REPORT: Scientology loses captain of its Florida ‘spiritual mecca,’ a fundraising marvel

A couple of our best sources reached out to us this week to let us know they’ve heard something interesting that is coming out of Scientology’s “spiritual mecca,” the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.

This is the place where Scientology leader David Miscavige has been seen most often recently (according to legal filings and Scientology’s own publications), but it’s also the financial engine for the Scientology empire.

Wealthy Scientologists from around the world know they can only get certain high-level processes and auditing at the Flag Land Base, and so they fly in for weeks at a time and spend boatloads of money there. Former executives tell us that the Flag Land Base takes in more money in a week than the rest of Scientology’s facilities around the world combined.

So you can imagine that one of the most important positions in the Scientology universe is the “Captain FSO,” the person who runs the Flag Service Organization, which runs the Flag Land Base.

Years ago, that person was Debbie Cook. And her leaving that position and then going out to her fellow church members with complaints about the leadership of Miscavige in 2012 was a watershed in Scientology history.

She was replaced as Captain FSO by a man named Harvey Jacques (pronounced “Jakes”), who has been in the position for the last decade. Our sources are now telling us, however, that he died in December October.

Like we said, this is a major position in Scientology, and the passing of the Captain FSO is a big deal in Scientology. But don’t expect the secretive organization to say anything publicly about this development, or a word about its esteem for someone who held such an important position for so long.

For our own part, we’re going to remember Harvey Jacques by recalling some rather astounding videos of the man in action that we posted at the Village Voice way back in 2011.

What a different world Scientology was then! It was still having major international events, and at those events large gatherings of Scientologists were being “regged” for huge amounts of money. In a couple of videos, Jacques is seen working a room of Taiwanese Scientologists who have come to Clearwater to see in the new year of 2011.

Here’s how we described the videos at the Voice…

Here’s what we know about the video: It was taken at a New Year’s Eve party just as 2011 was about to start. Some Taiwanese Scientologists are having their own celebration at “Flag,” Scientology’s name for the church’s spiritual headquarters complex in Clearwater, Florida.

Nearing midnight, in wanders Harvey Jacques, Captain FSO of Clearwater. Jacques is one of the highest-ranking executives for the complex, and as he explains to the people at the party he has crashed, he has a problem.

As the SP Times stories have been demonstrating, executives like Jacques are given huge quotas in fundraising. Here, in the video, Jacques is quite honest about it: He has been charged with singlehandedly raising $5 million for the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) in the last two weeks of 2010. Now, with minutes left in the year, he still has $8,000 to raise.

“I can’t find it!” he tells the room. “I looked through the door, and I thought, thank God for Taiwan!”

He then works the room, trying to get enough people to fork over the money.

Give these brief videos a watch, and keep this in mind: This is a “church” in action.

Thankfully, these videos are still posted to YouTube, because they show what Scientology really is all about: money.

Harvey Jacques knew that. And he probably also knew that also knew that despite his around-the-clock dedication, he would not get even a mention from the organization after he fell in the line of duty.

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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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