Ongoing religious scandals

robindch

Unlike the RCC which is asset-rich, but (relatively) cash-poor, the Mormon church is both asset-rich and cash-rich. And goes to some lengths to hide it:

https://www.ft.com/content/ffc98d4b-ac6c-4c50-a1c3-a1368b191d0b (subscribers only)

Mormon church and its investment adviser fined by US regulators

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has fined the Mormon church and a non-profit organisation that manages its $32bn equity portfolio over attempts to conceal the scale of its investments. Ensign Peak Advisers, the investment firm owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), failed to file quarterly investment disclosures known as 13F forms and set up more than a dozen shell companies to help hide the size of the church’s equity portfolio, according to a statement released by the US regulator on Tuesday. “We allege that the LDS church’s investment manager, with the church’s knowledge, went to great lengths to avoid disclosing the church’s investments, depriving the commission and the investing public of accurate market information,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a statement. Ensign Peak has agreed to pay a $4mn penalty to settle the charges while the church will pay $1mn. Neither party admitted to any wrongdoing. The SEC’s order provides rare insight into how Ensign Peak, which is thought to manage more than $100bn on behalf of the Mormon church, seeks to keep its investments and their value hidden from public view.

ohnonotgmail

those tithings must really add up.

Hotblack Desiato

That's an absolutely obscene amount of money.

Hadn't heard of this guy before but chanced across this story:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63668818

A court in Turkey has sentenced a televangelist, who surrounded himself with young women he referred to as his "kittens", to 8,658 years in prison.

Adnan Oktar, who has been described as a cult leader, was convicted of sexual assault and abuse of minors.

Oktar, 66, fronted his own television channel, through which he delivered religious sermons.

He is a fierce opponent of the theory of evolution, and wrote a widely mocked book on creationism.

...

Oktar's views have earned him a degree of notoriety both in Turkey and abroad, having been arrested multiple times before 2018 and having spent time both in prison and a psychiatric unit over the years.

Multiple copies of his widely ridiculed book "the Atlas of Creation" were reportedly shipped unrequested to academics and libraries. In the book he claimed Darwin's theory of evolution lay at the root of global terrorism.

A lot of psychologically unwell people in the religion business.

robindch

Hadn't heard of this guy before [...]

Allah be praised! Oktar - still at it?

Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, showed up for the first time in A+A around 16 years ago by virtue of his role as a prominent creationist who, like the prominent creationist and convicted/imprisoned fraudster, Kent Hovind, was also convicted of fraud and imprisoned. Here in Ireland, Oktar received positive vibes from Kevin Myers, but few other people.

robindch

After the statute of limitations was extended for cases involving child sexual abuse, over two hundred new lawsuits were filed against the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, California. In a letter posted a few days back, Jaime Soto, Bishop of Sacramento, has suggested that this flood of new lawsuits may well see the diocese go bust.

https://www.scd.org/news/addressing-wounds-inflicted-clergy-abuse

Hotblack Desiato

Good. Bankruptcy is the only language they understand. Wish our government had had the 'testicular fortitutude'.

Hotblack Desiato

Christian Brothers being, to be blunt, bastards over legal action taken by abuse survivors.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/03/31/new-christian-brother-leader-adopts-same-legal-strategy-in-abuse-case-court-hears/

The recently appointed head of the Christian Brothers is adopting the same policy in relation to a sex abuse case as his predecessor, the High Court was told on Friday.

On Monday Mr Justice Tony O’Connor ordered that Brother David Gibson or his legal representative to appear before him to give his views in a case where a man is seeking damages arising from sex abuse by a member of the order.

The High Court was told in 2021 that the then head of the Christian Brothers, Brother Edmund Garvey, was not prepared to act as a nominee for the order for the purpose of the civil proceedings.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that unincorporated associations such as religious orders cannot be sued directly and that cases must be taken against the members of the order at the time of the alleged wrongdoing. Orders can select someone to act as its nominee if it chooses to do so, but the Christian Brothers has opted not to do so.

The plaintiff’s case was initiated four years ago. Two years ago the High Court directed the order to supply the plaintiff with the names of the members who were still alive and who were members of the order between particular dates, so they could be added as defendants.

The plaintiff was supplied with a list of 118 names and addresses. It has taken up to Monday of last week for the application to be heard to add the 118 names to the list of defendants in the case, Mr Nugent said.

Since Monday the plaintiff has been supplied with an updated list, which shows that 14 of the brothers on the original list have since died, and 45 have new addresses, Mr Nugent said.

Hardly surprising. Seems an effective frustrating and delaying tactic and eventually there'll be nobody left to sue and anything of value will have been hived off into some trust or other.

More on this:

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2023/03/25/christian-brothers-legal-strategy-making-order-a-bit-untouchable-says-lawyer-representing-abuse-claimants/

In 2017, in a case called Hickey vs McGowan where a claimant was seeking damages against the Marist order, the Supreme Court made it clear that “unincorporated associations” such as religious orders cannot themselves be sued as they do not have a distinct legal personality separate from their members. The court also said the surviving members of an order at the time of an alleged abuse could be found to be vicariously liable for any damages that were awarded.

