Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun Exposed

To reduce any mystery that may be around about these two, the following are the facts:

THEIR REMOVAL

Chairman of the Board RTC removed Mike Rinder from his position over external affairs for the Church in 2002 for legal malfeasance and incompetence. Rinder subsequently handled spokesperson duties and supported other staff on external matters. His dishonesty with the media and other violations of HCO PLs eventually led to his being replaced as a Church spokesman. In handling legal affairs for the Church, Rinder operated in the same dishonest and slipshod manner as he did on public relations lines. Mike Rinder eventually deserted the Sea Org and Scientology in 2007.

COB RTC removed Mark Rathbun from his post and any position of executive authority within the Church in late 2002 for legal malfeasance and incompetence. As Rathbun himself aptly summarized, “I have a proven proclivity for creating some of the greatest catastrophes in Church history when allowed to have some leash.”

David Miscavige further uncovered, while handling a legal case that had spun out of control, that it was Rathbun himself who had instigated the legal fiasco to begin with. Misjudgment, bad calls, irresponsible decision-making and even blaming attorneys on both sides were all weak and reasonable justifications for what really happened. It was subsequently disclosed by Rathbun himself that it was intentional.

In 2003, while COB RTC was away handling legal matters that Rathbun had badly botched, knowledge reports were filed by staff members on Rathbun’s off-policy and out-ethics activities internally in the Church. Fifty incidents were documented of his violence and intimidation of executives and staff. When David Miscavige returned and learned of this, he promptly expelled Rathbun from RTC and stripped him of any last vestiges of status or authority, even if by insinuation or association. Rathbun knew it was over for him. So did many others.

Rathbun knew that the gig was up. He knew he would no longer be able to indulge in his passion of creating wars and “fighting battles”—against external enemies of the Church, against Church staff, against Martians. He hated it.

As a side note, Rathbun explained his motivation for doing such acts in an originated public statement: “…keep chaos and threat stirred up in the environment, make myself appear to be a solution to it instead of the instigator of it.” And as to why he would have such a motivation, he wrote, “I engaged in a campaign to covertly and systematically take out and undermine any executive or staff who might expose me.”

Rathbun’s and Rinder’s removals were in accordance with the disciplines and codes of the Sea Organization and the Scientology Religion as laid out by LRH. The very man they are now criticizing – David Miscavige – removed them from their positions for gross malfeasance and fiduciary crimes.

SECRET CONSPIRACY

One of the most serious criminal acts by Rinder and Rathbun was not known until January 2007, when a Church staff member who had worked in legal affairs reported a suspicion he had. What he suspected was that Rathbun had conspired with Mike Rinder in 1995 to keep from David Miscavige certain information regarding one of the most contentious legal cases in the Church’s history. When confronted with this report, Rinder admitted that he and Rathbun had indeed conspired to withhold the fact of subornation of perjury (tampering with witnesses) and that the person they most intended to keep this information from was David Miscavige – this is despite the fact that  Miscavige had repeatedly demanded that Rathbun and Rinder get to the bottom of why certain witnesses had initially lied to authorities.

By the time that this crime was exposed (January 2007), Mark Rathbun had already been gone three years.

It wasn’t until a slip Rathbun made to the press in June 2009, however, that David Miscavige and other Church executives learned that Rathbun had not only seen to the destruction of evidence but had suborned perjury (tampering with witnesses) with yet a third co-conspirator – Tom DeVocht. Though Rathbun is now full-time blaming others for his acts, he made clear to the press that he took “full responsibility” for these acts, stating, “Nobody ordered me to it.”

No one had known that he, Rinder and DeVocht had done this but the three of them alone.

They had been sitting on this withhold since 1995.

“HANDLING” OF LEGAL AFFAIRS

In 2003, Rathbun exposed yet another conspiracy he and Rinder were involved in,  he wrote, “Left to my own devices in handling IRS litigation, the end result would undoubtedly have been no exemption, a billion dollar tax bill, and possible shutting down of the Church. I have developed a slick false PR technique of positioning myself as having been integral in handling threats during and after the fact, when they are actually terminatedly handled by COB. There is no conspiracy connected with this pattern of suppression, except a portion of it. That is Mike Rinder who has gone into tacit agreement with me on making nothing of situations, false reporting on them, and allowing them to expand until they explode on COB’s plate to handle….”

The Church received religious recognition in October 1993. At that time, David  Miscavige announced “the War is Over!” It wasn’t just with the IRS; it was with all legal cases. COB RTC had ordered the end of any and all litigation that the Church was involved in. Rathbun was upset with this announcement as per him; it went against his grain as a warrior. Not weeks later, he deserted his post, his wife and the Sea Org.

