a bit from that link in my last post

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Fifteen years later in 1984, the IRS's tax court decided another Scientology case, the Church of Scientology of California v. Commissioner (104 S.Ct. 2136,2142 n.4). The case concerned the "new" Scientology mother church for the years 1970 through 1972. Again Scientology was denied tax-exempt status for covertly funneling money to Hubbard and his family, this time through dummy and sham corporations. This more recent asset-skimming during the 1970's involved money laundering through Panama and then through Swiss and other foreign bank accounts. In this decision, the court stated:

"OTC [Operation Transport Corp. Ltd.], was a sham corporation controlled by L Ron Hubbard and petitioner [CST] (p. 399)… Its board of directors lacked bona fides (p. 399)… To disguise these payments as debt repayment and to conceal the OTC sham a cover story was developed (p. 439)… In pursuit of the conspiracy, petitioner filed false tax returns, burglarized IRS offices, stole IRS documents, and harassed, delayed, and obstructed IRS agents. Petitioner gave false information to, and concealed relevant information from, the IRS about its corporate structure and relationship to OTC… CHURCH MEMBERS AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF THE HIERARCHY, NOT JUST ORDINARY CHURCH MEMBERS, PARTICIPATED IN THE CONSPIRACY (emphasis added, p. 505-506)." [From Church of Scientology v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 83 T.C. 381 Aff'd, 823 F.2d 9th Cir. (1987) cert. den. 486 U.S. 108 S. Ct. 1752 (1988). Also see Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue.]