Since that ruling, the Christian Brothers has adopted the legal position of choosing not to put forward a nominee who can act in court proceedings as a representative of the order, something that other congregations agree to do. The organisation has also made claimants go to court to get an order instructing it to name the members of the order at the time of the alleged abuse who are still alive. This process can involve so much time, effort and legal expense that some would-be claimants have decided to discontinue their claims, according to Ms Coleman.

“It is phenomenal trying to get everybody served [with legal papers] and the costs involved [are significant]”, she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of firms can’t take the cases on because the clients can’t pay and it is too high in terms of outlay for anybody to take on. So it makes [the Christian Brothers] a little bit untouchable.”

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/04/13/lord-mayor-writes-to-head-of-christian-brothers-criticising-legal-strategy/

The Lord Mayor of Dublin has written to the head of the Christian Brothers in Ireland saying the legal strategy being pursued by it when being sued by alleged victims of child abuse is a form of “double and secondary abuse”.

The letter follows a vote of the council at its April meeting and recent media coverage of the strategy being pursued by the order whereby it is choosing not to put forward a nominee to act for the Brothers for the purposes of litigation in the civil courts.

robindch

"So it makes [the Christian Brothers] a little bit untouchable.”

Should have signed off:

"The Christian Brothers' policy makes them, unlike abuse victims, untouchable.”

Hotblack Desiato

Not a religious scandal, but... wtf? From the long disgraced and recently deceased Rolf Harris:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_Can_Say_No

During the trial, it was learned that, while Harris was filming Kids Can Say No!, he was in the midst of a casual sexual relationship with his daughter Bindi's best friend and, by its release, he had committed nine of the twelve assaults.

Mm-hm. Talk about hiding in plain sight. Or trying to cover his tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIiNbBQM_Go&pp=ygUQNzBzIHRpbWUgY2Fwc3VsZQ%3D%3D

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/05/24/judgment-in-default-ordered-against-29-christian-brothers-unless-they-appear-before-next-abuse-case-sitting/

Looks like their evasive legal strategy will fail.

Retired CBS Westland Row principal and former Christian Brother Paul Hendrick on Wednesday in the criminal courts pleaded guilty to 11 counts of indecently assaulting plaintiff Kenneth Grace on dates between May 1980 and July 1984.

However, the civil action against members of the congregation, initiated four years ago, has been complicated by the legal strategy being adopted by the Christian Brothers.

The congregation has declined to put forward a nominee to be sued on its behalf. Most congregations defending such proceedings provide a nominee, although they are not obliged to do so.

If a congregation does not put forward a nominee, a plaintiff has to sue all of the members of the congregation at the time of the event for which damages are being sought.

Bunch of disreputable excuses for humans

Meanwhile their assets are in trusts...

Igotadose

Another RCC sex scandal in South America, this time it's another edition of the ongoing discoveries in Bolivia.

https://apnews.com/article/bolivia-church-abuse-pedophilia-despujol-pedrajas-b92660b896da436be0ba65d7ed2d33a9

Particular sardonic is that the priest in question here founded "Defense of Children International" in Bolivia. With defense like his, who needs offense?

robindch

The state of Illinois has just published a report on clerical sex abuse which documents the abuse of nearly 2,000 children by over 450 priests between 1940 and 2019. The report does not-self censor. Owing to the statute of limitations and the deaths of many of the perpetrators, few, if any, of these abusers will face justice.

https://clergyreport.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/

Pointedly, MSNBC published an opinion piece entitled "Rampant child sexual abuse is occurring in churches — not at drag shows".

https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/illinois-catholic-church-child-abuse-rcna86289

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65772615

A jury in Los Angeles has found US actor Danny Masterson guilty on two out of three counts of rape.

The star of That '70s Show, a TV series, faces up to 30 years in prison. He was led from court in handcuffs.

Three women, all former members of the Church of Scientology, accused the actor of sexual assault at his Hollywood home from 2001-03.

Prosecutors argued Masterson had relied on his status as a prominent Scientologist to avoid accountability.

...

At the time of the assaults, Masterson and all three of his accusers were Scientologists. Several of the women said it took them years to come forward because Church of Scientology officials discouraged them from reporting the rape to police.

Instead, they were forced to rely on the Church's "internal justice system", prosecutors said.

Scientology officials told one survivor she would be kicked out of the Church unless she signed a non-disclosure agreement and accepted a payment of $400,000 (£320,000), according to prosecutors.

Judge Charlaine Olmedo allowed both sides to discuss the dogma and practices of Scientology.

But Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told jurors during the trial: "The Church taught his victims, 'Rape isn't rape, you caused this, and above all, you are never allowed to go to law enforcement.'"

