The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

20
NEW SOLIDARITY March 13, 1981 Page 4 The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas by Sanford Roberts A fight is raging in the Hare Krishna cult, reports the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 15, among three top gurus, Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, Ramescara Swami, and Hansadutta Swami (that is Keith Ham, Robert Grant, and Hans Kary, in plain English). The fight began when the founder of the cow- worshiping cult, A.C. Bakivedanta Swami Prabhvpada, passed into the great metaphysical beyond sometime during 1977. Whoever emerges as the top dog—or top cow—in this power struggle, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the real guru of the Krishnas is P. T. Barnum. Anyone who has seen the Krishna alms-beggars at the nation's public fairs,

description

Hare Krishna cultists are involved in deceptive practices, threats and violence, as well as drug- and gun-running.

Transcript of The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

Page 1: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

NEW SOLIDARITY March 13, 1981 Page 4

The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

by Sanford Roberts

A fight is raging in the Hare Krishna cult, reports the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 15, among three top gurus, Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, Ramescara Swami, and Hansadutta Swami (that is Keith Ham, Robert Grant, and Hans Kary, in plain English). The fight began when the founder of the cow-worshiping cult, A.C. Bakivedanta Swami Prabhvpada, passed into the great metaphysical beyond sometime during 1977. Whoever emerges as the top dog—or top cow—in this power struggle, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the real guru of the Krishnas is P. T. Barnum. Anyone who has seen the Krishna alms-beggars at the nation's public fairs, transportation depots, and street corners, will quickly recognize the P. T. Barnum dictum: "There's a sucker born every minute."

Court records in California, Texas, New York, Maryland, and other states reveal that the Krishnas alms-begging is a swindle against the public—with the added advantage, that as a "religious organization," the Krishnas rakes it all in tax-free.

Page 2: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

When more benign methods fail, the Krishnas resort to tactics akin to the mafia: they employ goons to "squeeze" the money out of their victims.

The record of fraud by this tax-exempt "religious organization" is staggering.

But the Krishna fraud out on the streets is only the most overt aspect of a long list of documented illicit activity.

Law enforcement agencies estimate that arrests of individual Krishna cult members account for $50 million in illegal narcotics confiscated.

The organization's structure and cash flow pattern make it a perfect vehicle for laundering drug money. Bank tellers across the country can attest that the Krishnas frequently make huge cash deposits in major U.S. banks daily. Aside from narcotics, Krishna devotees have been arrested on charges ranging from smuggling to grand theft, illegal weapons possession, and murder.

Courts Hit Krishna Frauds

Now, a series of court cases and judgments against the Krishnas threatens to end the public side of their swindling of the general public.

Most recent is a case involving the Krishnas and the International Caucus of Labor Committees, a political cadre organization founded by Lyndon LaRouche, which ran up against Krishna goon tactics at airports around the country, where the ICLC organizes for nuclear energy development in the United States.

In late November, to counter Krishna harassment, the ICLC began circulating leaflets to inform airport travelers about the cult's violent modus operandi, and its criminal police record. The cult reacted by upping its threats and assaults against ICLC members.

The case came to court in Los Angeles, headquarters for guru Bobby Grant, where Krishnas waged a two-month campaign of assaults against ICLC organizers. Yet it was the Krishnas who filed a suit for a Temporary Restraining Order and preliminary injunction against Los Angeles ICLCers. The case, Garrison vs. USLP, was filed Feb. 13 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Page 3: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

The Krishnas claimed that the ICLC leaflets exposing its activities violated the cult's First Amendment rights. The cult's declaration to the court, however, presented no evidence of such violations and instead painted a picture of the strain produced in Krishna cult members by the ICLCers' pointed jokes about their cultish obsessions.

Threaten ICLC Members

The ICLC Declarations, on the other hand, document systematic thuggery perpetrated by the cult.

