Today in dutch national newspaper: Het Parool: http://www.parool.nl/artikelen/NIE/1067581517625.html

Comment made by the translator: This article only descibes one cycle of Thomas G. However the full story of this Scientologate will unfold when the church does not handle it's financial out-ethics towards the persons described in this article.

The loads of money of Sly Thomas G.

BART MIDDELBURG

Not only does the Dutch Church of Scientology loose huge amounts of members, but also the followers of the Cult are not withholding themselves to crook eachother via all kinds of companies. The 'church' pre-eminently leans itself to mutual swindling: it is strictly forbidden to sue eachother in court. A reconstruction of the case Thomas G.

Beside the fact that he owns a Mercedes which costs 200.000: Thomas G. doesn't look like a dyed-in the-wool swindler. ''On the contrary,'' says a businessman who got crooked for a couple of hundreds of thousands. ''They definitely don't look like rough criminals. They talk about the church, about little kids, very goody-goody en all very respectable. They also float about 10 centimeters above the ground: you cannot have a sensible conversation with them. Meanwhile they let you run into trouble with open eyes.

On the end of the nineties Thomas G. founded Source Business Administation GmbH, located in Baar Switzerland. Beside G. (who both has the dutch as well as the Swiss nationality) also his brothers and sisters as well as Scientologists acted for him in the little company. The papers told Source Business Administration was focused on 'management and public relations'. Companion followers tell: in reality G. practised a complete other kind of core business: to apparently develop serious and profitable plans, get as much money from all kinds of sources, and then -with all the money- disappear completely.

A christmas tree full of dutch LTD's was created: Source got a 100% daughter company Survive Group bv in Den Bosch, Survive got a daughter Eurotrade bv in Roermond, Euro-trade got a daughter Orangeclub Beheer bv in Oss, and Orangeclub Beheer got a daughter Orangeclub Keep Shape bv in Oss. The management of all those little companies came into the hands of friends and family of G., usually Scientologists.

The Dutch Scientologist Johan (better not mention surname) was hired to become 'OES', which means Organization Executive Secretary of Source Business. Thomas G. and Johan got to know eachother in the Celebrity Center Rheinland, a just as expensive as well as elite Scientology trainingcenter in Düsseldorf. ''At the time i still really thought is was a bonafide organisation, especially because he and his family were also into Scientology,'' according to Johan.

Main shareholder In 2000 THomas G., acting as main shareholder in Source Business, developed a plan to create a chain of fitness centers under the heading of Survive Group in the Netherlands. Hij appointed the man from Den Bosch Jan van Maas-tricht (not a scientologist as director of Survive, and in cooperation with Price Waterhouse Coopers he developed a businessplan that should attract investors (added by translator: this was to get in about 400.000.000 Euro).

The Orangeclub Keep Shape in Oss was supposed to be the first fitnesscenter of the chain. They rented an expensive space, after the Van der Goor familiemembers first rebuilded it and turned it into a sportstudio. Five people were recruted, a lot of advertising was done and after some time the amount of customers grew fast; the Orangeclub Keep Shape for instance got the whole of group of personnel of Akzo-Organon in Oss as their customer.

However The Orangeclub bv didn't pay the rent, the money for memberships, according to the ones involved, weekly got collected by G. and in the end he let it explode, leaving behind a whole group of creditors.

''Time and time again i did not receive my rent, so at one moment i send them out,'' says Harry van de Goor. ''It also just looked like a movie. That G. parked his Mercedes right in front of my door, and after that they all stood out there on the street and opened a bottle of Champagne. That was just to laugh at everybody, this guy doesn't withhold anything. Make a lot of impression, trick money, and then disappear. Officially the brother of G. was the director, but he hardly had anything to say: That G. is the one that pulls the strings. ''

Rates Van de Goor still has tried to get back his money. "But I stopped doing it. I just couldn't get a grip on the situation, so by that 350.000 went down the drain. I also made an inquiry at the German car dealer where he bought his Mercedes, but there it was the same tune: He paid one rate and after that they never heard from him anymore.''

Also staff belong to the creditors, they were not paid for a long time, the taxoffice, as het did not pay incometaxes and "premies" and director Jan van Maastricht, who also never got his salaries.

Last year, in the end, Orangeclub Keep Shape went bankrupt; short time after that the same happened to the holdingcompany Eurotrade. In an attempt to still get his money Van Maastricht went to court in a civil procedure against Source Business, with succes: The court in Den Bosch sentenced Source to pay 20.000 euro for unpaid salaries. ''But I never got that money,'' according to Van Maastricht. ''I am trying to hunt down this Thomas G., but of course he is untraceable.''

The curator in the bankruptcy of Orangeclub Keep Shape, lawyer A. van Zandvoort from Oss, acknowledges that "there was nothing to get anymore". The bankruptcy went into the hundreds of thousands, and I couldn't find a penny of it. To me as a curator I was a little surprised that some people - just to use a fitting term - could be so trustful. ''

Scientoloog Johan, former Organization Executive Officer of Source Business, also claims hundreds of thousands: on unpaid salaries, and on payments he directly paid to the cult. As G. did not pay him months of salaries Johan could not pay for his loans, which resulted in the sheriff's officer coming, goods distrained and even being set out of the house. The problem with his case is that Scientologist are not allowed to start a civil court against another Scientologist: in this way the church keep dirty matters undisclosed. For criminal acts (even when it is about sexual abuse of kids) and juridical disputes the followers of L. Ron Hubbard have their own courts, like the Court of Ethics, the Executive Court, and the Committee of Evidence.

Also because of that reason Johan keeps the Church of Scientology partially responsible for the challenging swindlepractices of Thomas G. ''The ethics of Scientology creates a situation in which I cannot go to court to get back my money, so that's why I say they must bear the consequences of it."

Supporting him ''This is one thing, but on the other hand the church supports and defends him too: they know in full detail about all his practices, but they still do not handle it, as he brings in money with the steamshoffle. For instance he just buys ten E-meters (the self developed liedetector they use in Scientology - bm) of 20.000 dollar each; he pays training for himself and his familymembers in Florida, and on The Freewinds, a trainingship in the Caribic; he and his family are also donators of Scientology; the people at Source Business all were scientologist; all of the staff of the Orangeclub had to go on course at the Celebrity Centre in Düsseldorf - and so on.''

In various letters and mails to Scientology Johan ordered the cult to pay for his damages, which not a long time ago resulted in the the top of the "church" to pay him some tens of thousands of euro's for damages. (comment of the translator: These were only his advanced payments that he never used) "Way to little of course, but it shows they feel responsible for it too. I know they feel very fed up with this G. and that they put a lot of pressure on him."

Beside a feeling of responsibility for the problems where Johan and others came into, also fear plays and important role: the fear that also the justice department and or the tax authorities will one day or another see the cult and the swindlepractices of G. as one thing, and will decide to do a raid on the "Org", the headquaters of Scientology at the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam...

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