According to sources close to the case, the indicted are the boss of the company, two auditors and a consultant. They dispute the alleged facts, between 2013 and 2015, when they were then all Scientologists.
These indictments, pronounced between October and March, are the first in this eight-year-old case.
In a June 2014 complaint, a dozen employees of Arcadia, a company specializing in the development of attics based in Voisins-le-Bretonneux (Yvelines), south-west of Paris, believed that the management of their company had been "infiltrated" by Scientologists to "loot it financially".
They claimed they had been forced into training by Scientologists, suffered "psychological subjection" and "bashing by the business team".
On June 30, 2014, the company went into insolvency. A preliminary investigation was opened in Versailles in July 2014, then an investigation in August 2015.
Last January, the boss of Arcadia was indicted for "moral harassment", "complicity in bankruptcy" and "abuse of corporate assets". The investigating judge interrogated him in particular on the use of concepts of the Church of Scientology within his company and on the heavy bills paid to listeners while Arcadia's financial situation worsened.
"My client has two enemies in this case," defended his lawyer, Marc Bensimhon. On the one hand, "the twelve employees" complainants who had, according to him, "fomented the idea of bringing down the company" and some of whom created, in 2015, a company in the same sector.
Contacted, their lawyer, Me Olivier Morice, declined to comment.
And on the other hand, said Me Bensimhon, the two auditors who "looted the company" and fooled his boss.
Did the membership of the listeners in the Church of Scientology play a role in the place that the boss quickly granted them? “None,” replied the latter, aged 67, to the judge, assuring that his beliefs were strictly personal.
"Understanding the Mind"
The boss says he first used an auditor for his carpentry skills. This auditor, who also provided "communication training" to salespeople, was indicted in November for "harassment", "concealment of bankruptcy" and "abuse of corporate assets".
“Eight years after the opening of the investigation”, this indictment “raises serious questions as to the consistency of the file”, declared his lawyer, Me Thomas Heintz, contacted by AFP.
This technical auditor then recommended a financial auditor, also a Scientologist, who had access to the bank transfer codes. He was indicted in October for "bankruptcy", "abuse of corporate assets" and "moral harassment".
This change in status will allow him "to finally be able to defend himself", believes his lawyer, Me Noémie Saidi-Cottier, for whom the case is based on an "instrumentalization of Scientology" while the case is more of a "conflict about the takeover of a company" between boss and employees.
Before the judge, the listeners said they had been "laid off" by the Church of Scientology.
The fourth indicted, for "complicity in moral harassment", is a consultant who introduced the boss to Scientology and who carried out psychological tests when recruiting to find out if the candidates were "pro or anti-business culture".
In March, he explained to the judge that he was "trained to understand the mind" thanks to "training in Scientology".
He disputes the alleged facts, according to his lawyer Raphaël Mayet, who sees in this procedure a "form of fight against the Church of Scientology".
This movement, founded in 1952-1953 by L. Ron Hubbard, estimates that it has approximately "40.000 to 45.000 members in all categories in France". It is monitored by the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Cults (Miviludes), which considers it a sect.