Cults, Mind Control - $cientology - The strange case of Steven Fishman.
In November of 1991, the Church of Scientology International sued Steven Fishman and Dr. Geertz for defamation arising out of statement which the defendants made to a TIME MAGAZINE reporter Richard Behar. The statements related to financial crimes which were committed by Steven Fishman, after he was trained to participate in a securities class action fraud scheme by Scientology staff members at the Church of Scientology and the Church of Scientology Mission of Fort Lauderdale. He spent the money obtained from the fraud on auditing, training, and for purchasing the third largest library of L. Ron Hubbard books, tapes, cassettes and E-Meters in the world.
After his arrest by the FBI in July of 1988, Church officials, church officials ordered him to murder his psychologist, Dr. Geertz, because he had confided in the psychologist about the details of his crime.
Thrown into "Treason" a low ethics condition by the church he was told by his Ethics Officer Frank Thompson that I could work my way up from "Treason" by protecting the Church from the FBI investigation. Following the orders of his Ethics Officer which resulted in being charged with Obstruction of Justice. At the same time, Church attorney Timothy Bowles worked closely with the United States District Attorney in Los Angeles in order to secure the conviction and eliminate any exposure to the Church.
In an effort to suppress the Church's involvement in the fraud, Church officials ordered him to commit suicide, which was avoided due to a successful exit-counseling intervention by former members Margery Wakefield, Eddie Da Rocha, Richard Padilla, and through swift and effective therapy by Dr. Geertz.
He suffered a psychotic break, and was institutionalized at the Hollywood Pavilion, a mental institution in South Florida.
The FBI limited its investigation of the Church's involvement in the fraud to only one interview of former Mission Staff Peter and Barbara Letterese, the very couple who trained him to commit the stock fraud in the first place.
Expert witnesses on cults, Dr. Margaret Singer and Dr. Richard Ofshe, were not permitted to testify at the trial as to how to the Church of Scientology influenced my thinking through mind control techniques, after the Church of Scientology paid their own experts to convince the trial judge that the theories of Drs. Singer and Ofshe were not "mainstream" and should not be accepted by the court, facts which were overturned on appeal in a separate case two years later.
With all possibilities of a fair trial derailed by the Church of Scientology, He entered an Alford Plea (innocent of the charges but responsible for the acts alleged), and was sentenced to five years in prison. Released early on December 29, 1992, He remained on probation until the end of his sentence.
While at the Federal Correctional Institution of Tallahassee, prison officials uncovered an attempt to assassinate him by another inmate, Luis Martinez, a Scientologist from Miami who was facing deportation to Cuba and was promised legal help by the Church for the killing. Luis Martinez had a screwdriver fashioned into a dagger in his locker, as well as pictures of Steven, and a stack of Scientology Technical Bulletins and Policy Letters.
While in prison, he began to turn his life around by becoming a cooperating witness for the Internal Revenue Service, during their criminal investigation into the Church of Scientology. He also ran the computer room for the prison's education department. Shortly afterward, He was visited by a Mr. Peter Comras, who claimed to be an agent of the Israeli government investigating Scientology. Mr. Comras gained access to the visiting room at the prison under false pretenses, which is a crime. It turned out that Mr. Comras was a private investigator hired by the Office of Special Affairs of the Church of Scientology to investigate him as part of the Church's "Fair Game Law," in which the critics of the Church can be deceived, lied to, intimidated, harassed and sued.
Further Info:
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/fishman.html
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html
