exh. No. 127]

Q: "It's a check that you caused to be issued by the United Bank of
Switzerland UBS and payable through Chase Manhattan?"

A: "Union Bank of Switzerland."

Q: "Certainly. Union Bank of Switzerland paid through Chase
Manhattan?"

A: "That's correct."

Q: "Check made out to? Who was the payee, please?"

A: "Mr. Kennan Dandar."

Q: "In the amount of $ 500,000?"

A: "That's correct." [ … ]

Q: "Is this the first check which is a bank check drawn on the Bank of
Switzerland, right?

A. That's right. [ … ]

Q: "All right. Now, Mr. Minton, the checks that you wrote prior to
this one on your own account, they had your name imprinted on them?"

A: "That's correct."

Q: "And you signed them in your own hand?"

A: "I did."

Q: "And they were made out to Mr. Dandar or his firm?"

A: "I think they were all made out to Dandar & Dandar."

Q: "So if they were discovered it would be - it would be apparent from
the face of the instrument who the source of the money was, namely
you?"

A: "That's correct."

Q: "Is there anything on the face of Exhibit which discloses who the
source of the $ 500,000 is?"

A: "No one other than Union Bank of Switzerland."

Q: "Okay. Now, how did - how was this check physically delivered to
Mr. Dandar?"

A: "Well, the check was sent to me by courier or something and then I
brought it down to Clearwater. I was in New Hampshire at the time. I
brought it down to Clearwater and called Mr. Dandar, told him I had
some funds that we had talked about. And he suggested that we meet
somewhere halfway in between his Tampa office and my office in
downtown Clearwater. So we met at the Bombay Bicycle Club which is I
think out of business now, but it was on Gulf-to-Bay just on the Tampa
side of Route 19, on the Tampa side of the Clearwater Mall."

Q: "And was there anybody else present?"

A: "Well, there were other people in the Bombay Bicycle Club. It was
lunch time, but we went to a small round table in the bar area so we
could be completely alone because most people were eating in the lunch
part of the restaurant, and I gave Mr. Dandar the check."

Q: "When I say were other people there, I meant, were any people in
your group, either somebody who was accompanying you or somebody
accompanying Mr. Dandar?"

A: "No, we were alone."

Q: "Okay. If I - did there come a time in February of 2002 when you
issued another or caused to be issued another bank check to Mr.
Dandar?"

A: "That's correct."

Q: "May I ask you, sir, to open what is in front of you the folder
that is marked Exhibit 6."

A: "Sorry. Just one second. Did you say February 2002?"

Q: "I'm sorry, March of 2000."

A: "It was March, yes."

Q: "March of 2002. And would you open the folder that is marked
Exhibit 6, please, sir?"

A: "Just one second. Yes."

Q: "Could you tell us - tell the Court what that is."

A: "That's a check for $ 250,000 payable to Ken Dandar issued by Union
Bank of Switzerland dated March 7th, 2002." [Exh. No. 128]

Q: "You …"

A: "Drawn on Chase Manhattan Bank in New York."

Q: "And you caused that check to be drawn …"

A: "I did."

Q: "… by Union Bank of Switzerland?"

A: "I did."

Q: "Okay. Now, prior to the delivery of this check to Mr. Dandar, were
there any - was there any conversation which led up to this between
you and Mr. Dandar?"

A: "Ah, yes. There were numerous conversations. Mr. Dandar came to
visit me in New Hampshire in early February along with Dr. Garko for
the sole purpose of, you know, soliciting funds for the case. And, you
know, I had been somewhat reluctant in the past few months prior to
that meeting to give money, give any further money. And so Mr. Dandar
and Mr. Garko came up there to, you know, give me a sort of sales
pitch on the state of the case." [ … ]

During the cross-examination by Luke Lirot, the attorney representing
Kennan Dandar, Minton then admitted of having lied during his
deposition on October 11th and 12th:

[ … ] Lirot: "The question that I'm referring to was asked on April
9th. The question referred back to the October 11th and 12th of the
year 2001 asking you about your knowledge of special meetings for the
addition of parties to the wrongful death suit that resulted in what I
understand to be the filing of this action. And you were commenting on
the amount of money that was funded to these cases and
you said 1.3 million dollars and that was true at the time; isn't that
correct?"

Minton: "Well, first of all, it wasn't for these cases. It was for the
wrongful death case, number one. And at that time that was not true."

Q: "Based on what?"

A: "It would have been 1.8 million."

Q: "Based on what?"

A: "Based on that $ 500,000 check." [ … ]

Q: "I have one question that I neglected to ask you earlier. You talk
about two checks here in the testimony that you've given. When could
you ever have been involved in a proceeding where you would ever lie
about a February 2002 check?"

A: "I never said I lied about that check."

Q: "We've been talking about two checks?"

