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Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service has demanded some $6 million in taxes and penalties from Scientology for the years 1970 through 1974. The IRS says the sum is due from income not used for church purposes. If the IRS wins the pending tax-court case, there is every likelihood that it will proceed against the church for millions more in taxes and penalties for later years. At least 22 civil suits have been filed against the church by former members who claimed to have been swindled, harassed and even kidnaped. A court in Australia has revoked Scientology's status as a religion, and one in France has convicted Hubbard, in absentia, of fraud.
The mounting troubles of the church were dramatized on Jan. 7 when Hubbard's attractive third wife Mary Sue, 51, was sentenced to four years in prison by a federal judge in Washington. Once the church's second most powerful official, Mrs. Hubbard was the last of eleven Scientology members who were convicted for their roles in bugging and burglarizing the Washington offices of the IRS, the Federal Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice, Treasury and Labor departments. These break-ins were part of a vast spying operation, created by Hubbard and directed by his wife, to gather information on "enemies" of the church. One Scientology document so identifies 136 governmental agencies at home and abroad. At its height, the espionage system, called "Operation Snow White" by Hubbard, included up to 5,000 covert agents who were placed in government offices, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as in private organizations critical of Scientology. Hubbard even assembled a dossier on President Richard Nixon and individuals ranging from U.S. Senators to members of the Rockefeller family.
Some dissidents in the church contend that Hubbard has gone into hiding to avoid legal hassles. They claim that for years he has secretly placed huge amounts of church funds and hoards of jewels in foreign bank accounts and vaults. According to this theory, Hubbard has let his youthful protégés take control in order to separate himself legally from the church and its suits while retaining many of its assets. Other Scientology defectors argue that while this may have been Hubbard's plan, the onetime loyal followers have taken advantage of his failing health and are now seeking to enrich themselves. If Hubbard actually is dead, the charge goes, the church is being looted by those who now control it.
Estimates of the number of Scientology members vary widely, but defectors who once held high positions in the church say that the worldwide membership was at most 2 million at the height of the movement in the early and mid-1970s, and that 75% of the total lived in the U.S. The church claims that millions more took at least some Scientology courses. The peak income year for Scientology reportedly was $100 million. Now, according to defectors, there are only some 100,000 active members in the U.S. and perhaps the same number abroad.