Scientologists convicted of fraud in FranceFrench judges fined the Church of Scientology almost a million dollars on Tuesday for fleecing vulnerable followers but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France.
Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, were ordered to pay 600,000 euros (900,000 dollars) in fines for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s.
Alain Rosenberg, the French leader of a movement best known for its Hollywood followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined 30,000 euros on the same charge of fraud.
Five more Scientologists were give fines ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 euros for fraud or the illegal practice of pharmacy.
France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and has prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but this case marks the first time the organization as a whole has been convicted. (MORE)
Damn fine work, in my estimation. Now don't stop with these guys, start looking into all those other cults all over the countryside.
Also, do you know that the symbol for Dianetics is a PYRAMID? Just sayin'?
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