A: "Well, I had to disclose the two checks. I never said I lied about
the February 2002 check or the March 2002 check."

Q: "So what you're saying is that you lied in your deposition about
the 2000 …"

A: "The $ 500,000 check."

Q: "The first check that was issued when there were no court orders in
place. The very first check. Where did you lie? Where were you ever
asked about that check where you didn't assert the Fifth Amendment?"

A: "I was asked how much money I had given to the Estate of Lisa
McPherson and my answer was either one million and fifty thousand or
one million three-hundred thousand. There were two different
occasions, two different answers, neither one included the 500,000." [
… ]

During the same hearing Kennan Dandar was examined as well. When asked
about how the payment of check in March 2002 had taken place, he
stated that Minton had referred to it as coming from a third party in
Switzerland, the "fat man":

[ … ] Rosen: "So did your receipt of the check of, I guess, February
in any way surprise you at all?"

Dandar: "I received it in March and I was in shock. Because not only
did I have this letter and it was buzzing all over the Internet, in
New Hampshire in February of 2002 I sat down at the dinner table with
Mr. Minton and Stacy Brooks and Dr. Garko and he said - eyeball to
eyeball he said, I have no more money to give you. I say, that's okay.
I appreciate all your help. That was it."

Q: "So …"

A: "But …"

Q: "Go ahead."

A: "He did go on and say that there is this person in Switzerland and
let's just call him the Fat Man. I said, Okay. And he's upset with all
the criticism on the Internet. I said, Okay. He said, if that goes
away, maybe I could convince him to send you some money. I said, I
have no control over the Internet. I don't get on there. I don't do
these - you know, these people are all independent of me, but I'll ask
and put the word out, because Bob was emotionally - I mean, just
before that he was crying like a baby and I was worried about him." [
… ]

April 24th, 2002 - In a second affidavit Minton revealed additional
details in connection with the two payments to Dandar of May of 2000
and March of 2002 [Exh. No. 129]:

" [ … ] 34. Several weeks before my deposition on May 24, 2000, I had
several conversations with Mr. Dandar regarding additional funds he
said he needed for the trial of the wrongful death case. He asked me
for enough money to take him through the trial. He told me an
additional $ 500,000 would be sufficient. He told me he had a way to
hide the funds from Scientology and told me I should arrange payments
in such a way that the funds could not be traced back to me. He told
me he would not put these funds in his client trust account and that
he had another account that Scientology could never find.

"35. Mr. Dandar also told me he did not want the money to appear to
come from me because my financial involvement was making the case too
messy and that he wanted to conceal the money from his employees, Dr.
Garko and Tom Haverty, to justify cutting back payments to them. He
told me I should never disclose these funds were from me. From this
point forward, Mr. Dandar told me that he would tell his employees he
was funding the litigation from his retirement account.

"36. Following these conversations with Mr. Dandar about the $
500,000, I caused a check dated May 1, 2000 in that amount to be
issued to Mr. Dandar by the Union Bank of Switzerland, payable at
Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. I handed this check to Mr. Dandar at
the Bombay Bicycle Club in Clearwater, Florida a few days after May 1,
2000.

"37. I was later deposed about the amount of money I had provided to
fund the wrongful death case. Prior to my deposition Mr. Dandar told
me to ignore this check for $ 500,000 and only concentrate ‘on the
checks you have written.' When asked in deposition how much money I
had provided, I testified falsely and omitted this $ 500,000 check.

"38. I was also served with a deposition subpoena in the wrongful
death case to produce all documents relating to my payments to Mr.
Dandar or his law firm. Mr. Dandar told me not to produce this check
for $ 500,000. He said that he had not disclosed this check to the
Court and that I should not disclose it either. He told me that I did
not have to disclose the check because I did not write it. He said the
check came from ‘Fred.' Fred was Mr. Dandar's nickname for me as the
source of funds that would not be traced back to me. [ … ]

"53. Mr. Dandar called me several times prior to March 6, 2002, in a
frantic state about money and asked me whether I was going to ‘come
through for the case' or not. He said that we needed to talk about
this seriously and as privately as possible, and in the absence of two
phone encryption devices, he suggested that we both speak on our
digital cell phones.

"54. Subsequently I caused to be issued a check dated March 7, 2002,
in the amount of $ 250,000 payable to Ken Dandar. Mr. Dandar called me
on the 15th of March to tell me my check had not been received at his
office. I told him I had sent it to his PO Box. I included the check
with other papers so it wouldn't be seen by his staff. I enclosed the
check in an essay from Caroline Letkeman. (Caroline Letkeman had
written this essay in an LMT essay contest and was paid a few thousand
dollars as a prize by the LMT. In response to an inquiry from Mr.
Dandar, I had advised him to use Ms. Letkeman as an expert witness.) I
told Mr. Dandar that the check was inside that document, at page 23.
Mr. Dandar, who was out of town, told me he sent Donna West to pick up
the overnight mail pack and then Mr. Dandar called me to confirm it
had been received. [ … ] "

April 30th, 2002 - On this day later the examination of Kennan Dandar
was continued. During the examination by Church of Scientology
attorney Rosen, Dandar stated that Minton had told him that the May of
2000 check over $ 500,000 had come from an anonymous source in Europe
[Exh. No. 130]:

[ … ] Rosen: "How about the $ 500,000, the first check?"