In response to the Krishna suit, the ICLC filed a Motion to Dismiss and a Cross-Complaint detailing a two-month campaign of Krishna violence against the ICLC. Consider the Declaration of Maureen Pike:

On Thursday February 5, 1981, at the Continental Air Lines Terminal at LAX [Los Angeles Airport] I was assaulted by Krishna member Glen Covin. Covin was with another Krishna member named Nick Theolet. The time was approximately 5:00 PM.

I was distributing the attached leaflet informing the public of Judge Munson's decision, as well as the involvement of leading Krishnas in gun and drug smuggling. Theolet was yelling at me loudly when, as I looked at him. Covin grabbed my clipboard from me and pushed me away by striking me in the arm. I grabbed the clipboard back. Covin then tore all the papers off my clipboard and ripped them up. I attempted to grab them back.

Covin then struck me again, and rushed at me and shoved me several times. He then turned and fled down the escalator.

Another ICLC organizer, Daniel Platt, stated in his Declaration that at the airport:

At no time did I hear them [the Krishnas] identify themselves as a wide array of different things, and the women in particular said they were seeking donations for anything from "helping starving children" to "the hostages" to "plane fare to get back to school." . . . I have observed a pattern of Iskcon members

Page 4: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

seeking out people who seemed confused or easily intimidated to use.

One morning in late January I was a LAX terminal 6 when Iskcon member Nick Theolet approached me, made a reference to our informational leafleting campaign, and then, standing very close to me in an intimidating fashion, said, "You can't back up what you say but I can back up what I say. You better hope I never meet you out on the street."

At the San Diego Airport, ICLCer Douglas Mallouk reported the following Krishna thuggery:

Most of their time was spent badgering and threatening us, saying "you should not have distributed that flyer" [referring to the leaflet which outlined the Krishna connections to drug trafficking]. Also, they said "You're dead in this town" and "you'll never sell another magazine." The tall one said "we have ways of paying you back. . . . They continued this for hours, shouting and going so far as following us into the cafeteria when we took lunch.

At one point we attempted to break up this chaotic threatening situation with 7 or 8 Krishna members congregating around us by splitting up. I moved to the airport's West Terminal about 100 yards away. Three Krishna members followed me, including the tall one, I asked him if he had been recruited to the Krishnas while in the military. His response was "Yes, I was a demolitions expert. I'm a killer. The last time we had trouble like this I took a guy and smashed his lip against a curb; his mouth was bleeding; I put his balls in a vise and squeezed." The Krishna then shrieked, imitating the sound of his victim. He continued, "We have ways of dealing with you."

The Krishnas continued their harassment of the organizers with taunts and threats. These incidents take on an ominous coloration in light of the Krishna's record of violence and crime. In 1978, cultist Alexander Kulik was arrested for the gangland-style slaying of Stephen Bovan. Some sources report that Bovan had been collaborating with investigators scrutinizing Krishna drug and gun running in the southern California area.

Page 5: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

Other Krishnas have been indicted for running a ring that specialized in purchasing high-powered rifles and automatic weapons. In a spring 1980 raid on a 400-acre Iskcon commune in Lake County, California police found a cache of illegal weapons, including machines guns. At the Krishna temple in West Virginia, arms stockpiling has alarmed local police officials. Said Sgt. Thomas Westfall of the Marshall County Sheriff's Department, "one of my biggest concerns is finding out exactly how many weapons they have and why."

With this criminal history in mind, the defendants in the Garrison v. USLP view the Krishna submissions as overt threats of further, escalating violence. Among such threats is one communicated in the rather unconventional form of a Plaintiffs' Memorandum of Law. On page 13 of that Memo, plaintiffs state: "The health and safety of the public is directly threatened by defendants conduct because that conduct is very close to achieving its goal by causing devotees to discard their characteristic serenity and abate the nuisance themselves. Brawls and riots in LAX are not consistent with public health and safety."

Krishna Declarations contain similar veiled threats. One Krishna declared, "I fear that violence may erupt between my friends in the society and the Nukes which endangers not only us but the members of the public as well." An examination of the Declarations filed on both sides shows that the Krishnas do not and cannot complain of a single, solitary incident of ICLC violence or threat of violence, while the ICLC effectively documents numerous Krishna threats and several assaults as well.

