Private eye firm that spied for Scientology throws up the white flag in sordid lawsuit
Yesterday we told you about a disgraced former journalist who was hired by the Church of Scientology to investigate the proprietor of this website. Today, we have an update on a disgraced private investigations firm that was also caught stalking us for Scientology.
We’re talking about Daniel Ribacoff and his firm International Investigative Group (IIG). Ribacoff got some notoriety as a polygraph expert on The Steve Wilkos Show, but over the last several years he and his firm have been caught up in a sordid lawsuit.
We’ve told you about it several times before, that IIG was hired by a wealthy Long Island man, David Smith, who wanted Ribacoff’s investigators to spy on his wife, Susanne Gold-Smith, as they were going through a separation.
Eventually, Smith and his wife reconciled. But then the two of them filed lawsuits against Ribacoff and IIG, alleging that while Ribacoff’s investigators were watching Susanne they began interacting with her in an unprofessional way, that four of the investigators ended up having some sexual contact with her, and that one of the PIs, a retired NYPD detective named Yanti Michael Greene, allegedly raped her. Smith also complained that the firm had overbilled him as IIG figured they had a rich mark on the hook.
Ribacoff denied the allegations, but as part of the litigation the Smiths obtained huge collections of data, including texts from some of the phones used by the investigators. And that’s when we got interested, because those text messages showed that IIG, besides working the case following Susanne, had also worked for Scientology.
Specifically, the texts showed that Greene and other PIs were paid to stalk Leah Remini when she was in New York filming the movie Second Act with her friend, Jennifer Lopez. And why were they following Remini for Scientology? According to the texts, Greene told his partner in the case, “Word is they want to kill her.”
We also got evidence that Greene was assigned by IIG to investigate your proprietor.
So we’ve had some interest in the case, and we’ve schlepped out to Long Island a couple of times to watch court proceedings. And now, we have some updates for you.
Namely, that Ribacoff and IIG have thrown in the towel.
Court documents tell the story that Ribacoff had sold a home in New York and moved to Florida, but the Smiths acted quickly enough to tie up the proceeds from the sale in an escrow account controlled by the court. Now, they’ve had the court release that money so Ribacoff and IIG can begin paying a confidential settlement that will remove them from the lawsuit.
In the meantime, even more evidence of IIG’s sordid behavior was entered in the court record.
In February, a retired LAPD detective and expert in date-rape drugs, Trinka Porrata, produced a report after examining the evidence in the case, which included depositions, interviews, and graphic video recorded by Greene during the encounter with Susanne.
After reviewing the facts, Porrata concluded that the behavior of the IIG investigators was beyond the pale. “The conduct in this case is shockingly unprofessional on many levels. This case involves a total violation of most types of professionally conducted surveillance procedures with open, ongoing, and even sexual conduct with targets or clients.”
Also, one of the investigators owned up to the inappropriate behavior, which in his case included socializing with Susanne, the woman he was supposed to be surveilling, and on one occasion kissing her on the mouth on a dance floor. He not only described his own actions, but provided evidence about the behavior of his IIG colleagues.
“I cannot adequately explain the total shock I experienced,” the investigator said in a sworn affidavit. “To be engaging in sexual acts with [subjects of the investigation] during what was supposed to be covert surveillance was truly beyond comprehension.”
Meanwhile, that investigator’s wife also submitted a sworn affidavit testifying to what Greene had told her about his video recording of the May 17, 2018 encounter he had with Susanne in the back seat of his SUV.
During one of our conversations Greene informed me that he possessed a video recording of himself having sexual intercourse with Ms. Gold-Smith in the back of his vehicle, along with other videos that he believed would end the lawsuits. I remember Greene telling me that Ms. Gold-Smith would be very surprised when Ms. Gold-Smith eventually learned he possessed a “sex tape.” Greene specifically said that Ms. Gold-Smith was “wasted” inside his vehicle while filming this sexual encounter and, in sum and substance, something big was coming down which would destroy her. When I asked Greene if Ms. Gold-Smith knew that she and the sexual activity had been recorded, Greene told me that she [Ms. Gold-Smith] had no idea he had recorded her or the sexual activity which took place that night.