Dandar: "He just called it his friends in Europe, anonymous donor, and
that was it. And I said that was fine."

Q: "Anonymous lender, not anonymous donor."

A: "It's a donor or a lender depending on the outcome of the case."

Q: "So you didn't care whether or not this anonymous lender was money
laundering, drug money. It might have been Al-Queda money for all you
care. You took the money."

A: "Mr. Minton at that point in time had - in my mind, I respected him
and trusted him, and I knew that he was a professional banker." [ … ]

May 6th, 2002 - After the hearing in the "breach of contract" case on
April 30th, the upcoming proceedings took place in the McPherson case.
The hearings resumed on May 3rd and the first witness that was
examined was Stacy Brooks, the former president of the LMT and
Minton's girlfriend. On May 6th, during cross-examination by Luke
Lirot, judge Schaeffer inquired about the two payments that the LMT
had received from Andreas Heldal-Lund in Norway and from the alleged
anonymous source [Exh. No. 131]:

[ … ] The Court: [ … ] "I noticed in reading depositions of Mr. Minton
I heard that - well, let's put it this way, in reading the testimony
of Mr. Dandar, Mr. Dandar indicates that this money, according to Mr.
Minton, came from some third party, unknown anonymous source. And I
felt that was fairly outrageous that anybody would believe you could
get $ 500,000. To me, that is a huge sum of money, from somebody that
nobody knew from Europe. And so as I'm reading this deposition of Mr.
Minton, I see where Mr. Minton said over and over the same thing about
LMT. Which is your corporation. That you got $ 300,000, because that
is the money he put in, from some - I can't remember who this guy is,
some fellow, apparently also an anti-Scientology person, with a German
name."

The Witness: "Yes."

The Court: "Mr. Lund or something like that."

Mr. Dandar: "Andreas Heldal-Lund."

The Witness: "Yes."

The Court: "Then LMT got a $ 500,000 anonymous donor from someplace in
Europe, is that true?"

The Witness: "At that time, that is …"

The Court: "I'm asking you now, is that true?"

The Witness: "No, it's not."

The Court: "Where did the money [come] from?"

The Witness: "From Mr. Minton."

The Court: "So Mr. Minton forgot to tell us he lied about that, too.
Proceed." [ … ]

May 21st, 2002 - On the first day of Minton's testimony during the new
series of proceedings in the McPherson case, he acknowledged that the
two "anonymous" donations to the LMT came actually from him [Exh. No.
132]:

[ … ] The Court: "I'm very confused because LMT got money into it, did
it not, that it turned right around and stuck in your pocket?"

The Witness: "That is correct."

The Court: "There is $ 300,000 from a man in Holland [sic] that came
through LMT, right?"

The Witness: "Sweden [sic], I believe."

The Court: "Sweden. I'm sorry. And the money doesn't show up as income
anywhere. So, I take it, it went straight to you?"

The Witness: "That is correct."

The Court: "There was a $ 500,000 check [sic] over there you said came
from some anonymous source. Is that correct?"

The Witness: "Well, at the time I said it - in my deposition I said it
was from an anonymous source, it wasn't."

The Court: "It was from you, right?"

The Witness: "That is correct, your Honor. And the truth is that the
money came from me."

The Court: "Right. And that went into your pocket. Why did you do
that, by the way, send that money there from some foreign bank to put
in your pocket?"

The Witness: "Well, the whole issue of getting money from other
sources besides me into the LMT was to try to get Scientology off on a
wild goose chase, basically thinking that it's either the German
government or the French government who were supporting us."

By Mr. Fugate: "Who is ‘us'?"
A: "The LMT."

Q: "All right."

The Court: "Well, let me see if I got this now. You got a $ 300,000
check from some man in Holland [sic] …"

The Witness: "Yes, and …"

The Court: "… that you put in your pocket."

The Witness: "And that money also came from me, your Honor."

The Court: "That came from you, too?"

The Witness: "Yes, it did."

The Court: "So there is $ 800,000 that you didn't tell the truth about
in your deposition and you haven't recanted in your affidavit, is that
right? A $ 300,000 check …"

The Witness: "And a $ 500,000 check [sic]."

The Court: "Is that right?"

The Witness: "That is correct, your Honor."

The Court: "So those are lies you haven't bothered to tell anybody
about until now, at least not me."
[ … ]