Article Claims FBI Investigating Scientology for Human Trafficking

(HMG Celebrity News) – The Church of Scientology is reportedly under investigation by the FBI’s task force for violating human trafficking laws, according to an article in this week’s New Yorker. The 28 page article by New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright, with more to come in a book, focuses on former Scientologist Paul Haggis (wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby and Crash, which he also directed), and reveals that the FBI’s probe has been ongoing for more than a year, and homes in on abuse by Scientology’s mysterious leader David Miscavige, and the enslavement of members of Scientology’s religious order.   Many former Scientologists have allegedly reported brutal treatment by the sect, such as invasion of privacy, censorship, and financial exploitation.  One ex-Scientologist alleges that punishments included being sent to the ‘Hole’ – a pair of ‘double-wide trailers’ on the base where between eighty and a hundred people were sentenced to ‘do group confessions all day and all night’.  The trafficking charges seem to revolve around several former members who filed federal lawsuits against the church claiming they were pressured as teenagers into having abortions because having children would interfere with their work for Scientology’s religious order, the Sea Organization. Since 1996, the Sea Org whose members dress in sailor outfits and sign billion year contracts, have had a “no kids allowed” policy. Meanwhile Miscavige’s alleged ‘Hollywood-star’ lifestyle is also allegedly under investigation, for enjoying ‘unusual perks or compensation’, called inurement.

Via the Daily Mail and Gawker