Lawsuit Alleges Scientology Misspent Donations For Clearwater Building

Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:50 p.m. to include comment from the Church of Scientology.

A federal lawsuit alleges the Church of Scientology misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from a California couple that were intended to construct a new building in Clearwater, TBO.com reports.

The suit, filed by Luis A. Garcia Saz and his wife, Maria Del Rocio Burgos Garcia, at Tampa's federal courthouse Wednesday, claims the couple gave $320,000 to the church toward the construction of its "Super Power" building that remains incomplete more than 14 years after a groundbreaking ceremony. The suit alleges less than half of the total $200 million in contributions for the downtown building have been spent on construction, TBO reports.

Five church entities in Clearwater are named in the suit, according to TBO.

Attorneys for the couple told the news site they expect similar lawsuits to be filed by former church members alleging fraud, unfair deceptive trade practices and breach of contract.

"The Church has not been served and has no comment," said Pat Harney, spokesperson for the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organiztion, in an email to Patch. "However, we understand from media inquiries this has something to do with fundraising and we can unequivocally state all funds solicited are used for the charitable and religious purposes for which they were donated."

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