Who's the mystery Mexican donor of $4 million to Scientology?
We’ve benefited here at the Bunker from the work of an activist in Los Angeles who calls himself SP Spanglish, and who has really helped us keep an eye on Scientology’s efforts in Mexico.
While the church struggles with membership and staffing throughout its traditional strongholds like the US, the UK, and Australia, the two places that seem to be bright spots for Scientology these days are Mexico and Taiwan.
We’d love to have some help keeping an eye on what’s going on in Taiwan, but as far as Mexico’s concerned, Spanglish has been a great support.
And yesterday, he was featured in an interesting new story in an investigative Mexico City publication by the name of Eme Equis — pronounced em-may, eh-kees, which is how you say the letters M and X in Spanish, a reference to Mexico itself.
In the article, journalist Miguel Angel Teposteco reveals that documents show a Scientology front group there taking in about $4 million US in donations in 2023 and 2024 from a source inside Mexico.
Is it a big whale in that country forking over large amounts for the ongoing building projects in Mexico? We’re not sure, but Spanglish tells us that Teposteco has a second part of his investigation coming next week when we may learn more.
In the meantime, we’ve been talking to Spanglish about how Scientology not only has shown some resilience in Mexico, but that it’s getting help from a cooperative government there as well.
Scientology leader David Miscavige is not letting that opportunity get away from him. Last year he opened a second Ideal Org in Mexico City, he’s raising money for a third Ideal Org in the city, and Scientology has also had a long-planned “Advanced Org” in Mexico City in progress.
One of the things we’ve been looking into is the donations by a company named “Grupo Expansión,” which we mistakenly believed was the large publishing conglomerate in Mexico.
It turns out instead to be a Scientology WISE front group in Ecuador.
In October, we were forwarded a copy of a new issue of Scientology’s Impact magazine, which lists the amounts given by big donors. And among the individuals and couples listed who had reached the “Silver Meritorious” level of giving, which is $500,000, there was a company name, Grupo Expansión.
In December, we received a copy of Impact magazine that documented the big “Patrons” who had made the trip to England for the annual gala of the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) in October.
This time, Grupo Expansión had not only showed up to accept its Silver Meritorious trophy for its half a million in donations, but had also posed for a photograph.
Our thanks to the readers who recognized that these donors are part of the Ecuador Grupo Expansión and not the one in Mexico. We regret making that error.
But we are very much looking forward to more from SP Spanglish and from Eme Equis about donors in Mexico.
Bonus items from our tipsters
Says our tipster: I received a Scientology publication in the mail yesterday. The mailer contained their usual rag. However, the face of the envelope has a QR code that I have never seen in any mailer before.
The QR code says:
CONFIRM RECEIPT!
SCAN HERE
I guess they are hoping we are all going to let them know we got the mailer. Obviously, they are looking to follow up with an Oxford test or a pitch to buy Dianetics.
Thank you, reader! That’s a new one on us. (And just to be careful, we filled in some of the QR Code in case it contains info about the address the mailer was sent to.)
What do you think, gang? A clever new marketing trick, or creepy surveillance tool?
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Speaking as a techie who calls himself Techie, it is in general wise to be wary of QR codes and so on. I have an app from Scandit that allows me to read the code without opening the web site. There are lots of similar apps. Possibly your phone even asks you to confirm before launching the site. Look before you launch!
Of course there is nothing stopping a malicious actor from creating a link that looks just like a legit site, like wellllsfargo.com or something. Usually there are lots of characters after the name of the site, but no need to worry about those if the site is legit. Another trick is wellsfargo.com.wephuckemandhow.org. No clicks for you! Too many dots!
Just as it is you should in general avoid clicking on links in email, randomly scanning QR codes on passing vehicles etc. is not always safe. And certainly nothing on a Scientology publication! But probably the recipient has no real choice. If they don't scan it, some rabid registrar is likely to show up on their doorstep with an Ethics Officer in tow.
Excellent sleuthing, thankyou SP Spanish.
I'm getting old and can't remember why IMPACT Scientology's show off in house magazine supposedly since day one has listed the donors, and have photos of the top ones, in the mag.
My former boss, Carol Titus, became the first top person over the IMPACT magazine and what that magazine consisted of. She'd been the boss on the "routing forms" project, and then after that project was done, she quit Sea Org unannounced and abruptly, "had to be recovered" and all, and then she became the IMPACT magazine czar, and got re-stationed eventually to the Freewinds offices for years.
She's the one who cobbled together LRH's policies about doing a Scientology style magazine, and with Miscavige's orders, he basically ran her, and she developed the structure features in the IMPACT magazine.
You'd think, based on the Hubbard "religion" policies, they'd cease sticking their rich donors' necks out like this. No other religion with similar rich donors, do this show off stuff, it's irreligious all its own.
Well, all anyone needs to know, is "Talking Xenu gets you Dead Filed" and off any mailing lists, just talk a little Xenu, as Xenu talk is the only "magic" Scientology responds to. Put Xenu signs on your doors, so Scientology regges coming to coax donations out of you, are hit with the power of Xenu and know to leave you alone.
If you want to turn off phone calls from Scientology, get a new message on your phone:
"Xenu and his body-thetans are not here. Leave a message."