Because of its record of violence and harassment, the Krishna cult has already been enjoined from carrying out the very activities that they are still engaged in at Los Angeles airport. On Sept. 1979, the City of Los Angeles obtained a preliminary injunction proscribing the Krishnas from misrepre-senting themselves, failing to give change, harassing passers-by, and "threatening that any solicitor or other person will inflict physical injury or death to any member of the public."

If We Told Them, They Wouldn't Give

In general, the Krishnas employ thuggery only after fraud has failed. The Krishnas prefer to fleece gullible, unsuspecting passers-by by telling them that donations will go to "the children" or to victims of "muscular dystrophy," or to aid "drug addicts," or any convenient lie. Only when the

Page 6: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

Krishnas' target refuses to fail for the swindle to the goons usually step forward to "assist" the victim in coughing up his contribution.

NSIPS/Stuart Lewis

Krishna follower begs alms on the street.

The thugs make the first move, however, against airline and public employees who try to warn the public about the Krishna scams. One Western Airlines employee was beaten to a pulp by two Krishna goons with brass knuckles. The man was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment, and received 44 stitches inside his mouth, 12 on his face, and had three wired to his lower gums.

Page 7: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

Another airline employee who witnessed the full repertoire of Krishna scams reported the following in his Declaration:

I have been told by a Hare Krishna solicitor by the name of "Rosi" that the Hare Krishna solicitors quit wearing their distinctive gowns "because people won't give any money if they know we are Hare Krishna." The Hare Krishna solicitor named "Rosi" responded to my question "why don't you tell people you're Hare Krishna" by stating that "if we told them they wouldn't give";

People who refused to give money to the Hare Krishna solicitor are often called names by the solicitors in an apparent attempt to embarrass them and intimidate others into giving. Approximately 20 people per day complain to me about the Hare Krishna solicitation techniques; . . .

I put up a hand-made sign to the effect that Hare Krishna devotees are soliciting in the Airport. "You do not have to give them any money. Please save your money."

For this, the woman was threatened with death on two separate occasions and repeatedly harassed by Iskcon devotees and their lawyers.

So prone to violence are the brazen Krishna con men that even airline employees who merely got in their way have been brutally beaten. When a custodian at Los Angeles airport asked the cultists to move a box of their books, he was assaulted by two of their hoodlums. The custodian recounts the incident as follows:

Immediately, the smaller of the two Hare Krishna members began to push me with one hand on my chest saying "what about the passengers, do they have to move their suitcases." . . . The smaller member continued to push me back towards the larger member. I said several times, "I'm sorry, please leave me alone" but they continued to push me. The taller Hare Krishna member then hit me in the back of the head from behind.

Page 8: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

The custodian eventually placed the larger Krishna under arrest for assault and battery. But, for this action he was continually surveilled for four days by the Krishna goon squads.

The constant practice of fraud, harassment, and violence at Los Angeles airport is only one example of a situation that has aroused the ire of police, administrative officials, and the general public. For several years, Iskcon's bag of cheap con tricks backed up by brute force intimidation has been given the full protection of the First Amendment. Now, thanks to the hard work of the New York State Attorney General's office and the courage of a federal judge, the days of this Krishna racket could be numbered.

Since the early 1970s, the Krishnas have litigated their way into numerous public forums in the United States, including airports, state fairs, national parks and so forth. Krishna attorneys like to portray the Iskcon devotees as the present-day Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious sect which legally opened a number of small American towns for proselytizing during the 1930s and 1940s. This comparison is as much of a fraud as the conduct of the Krishnas generally. The Witnesses gained notoriety because their door-to-door proselytizing methods were often found disputatious and offensive—but no one accused them of running a con game, or of assaulting those who refused to be conned.

