FBI Expands Probe of alleged Sect Plot

THE CLEARWATER SUN
4.1.1984

By GEORGE-WAYNE SHELOR

The FBI, apparently acting on documents filed in U.S. District Court this week, has expanded a federal investigation into an alleged 1982 Scientology operation to entrap a Tampa federal judge.

Initially, the federal probe was aimed at uncovering the circumstances surrounding a purported Scientology plot to lure U.S. District Judge, Ben Krentzman aboard a boat where drugs, prostitutes and hidden cameras were to be used to compromise him.

However, the investigation was expanded after the Clearwater-based sect filed documents Tuesday detailing its own involvement in a 1982 "undercover" probe of prominent local businessmen the sect believed were involved in a "conspiracy" to violate the organization's constitutional rights.

Although FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Butler declined Friday be confirm or deny the investigation, at least one of the businessmen targeted by the sect's operation said be has been contacted by the officials.

Clearwater lawyer Timothy Johnson Jr., one of six local men invited aboard the boat Trianon by sect representatives, said the FBI called him after newspaper reports appeared about the sect's undercover operation. "(The FBI) called and basically asked me about what appeared in the paper," Johnson said. He recalled speaking with the U.S. Attorney's Office late last month, "and they said the FBI would probably do a follow-up (investigation)."

According to documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, the sect retained a Virginia private detective to investigate Clearwater "businessmen .... influential citizens ...and people concerned with real estate," who sect officials believed were conspiring against the sect.

Attached to the documents was a sworn statement by the detective, Richard Bast, who said he was hired by an attorney for the sect "to conduct a general information gathering investigation into a possible conspiracy against the church by influential citizens in Clearwater."

The Clearwater Sun has learned that Bast, with at least one other man, used the 77-foot Trianon to entertain the six businessmen while leading them to believe he represented clients "old European money" - who wanted to invest in downtown Clearwater. Bast acknowledged in his statement that there was no "old European money" and that, indeed, the entire scheme was an intelligence gathering operation.

But denied any involvement in the purported scheme to corrupt Krentzman, although he acknowledged the Judge's name had been mentioned prior to initiating the undercover operation.

Paul Johnson, a Tampa lawyer who represents the sect, was out of the country and unavailable far comment Friday. Sect spokesman Richard Haworth said he knew "nothing more than what is in the documents" and only Johnson could elaborate on the undercover operation and why Scientology officials thought there was a conspiracy against the sect.

Bast's statement and accompanying affidavits and motions were a response to a motion filed in late January by Boston lawyer Michael Flynn, who represents Tonja Burden in her $16 million suit against the sect.

In Flynn's motion filed in that case, he and a former high-ranking Scientologist outlined the alleged plot to corrupt Judge Krentzman. The sect, in denying Flynn's allegations, outlined the undercover operation aimed at the businessmen.

The ruse the sect initiated in Clearwater in 1982 is not unique. Sect documents - seized during FBI raids in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and entered as government exhibits in several trials - detail a number of sect activities using covert methods to gather information.

On one occasion, when the sect was moving into Clearwater and searching for a safe, secret location for Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to live, a person named "Ron" outlined the ease in moving about the city.

"Probably my best layout is to get very well known in the CW (Clearwater) area with a camera in my hand and my Universial News press card taking Pictures of "beautiful CW," states a seized Nov. 26, 1975, document stamped "SECRET."

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