================================================================
Religion News Report - March 19, 2001 (Vol. 5, Issue 337)
================================================================

=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Aum Doomsday Cult Shadows Japan
2. Key Members of the Aum Cult

=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
3. Uganda Cult Mass Murder Anniversary
4. Up in smoke or into thin air? Uganda's killer cult leaders a year on

=== Ho-no-hana Sanpogyo
5. Taxman sinks boot into foot cult
6. Bureaus put foot down over Honohana taxes
7. Foot cult leader failed to declare 750 million yen in income

=== Falun Gong
8. Girl Set Ablaze in Tiananmen Dies
9. Exhibition Targeting Falun Gong Begins in Hong Kong
10. Falun Gong puts spotlight on HK civil servants
11. Analysis: US, China still clash on Falun Gong

=== Scientology
12. Threat of Scientologists' Legal Wrath Prompts Slashdot to Censor a Posting
13. Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot
14. Slashdot buckles to Scientology loonies
15. Xenu Do, But Not on Slashdot
16. Holy? Or wholly without grounds

=== Buddhism
17. 'Buddha's hair' found in China

=== Islam
18. 400 Afghan clerics decided to destroy statues: Minister
19. Taliban Ways Under Question

=== Catholicism
20. Italy threatens to silence Vatican [Radio]
21. Few confessions

=== Mormonism
22. SLOC and the LDS Church downplay the church's involvement in the Olympics
23. From SLOC Leadership to Liquor, Church Has Long Had a Powerful Olympic Voice
24. Special Treatment for the Church?
25. Non-LDS Religious Leaders Cite Minimal Input
26. Courting Controversy
27. Sex change worshipper sues the Mormons

=== Hate Groups
28. Bertollini sues Coeur d'Alene newspaper
29. Parade foes to put best foot forward
30. Report Links Putin to Anti-Semitism
31. Estee Lauder's latest tangle
32. What's in a Name?

=== False Memory Syndrome
33. Jury awards family millions

=== Faith Healing
34. Senate Panel Backs Faith-Healing Ban When Kids At Risk
35. Mandatory medical aid for sick kids gets committee OK

=== Other News
36. Atheist leader's remains found on Texas ranch
37. China Extends Cult Crackdown to Protestants, Says Rights Group
38. Sect Not Allowed to Build Cult Hall [Universal Church of the Kingdom of God]
39. Man Shot Dead As Bulletproof Magic Fails
40. Moscow police make arrest in multiple murder
41. Poles rethink anti-sect moves after minority church complaints
42. Appeals court says Ohio motto is acceptable

=== Faith-Based & Community Initiatives
43. Conservatives call for ouster of director of faith-based charities


=== Ho-no-hana Sanpogyo

5. Taxman sinks boot into foot cult
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Mar. 17, 2001
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Foot-reading cult Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo, whose leader Hogen Fukunaga faces charges of fraud, has been slapped with tax penalties exceeding 400 million yen, sources said Friday.

The cult was penalized after failing to collect taxes on payments it made to 55-year-old Fukunaga and several other Ho-no-Hana executives, and slapped with heavy additional taxes, apparently for attempting to conceal the payments.

In addition, Fukunaga was personally ordered by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau to pay taxes exceeding 20 million yen for failing to declare 750 million yen he collected from the cult up until 1999.
(...)

Tax officials said the organization falsified its accounts to hide the money, leading them to impose heavy additional taxes on the religious organization.

It is not the first time Ho-no-Hana has been penalized for dodging taxes. In 1996, the cult was fined for failing to declare 2.63 billion yen in income.

Fukunaga was also penalized with heavy additional taxes and ordered to pay 400 million yen for not declaring 1.3 billion yen he raked in.

Sources close to the cult said the amount it collected from its adherents over 12 years totaled about 90 billion yen. It reportedly gathered a further 10 billion yen from the 24 companies it ran.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. Bureaus put foot down over Honohana taxes
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Mar. 17, 2001
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) According to the sources, the cult tried to avoid criticism of the self-styled guru's high-rolling income by included his entertainment expenses and rent on the cult's list of expense-account spending.
(...)

Both Fukunaga and his cult were inspected by the bureaus in 1996. The bureaus discovered that the group had paid 2.6 billion yen for its leaders' personal expenses, including 700 million yen in rent for a luxury apartment rented by Fukunaga and his family as well as for a one-month stay at a first-class hotel. They determined that these perks in fact constituted salary and found the cult guilty of failing to report part of the salary paid to Fukunaga.

According to the sources, this time around the bureaus decided that the cult's action constituted intentional tax evasion because it had continued trying to pass off entertainment expenses for Fukunaga and his family as business expenses, despite the bureaus' warnings in 1996.

Since that date, the cult has been under fire by former believers who have filed lawsuits against it demanding a return of fees donated for ''religious training.''

Because Fukunaga has been criticized in these trials for his high personal expenses, he tried to avoid further such criticism by having the cult use inventive accountancy, the sources said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Foot cult leader failed to declare 750 million yen in income
Japan Times (Japan), Mar. 17, 2001
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Fukunaga is now on trial for fraud; he is denying the charges.

Fukunaga, who was born Teruyoshi Fukunaga, started preaching in 1980, claiming to be the world's final savior following Jesus Christ and Buddha. He based his claim on what he called the ''voice of heaven.''

He has claimed he can read people's past and future by examining the soles of their feet. He resigned as the leader of Honohana in January. Honohana has said it once had about 30,000 members.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]
» Back to menu