A review of his performance, on known data at that time, revealed the actual reason for his departure was withholding vital information from David Miscavige on legal matters that had spiraled out of control. However, to what degree and magnitude that had occurred was not determined at that time.

Rathbun later made known that he, in collusion with Mike Rinder, had a proclivity for starting and exacerbating legal wars and then dumping them on COB RTC to handle.

Ten years later, Rathbun would write: “It started with me blowing the Sea Org on November, 1993. I took advantage of a number of false reports I had put in place over years giving a false picture as to my role in handling external attacks and the IRS in particular. … The web of lies…is so complex it would take pages to recount.…” He did not go on to write the pages to recount what he did but he did end off saying, “I engaged in a campaign to covertly and systematically take out and undermine any executive or staff who might expose me.”

Taking into account over 60 illegal removals of executives and staff from their positions and uncounted numbers of injustices committed at his hands, it was obvious that Rathbun feared being exposed. In fact, there was one person he was intent on undermining and trying to take out and that was COB RTC. Rathbun failed.

And so, having failed to do it on the inside, Rathbun has taken his “covert and systematic campaign to take out and undermine anyone who might expose him” on the outside. And it continues to this very day.

WHAT WAS THEIR MOTIVE?

For 26 years, Rathbun and Rinder worked side by side. These were the two individuals who oversaw the external affairs operations of the Church in legal and dealing with the media. The amount of legal and media wars and attacks during their tenure was the most in Scientology history.

Whenever they were gotten off the lines or bypassed, the wars quieted down. When they went back on the lines, the wars flared up again. This is a documented fact and even Rathbun and Rinder themselves stated that they both had a “proclivity” for creating the worst legal and PR catastrophes in the history of the Church, and that they exacerbated and prolonged the legal fights because that was they only thing they knew how to do. They have admitted to these facts. They have even gone so far as to reveal that there was a conspiracy between them.

As Rathbun wrote:

“I have a proven proclivity for creating some of the greatest catastrophes in Church history when allowed to have some leash.”

“By calculation I have lost the Church …. on losses and expenses that could have been avoided…There is no conspiracy connected with this pattern of suppression, except a portion of it. That is Mike Rinder who has gone into tacit agreement with me on making nothing of situations, false reporting on them, and allowing them to expand until they explode on COB’s plate to handle….” – Marty Rathbun

As Mike Rinder wrote:

“By perpetuating these operations internally and externally, the worst suppression has been visited upon COB RTC. It is the worst suppression because COB RTC is the person who has single-handedly salvaged Scientology from potential external ruin, and single-handedly salvaged Scientology itself by holding the line technically, administratively, and on dissemination. Had he not been here and done what he has, Scientology would have been lost.  There is no slightest doubt about that.”

“This operating basis created catastrophes, situations that have actually kept COB off his post handling disasters [I created] for years on end… I wanted COB to be involved in external flaps.” – Mike Rinder

Yes, they wanted COB RTC involved in their external flaps, disasters and catastrophes.

Yes, they knew he would bypass them and handle the matter.

But why?

Though a lot has been coming to light regarding their nefarious activities and criminal behavior, one has to ask the age-old question—what was their motive?

Rinder’s admission of, “[I would] create a disaster, let it brew, then fling it to the top [to COB RTC] at the last minute” still does not answer the question.

Here’s some background data about Rathbun and Rinder you do not know.

Throughout their entire tenure on staff they were never involved in, worked on, contributed to or participated in any Church expansion activities. Even Rinder knows that Rathbun did absolutely nothing and he would frequently natter about Rathbun’s complete disregard for orgs, the tech, staff and dissemination actions. Rathbun would likewise natter about Rinder’s zero participation and that Rinder’s “products” always had to be redone by others. This is a known fact and witnessed over the years by hundreds of executives and staff who actually did work on the many expansion activities of the Church.

Another fact, even more outrageous, is that they both knew that Chairman of the Board RTC was working on Church expansion activities nonstop, even when he was constantly being distracted by the bombs thrown at him by Rathbun’s and Rinder’s legal and PR fiascos. They will confirm this and so will five hundred executives and staff who worked on the many expansion programs with COB RTC.

What gives?

As Rinder put it, “COB RTC he is trying to get done everything to expand Scientology. I’ve been counter-intentioned to this because my intentions are not to follow this purpose of expanding Scientology…. I directly cross ordered Chairman of the Board’s international strategies: I cross ordered the library campaign, I cross ordered the Books and Lectures program being done. When a priority situation is identified and a strategy laid out for handling (e.g. Org buildings and building Orgs), I deliberately ignored them because ‘someone else is handling it’ and continued to operate my own ‘priorities’ which I already failed to handle and I decided someone else would do something about it.”

