Is Scientology breaking the law?

... There's evidence that they are.

Extortion

According to Scientology's Fair Game policy , an enemy of Scientology "May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed ." In addition, Scientology policy imposes a "freeloaders debt" of thousands of dollars on anyone who leaves employment before the contract is up. Are the following allegations the result of that policy?

Michael Pattinson’s notarized statement describes two attempts to extort money from him. In May 1998 he filed a suit against Scientology.	Clearwater FL	June 1996, June 1991	notarized statement Sep 20 '97
Janice Hayward’s court document alleges breach of contract and states that Scientology tried to extort more money beyond the previously-agreed price of $25,000 for her to go "Clear"	Arizona	Feb 1995	undated court document
Bob Geary and his wife Dorothy state that she required hospitalization after being held captive for more than two weeks in California after becoming involved with Sterling Management, a Scientology front group	San Francisco, CA	Fall 1988	Akron Beacon Journal, Jan 21, 1990
Bob Penny's software company was taken over by a Scientology committe and he was required to do high-level auditing to regain control	Boulder, CO	1986	a.r.s. Sep 25 1996
Ken Long’s personal story of contributing 10,000 hours of work to Scientology in exchange for 3,125 hours of Church services which were promised but never delivered includes a description of threats that he would be dumped on the streets and excommunicated if he did not provide the labor they wanted	FL and CA?	Feb 1984	a.r.s. Apr 2 1995
Hana Whitfield says she was threatened with being sued and followed and never left in peace for the rest of her life if she did not return to rejoin the RPF.	Clearwater FL	1982	web page dated Aug 8 1989
Annie Rosenblum’s declaration describes the threat of the freeloader's debt and how, even after "amnesty" was declared for those who supposedly owed this unenforceable debt, she was told she had to complete the RPF program at her own expense, which she believed she needed to do but could not afford.)	Clearwater FL	1978	declaration, webbed Apr 10 1995
Patrick Jost says two Scientology representatives tried to get payment for past services (which were originally delivered on a "sponsored" basis) and to get him to sign up and pay for two more years of services; when he refused, one threatened that he could kill Patrick with a thought.	Los Angeles	unknown	a.r.s. May 5 1995
Yolanda Howell describes both financial and emotional extortion - being forced to pay off her "freeloader’s debt" and being threatened repeatedly with loss of contact with her children.	Los Angeles	unknown, probably pre-1978	web page Nov 14 1994

This page was last updated on May 8, 1999.