Last night, Tampa Bay Times reporter Charlie Frago published another fascinating scoop: The Church of Scientology paid a premium — more than $3 million — for a parcel of land in a key downtown Clearwater, Florida location which included an aging five-story office building.
Frago said the church wasn’t saying why it paid so much money for a collection of properties that the county had assessed at about $610,000. Rumors, he said, had the church buying the land for new housing for workers, or perhaps for a retirement home for church employees.
A retirement home. Yeah, that’s a good one.
We think we’ve solved this mystery, and we did it by talking to someone who often purchased property for Scientology leader David Miscavige and did so, he tells us, not because the church needed it, but simply to keep it out of the hands of Miscavige’s perceived enemies.
When we saw that there was a question about a Scientology land purchase in Clearwater, we immediately called Tom DeVocht in California.
DeVocht was a 28-year veteran of Scientology’s Sea Org who left the church in 2005. At that point, he was working at the church’s International Base near Hemet, California. But for years before that, he was Scientology’s top facilities executive in Clearwater. It was DeVocht’s job to buy and sell properties in the town that is the spiritual headquarters of the worldwide organization.
There were numerous times, he says, when Miscavige ordered him to pay premium prices to get control of property simply to keep it out of other hands.
Did Scientology Pay $3 Million To Foil an “Independent Scientology Org” in Clearwater? « The Underground Bunker
Related to this article posted in mid-August: Church of Scientology sets opening of long-delayed Flag Building in Clearwater
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