Porrata, the date-rape drug expert, also examined the video evidence shot by Greene, and she concluded that a crime had occurred. “It is my opinion that the sexual activity which occurred in Greene’s SUV in May 2018 is consistent with a drug-facilitated sexual assault of Gold-Smith.”
We’ve previously reported that a judge, after viewing that same video evidence, found Greene guilty of civil contempt for trying to hide that evidence from the court, and awarded the Smiths more than $300,000 in damages.
But Greene has maintained his ludicrous story that it was Susanne who raped him in the back of his SUV that night, and not the other way around. And since he was saddled with the contempt order and its large penalty last year, his filings have only become more bizarre.
We can tell you, from our own observations of Greene, a retired NYPD detective, testifying in the court in Long Island, that we have never seen a witness so openly tell lie after lie under oath with impunity. It actually appears to be his strategy in the case.
We previously reported on a bizarre cross-examination Greene went through, when he had to admit that during the litigation he had gone to Delaware and lied about being a resident there in order to change his name legally from Yanti Michael Greene to Michael Moretti Ford Cruz without notifying the court in Long Island.
In a subsequent deposition, he revealed that he had created various businesses under the names Michael Moretti, Michael Ford, Michael Cruz, and Michael Moretti Ford Cruz.
The Smiths suspected he was doing that in order to hide his assets from them and to keep them from collecting the contempt of court penalty as he claimed that virtually everything he spent money on was a legitimate business expense. They noticed, for example, that he even put pet food purchases on his company credit cards and asked him about it. Here’s how he explained that in a subsequent court filing, to give you an idea of the flavor of things he puts into the court record.
I have a dog and a cat. Both were classified as “service animals in training” years ago. I am specifically training them as search and rescue service animals. Both were purchased (from kill shelters) with Michael Greene & Associates, LLC business funds, years ago. I’ve tried training my dog as a cadaver dog, searching for dead bodies. I purchased cadaver “sniffing” kits and trained him for years, but his performance level was about 50 percent. I then began training him to search for live humans (traditional search and rescue). He is still in this training. I have brought him with me during real world search missions in the State of Florida and in NYS. I have been training my cat to perform live human searches. He is still in this training. Why a cat? Because cats can fit into small places where dogs cannot. When tethered, a cat is perfectly sized to fit into small crevices, collapsed buildings, etc. Additionally, I am training both of them to be emotional support animals for crime victims and hospitalized children. Both animals are currently being trained 4 times a week and I intend to use them under one of The Moretti Group, Inc. d/b/a’s for post hurricane, post disaster, missing person and injured/victim related work.
And in his latest court documents, Greene continues to insist that he’s being victimized by the Smiths, and appeared to make a bizarre reference to your proprietor, who visited the courtroom a couple of times while Greene was testifying…
The Gold-Smith/Smith duo are well known in Nassau County Civil Supreme Court for being very litigious and incessantly lying under oath with impunity, while seeking public attention and paying social media sources to post their tales, including having one such person pose as a journalist in a Nassau County Supreme Court Courtroom and illegally take pictures during testimony in a hearing related to this current matter.
We’re not sure what photos he’s referring to, because we certainly didn’t take any.
Well, Greene is still getting away with making outrageous statements in court, and he has still escaped any kind of criminal prosecution for allegedly raping an incapacitated woman and videotaping himself while he was doing it, video evidence that a retired LAPD expert says is convincing proof that a sexual assault took place.
Such is the sort of individual that Scientology hires to chase after its perceived enemies.
Your proprietor on the German airwaves
We want to thank RTL News in Germany for allowing us to share with you the footage they recently aired, with your proprietor talking about Shelly Miscavige. We were told that it aired numerous times in that country.
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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scumbags of a feather flock together...
And nice German TV spot. Wo ist Shelly?
Why is it “the most ethical people on the planet” hire the most unethical people on the planet? The law of attraction?