25. David Miscavige Earnings Go Up To $50 Million
David Miscavige is the leader of the Church of Scientology, the Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that controls the trademarks and copyrights of Dianetics and Scientology, and he’s also acknowledged as the ultimate ecclesiastical authority regarding the standard and pure application of L. Ron Hubbard’s religious theories. A number of allegations against Miscavige have been exposed since he assumed his leadership position, including claims of forced separation of family members, coercive fundraising practices, harassment of journalists and church critics, the humiliation of church staff members, and physical assaults. Time magazine has described Miscavige as “ringleader” of a “hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner”. Mike Rinder former official spokesperson for Scientology and director of the Church’s Office of Special Affairs has said that he was physically assaulted by Miscavige on about 50 occasions and Lawrence Wright, the author of Going Clear, interviewed twelve former Scientologists who reported having been personally attacked by Miscavige and twenty-one people who say they have witnessed such attacks. In a 1995 interview for ITV, Stacy Young, Miscavige’s former secretary declared “His viciousness and his cruelty to staff were unlike anything that I had ever experienced in my life, he just loved to degrade the staff.”