Rathbun and Rinder never wanted big, booming orgs that were large enough to service the public.  They didn’t care about the parishioners and the staff of every org. They didn’t even left a finger in any way in bringing about new Ideal Orgs even when they were well aware that Chairman of the Board RTC was working around the clock on every single aspect of every single Ideal Org and future Ideal Org from the planning, designs, renovations and their construction to the training and hatting of its staff.

Rathbun had his own withholds regarding Scientology organizations, “If told to go iron out some line at some org, I would be hesitant and unconfident. The more I try the more harm I …do. The biggest source of cross-orders and chaos and counter policy is from me.”

Rathbun couldn’t have care less about any of the Ideal Orgs. By 2003, he was pretty much off the lines and the Ideal Orgs of Johannesburg, Buffalo and San Francisco were opened. He saw some of these Ideal Orgs and shortly thereafter left the Church.

It was a known fact that Rathbun had a major “importance” button. He was heavily fixated on status. He didn’t get attention unless he was in COB’s shadow or when he had to enforce it from others with intimidation. When COB RTC had found out what Rathbun had been up to over the years, he didn’t want Rathbun around him and for good reason. Rathbun was trouble. No one wanted to be around him. Who would?

When Rathbun no longer had any status in anyone’s eyes, he knew the gig was up. As Rathun put it, “It has been carefully masked by a façade of being important or working on important things.  It is all the more insidious because that ‘importance’ has been by association with COB…This suppressive operating basis was employed to try to maintain the false impression that I have some other production record externally that warrants me maintaining a high position.  In fact, this is a fraud I have perpetrated.”

Mike Rinder was more descriptive: “I denigrated standard policy and ethics. This was a personal matter as a way of avoiding responsibility. I wanted to be important and maintain my status and I put that well before the well being of the organization. Since that time [mid `70s] I have been anti-organization. I have had to lessen the importance of the organization and group in order to continue to live with the overts I committed. It is the operating pattern I have had since then [mid `70s]—trying to operate apart from the group and setting it up so that I am ‘above’ criticism or correction by anyone one in the group.”

With Rathbun gone, in 2004, COB RTC was able to concentrate much more on Church expansion. Having Rathbun off the lines completely is exactly when the Ideal Orgs strategy began moving ahead at full speed—Los Gatos, Stevens Creek, Madrid, New York, London and Berlin.

However, Rinder was still around.  Even though Rinder had been removed from post in the legal area, he was now quietly going about his business of creating flaps and external PR situations which were not known at the time. It was at this time, in 2007, that investigations uncovered Rinder was still up to no good. An alert came in that there was a possible conspiracy between him and Rathbun due to documents uncovered that showed they were involved in criminal actions in an earlier legal case. Rinder admitted to having conspired with Rathbun. Shortly thereafter, Rinder left the Church.

Thus it was that in 2007, with both Rathbun and Rinder now gone, Chairman of the Board RTC was now able to dedicate even more time and energy to expansion of Church activities.  Expansion took a gigantic leap, with the release of The Basics in 2007; the grand opening of the Oak Cove 172,000 square feet, 13 story religious service facility in Clearwater, Florida; the full restoration of new Fort Harrison, the largest refit ever done on the Freewinds emerging as a brand-new, fully redesigned, technologically advanced, cutting-edge vessel; beginning of final construction of the Flag Mecca; inauguration of a program to establish Advanced Organizations in every continent with the acquisition of three new massive Advanced Organization in the making facilities in Africa, Canada and Latin America; followed by more new Ideal Orgs, including Malmỏ, Dallas, Nashville, Brussels, Rome, Washington, D.C., and most recently Quebec and Las Vegas.

As one executive who worked with Rinder explained, “I sat with Mike in an office for years.  He never once wanted to have anything to do with Ideal Orgs.  He refused to help on the Church acquisition of buildings and wouldn’t even help on the legal requirements.  He just didn’t care—and got so upset by me trying to get him working on expansion, he literally grabbed me by the arm in late 2005 and said squarely in my face—“You don’t get it, I don’t care about anything anymore. I’m such a mess up; I mess up everything and I just don’t care about anything and never have.”

They never cared about the dissemination of Scientology and so did not see the need to be involved in any dissemination campaigns.