But on Aug. 25, 1980, Judge Howard Munson, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in New York's Northern District blew the whistle on the Krishna conspiracy to defraud the public. In the case of Iskcon v. Barber, Judge Munson decided that the Krishna cult could be confined to a booth at the New York State Fair. More importantly, Iskcon v. Barber is the most thorough judicial examination of the soliciting practices of the Hare Krishnas.

The record of that case is a shocking revelation of premeditated law-breaking by the cult. In his opinion, Judge Munson identifies the Krishna collusion to commit fraud and the softness of various courts and public officials that protects the Iskcon thievery:

Plaintiffs have made little, if any attempt to control its members or to bring these incidents to a halt. Quite the contrary, the Krishnas have condoned such practices by using experienced "thieves" to teach its newer members how to solicit money from the public in exactly the same way. Instead of removing

Page 9: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

individuals who are known to he Krishna Society as being repeat offenders or overly aggressive, the Krishnas have continued to accept the fruits of such solicitation methods for its own commercial gain, all under the "cloak" of being a religion. There are two reasons why this practice continues today; the first has been discussed immediately above and the second is that the regulatory methods employed in the past by various government officials and courts have facilitated the Krishnas in perpetuating their illicit acts. Both government regulations and court orders restricting their conduct have been flagrantly violated . . . with unabashed arrogance. The liaison system proposed by plaintiffs as a less restrictive alternative is a sham. This Court finds little use in so-called "informal" dispute resolution methods which merely serves as a means to keep criminal recidivists from receiving the full measure of criminal justice. Such a device is not what rightfully should be considered a useful "social tool."

The evidence submitted at trial fully justifies Judge Munson's lack of faith in making agreements with the Krishna. According to testimony, the Krishnas consciously target the elderly, the handicapped, teenagers, and others they see as easy marks. Krishnas frequently target couples with young children, who are usually unwilling to take their eyes off the children and will give the Krishna con men money simply to get them away. Servicemen are the specialty of female Krishnas who use sexual flirtation to obtain funds.

These targeting techniques are the product of Iskcon's training of their devotees in the art of thievery. It is manifestly clear—especially to the Krishnas—that almost no one would give money to the cult.

For this reason, deception is fundamental to the cult's financial existence. The contours of this calculated deception were recognized by Judge Munson in Iskcon v. Barber:

These are not isolated instances of accosting or misrepresent-ation, nor are they "speculative"; they are systematic, symp-tomatic, and patternistic.

Howard Munson is not the only federal judge who has refused to buy the Krishnas' claim that their religious proselytizing ("sankirtan" in Krishna lingo) is anything other than a vicious, sophisticated swindle.

Page 10: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

In the case of Iskcon v. State Fair of Texas, Federal district court Judge Patrick Higginbotham noted many of the same deceptive practices described in Munson's opinion:

The Krishnas have a very distinct dress and appearance. They shave their heads, leaving only a small ponytail and wear loose-fitting clothing of an Indian style. The change in the manner of their dress when soliciting at the fair is troubling. When these same persons, so obviously demonstrative in their faith, wish to solicit money at the fair, they don wigs and ordinary street clothes presumably to conceal their identity. Moreover, the devotees do not reveal the Krishna membership to persons solicited unless asked. Even then the persons are told that they are affiliated with "Iskcon;" Krishna is not mentioned. More-over many of the devotees engaged in soliciting distribute no literature but hand out a flower, a piece of candy, or a small flag for which they seek a donation. The temple president explained that the "gift" avoids the immediate negative reaction of a person who is asked to contribute. The practice is rife with potential fraud. Moreover, it is difficult to understand how any proselytizing can occur when the advocate studiously avoids even his membership in Iskcon. There is little reason to go in disguise except to deceive. Iskcon replies that people will not give so readily if they are identified as Krishnas. This is more confession than justification.

Higginbotham concludes with a novel ruling. If the Krishnas want to practice sankirtan by roaming freely through the fairgrounds, he said, they must do so in full religious costume and reveal their purpose of solicitation. "But if they are to go in disguise and 'give away' flowers with no distinction of literature or disclosure of purpose, they must obtain a booth."

'Lacing Medicine with Sugar'

But if the federal judiciary's verdict were not enough to convince anyone that this tax-exempt "religious organization" is nothing but a con operation, the Krishna leaders admit it themselves!

In the Los Angeles Times article cited above, Krishna guru Keith Ham compared the Krishna soliciting technique to persuading a child "to take

Page 11: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

foul-tasting medicine by lacing it with sugar." Ham added that "Even if it is a little tricky, that isn't bad."

Just how tricky was revealed last October in San Francisco, when guru Hans Kary told a press conference. "I'm one of the 11 leaders of this church and I'm also fed up" with the Krishna scams.

An article in the Oct. 12, 1980 San Francisco Examiner quoted Kary on the fund-raising frauds: "Krishna women were being sent to the street to solicit funds solely for the sake of getting money and that included a slick "change-up" con game that involves a fast count in making change for large denomination bills is widespread." Kary also noted that "devotees" "were selling paraphernalia having little to do with religion."

What Hans Kary confessed last October is already well known to public officials and police across the country. Many officials are taking steps to combat the Krishna fraud by requiring the Krishnas to practice their "sankirtan" in the vicinity of a clearly identified booth. The Krishnas, who know that such a booth would enjoy the popularity of a leper colony, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs to litigate this issue alone, according to estimates.

As the Los Angeles Times article demonstrates, the Krishna cult is declining. With the passing of their "spiritual leader" in 1977, power has passed to a gang of bickering gurus. The demoralization is readily apparent. One ex-devotee put it this way: "We were supposed to accept the spiritual authority of the new gurus on a level equal with that of Prabhupada but I couldn't do that. I kept remembering when Ramescara and I were both devotees together I could never quite forget that he was not Prabhupada but Bobby Grant . . . from Roslyn, N.Y." The evidence presented in Los Angeles and elsewhere proves that the spiritual authority of Bobby Grant from Roslyn, N.Y. does not emanate from Lord Krishna but from such less ethereal beings as con artists and petty thugs.

Criminal Arrest Record—Dope and Death

The multimillion dollar proceeds of the Hare Krishna's myriad scams are completely tax exempt because of the Krishna's posture as a "religious organization." However, a glance at the log of violent and drug-related

Page 12: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

crimes committed by the Krishnas and their associates should by itself be ample cause for investigation and revocation of their tax exempt status.

NSIPS/Stuart Lewis

Every day at 2:45 PM, Krishna bag man accompanied by armed guard (front) delivers a satchel of cash to the Citibank branch on New York's West 56th St.

• On Oct. 22, 1977 Alexander Kulik, a partner in the Krishna's Prasadam Distributors trading company and a million dollar-plus contributor to the cult, was arrested for the gangland-style slaying earlier that day of Steven J. Bovan. Sources variously report that Bovan had a falling out with Kulik in a business deal, or that he was working with investigators looking into the role of the Krishna cult in drug and gun smuggling in California. Kulik was known locally as a large-scale cocaine dealer and an intimate of local hoods.

• In April 1979, Alexander Kulik's brother David Kulik was arrested in London for possession of 65 pounds of hashish oil—a highly concentrated form of the drug equated in potency and street value with cocaine.

• During the same period, seven other Krishnas, including the president of the Laguna Beach temple, were convicted for running a multimillion-dollar hashish oil smuggling ring. The drugs were smuggled by Krishna devotees in typewriter cases and other shipping crates out of Pakistan (where the cult

Page 13: The Bizarre Case of the Hare Krishnas

maintains a string of temples, farm communes, and restaurants) into southern California.

• Two Krishna officials are now in jail in Amsterdam, convicted for smuggling several pounds of pure heroin through the airport. One of the Krishnas was the president of the Tokyo temple.

• In Hawaii, Krishnas have been arrested for peddling pure morphine.

In sum, Krishna drug busts over the recent period have netted an estimated $50 million in confiscated illegal narcotics.