They never cared to assist in getting out LRH’s tech out even though they were well aware of the many LRH projects on this and even though they were well aware that the Chairman of the Board RTC was working around the clock to see that these LRH projects got done. And even when they were given the opportunity, Rathbun and Rinder never cared about LRH’s and the Church’s drug education programs, criminal reform programs, study technology programs, Way to Happiness programs, human rights programs, Volunteer Ministers activities and many other programs. With those two stoppers gone, these programs have become some of the largest non-governmental social and humanitarian programs on Earth today.

As another executive who knew Rathbun stated, “Rathbun never really cared about the Scientology religion, ever.  All Rathbun wanted to do was fight, work on legal cases and do nothing else.  He told me that personally in 2003; he said he was utterly incompetent and he didn’t know what to do with himself as there were no more legal cases to engage in.  He told me he was crazy as all he wanted to do was fight and didn’t know how to do anything constructive in the Church.  He knew nothing about the internal workings of the Church and could not contribute.  He was crying as he told me this, stating he was a total failure and incompetent at anything having to do with Church expansion.  He said he envied anyone who could do anything creative in the Church as he never cared about expansion.  He confided this to me personally as he only wanted a position in legal—a year after he was off legal lines and the legal arena was all but over.  At a time when the Ideal org strategy was beginning!  He didn’t want to work on expansion projects, Ideal Orgs, Technical programs or anything outside of the legal arena. Having been taken off all lines, he no longer could fight wars externally and so he started and fought them on the inside.”

“During the years that I knew both Mike and Marty, they spent their Church careers in legal. They knew nothing about the Church projects ongoing (it was all FYI to them) and were never involved in what Mr. Miscavige was doing for Church Expansion.  They could care less about the growth and expansion and supporting this with the Ideal Orgs, the Flag Land Base, all Advanced Orgs or any of the International Association of Scientologists campaigns.”

“Our religion is here today, free to practice in over 64 nations because of Mr. Miscavige, and him only.  If our religious freedom were left to Rathbun, we would be in the slumpits with the scriptures in unscrupulous hands.  Everyone knows it who knows Rathbun.”

“They didn’t like us finding out what they were up to internally as they were incompetents and wasting church funds through their incompetence.  So rather than confront us, who know the extent of their failings, they are trying to act as if it is between them and Mr. Miscavige, which is the biggest lie of all.  We handled their internal justice within the Church, they were answering to us for their violations of Church policy and clearly they left because they could not handle that..

“They think they are or will be ‘vitally needed’ some day (in their minds). When they blew and the Church didn’t even contact them, they knew it was goodbye and their dreams of “being vitally needed” were just their nightmares. And when they saw things taking off in the Church after they were gone, they went mad.”

As another executive who knew them well put it, “The sad thing about Rathbun and Rinder is they could not work, they only knew how to fight. The only thing they knew what to produce was disasters. When COB RTC had to bypass them and end their instigated or protracted wars, they didn’t know what to do and so they took their battles internal. And when COB RTC found out they were at it again, he ended their doings once and for all. That is when they caved in and left.

“Basically, with the past wars moved out of the way (most particularly, the IRS) and with Rathbun and Rinder no longer capable of starting up new wars (as all they wanted to do was fight with enemies nonstop—real or imaginary), the Church moved forward on expansion. And since they had no external battle to fight (Rathbun even said he’d be back when the ‘next war came’—it never did), the only thing they had left to do was trying to start fighting with the Church. And all with an insanity of ‘we’re loyal to LRH.’ What a joke!”

So why would they do this?

Rinder wrote it bluntly, “COB RTC he is trying to get done everything to expand Scientology. I’ve been counter-intentioned to this because my intentions are not to follow this purpose of expanding Scientology.”

Rathbun pointblank wrote, “By perpetuating these operations internally and externally, the worst suppression has been visited upon COB RTC. It is the worst suppression because COB RTC is the person who has single-handedly salvaged Scientology from potential external ruin, and single-handedly salvaged Scientology itself by holding the line technically, administratively, and on dissemination. Had he not been here and done what he has, Scientology would have been lost.  There is no slightest doubt about that. The cumulative amount of COB’s time I have cost in terms of dropping balls, creating situations internally and externally, is on the order of eight years. If that time were recouped, there is no doubt we would have at least double to triple the amount of orgs, we’d have thousands of missions and we would be very well on the way to a clear planet.

“The motivations for these acts are a psychotic computation for self-preservation: keep enough chaos and threat stirred up in the environment, make myself appear to be a solution to it instead of the instigator of it, and lots of people go down and remain in turmoil while I go unrecognized as the source of it and survive.”

Those are the facts.