From his Wikipedia article (citations provided):

In August 2019, four women filed a lawsuit against Masterson and the Church of Scientology for stalking and harassment, stemming from their rape allegations. One plaintiff claimed her dog died from (unexplained) traumatic injuries to its trachea and esophagus, also alleging that church members chased her as she drove her car, filmed her without permission, harassed her online and posted ads to social media sites soliciting sex in her name. Another plaintiff stated that she and her neighbors observed a man snapping pictures from her driveway and later that night someone broke a window in her 13-year-old daughter's bedroom. Such stalking and harassment claims are indicative of a Scientology policy titled Fair Game, which the Church claims was cancelled by L. Ron Hubbard in 1968, yet the plaintiffs' lawyers claim it continues still against any detractors and ex–church members, through 'outsourcing' to private investigators and off-duty police officers.

Odhinn

Frank calls it what it is

"Apparitions of the Virgin Mary are “not always real”, Pope Francis has said, in what appears to be an indirect reference to a woman who drew thousands of pilgrims to a town near Rome to pray before a statue that she claimed shed tears of blood."

"The interview was aired a few days after residents in Trevignano called on Francis to intervene against Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla, who has been nicknamed “the Saint” and “clairvoyant”. For five years she has organised monthly ceremonies in a park overlooking Lake Bracciano where a statue of the Virgin Mary sits in a glass case."

"Scarpulla is facing a judicial investigation after a private investigator alleged that the blood stains on the statue came from a pig, and after some of her followers claimed they had been scammed."

"Scarpulla, who in the past had been convicted of bankruptcy fraud, created a foundation through which she collected donations, which she reportedly said would go towards setting up a centre for sick children. One man told La Repubblica that he and his wife had donated €123,000 (£106,000) to her foundation."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/04/virgin-mary-apparitions-not-always-real-says-pope-francis?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3sZDCxxxFc-OfvvSXK6FJl1wkx3dC2G_FxCsGQRXc9DrCdK35oV-XJFNo#Echobox=1685893168

Hotblack Desiato

Avoid fake scams, believe in only Catholic Church-approved scams!

Hotblack Desiato

Compensate abuse survivors? Nah, splash the cash on a cathedral instead:

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2023/06/22/dublin-to-finally-get-a-catholic-cathedral-under-church-plan-but-on-the-southside/

Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral, which has served Catholics in the capital for nearly 200 years, may be about to lose its current status and become a basilica under a diocesan plan, while St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row, south of the Liffey, would become the city’s cathedral.

The “Pro” always indicated the temporary nature of the cathedral at St Mary’s Church on Marlborough Street, pending the building of a new one.

Various sites were put forward over the years, including Merrion Square, the GPO and a site around the north end of Capel Street, but none of these schemes were progressed and the “Pro” remained the city’s principal Catholic church.

In a statement on Thursday, the Catholic Archdiocese said: “Dublin does not have a cathedral.”

Er, it has two actually... just don't mention the 'war'.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2023/06/23/ballaghaderreen-has-a-catholic-cathedral-so-why-has-dublin-never-had-one/

Dublin’s Catholic Pro Cathedral on Marlborough St in the city centre has always been a “Provisional” Cathedral, the intention being to build a “proper” one when time and money allowed. Even the formidable John Charles McQuaid, who became Archbishop of Dublin in 1940, was frustrated in his efforts to build a cathedral on a grand scale and worthy of the capital of what was then most assuredly a Catholic country at Dublin’s Merrion Square.

A site there was bought by the Church in 1930 for the princely sum of £100,000. However, most of the funds collected for the building of a new cathedral at Merrion Square ended up being spent on new churches in the rapidly growing archdiocese.

Then, in 1974, McQuaid’s successor Archbishop Dermot Ryan transferred ownership of the Merrion Square site to the city of Dublin, which opened it to the public and renamed it Archbishop Ryan Park. Following publication in 2009 of the Murphy report, into the handling of clerical child sexual abuse cases in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese, in which Archbishop Ryan was criticised, it was renamed Merrion Square Park by the City Council.

Really glad they didn't do that...

Following the Easter Rising of 1916 it was even suggested that the burnt-out GPO might be a suitable location for Dublin’s Catholic cathedral, a view supported by W T Cosgrave, then president of the executive council of the Irish Free State.

...and really glad they didn't do that!

But yeah. Priorities. Farrell has talked about the need to downsize the corporate presence in Dublin as it were, and now he wants to do this?

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275229#Comment_120275229

I pray all night I pray all day I pray the bills will go away

Ain't it sad

And still there never seems to be a trust fund set up just for me

That's too bad

In my dreams I have a plan

If I got me a rich churchman

I wouldn't have to work at all

I'd bake cookies and have a ball

Money money money

It sure smells funny

In a cash-rich church

Money money money

Morals scummy

It's a cash-rich church

Ahaaa, aaa-ha-haaa

All the things they can do

Cause they have a lot of money

It's a cash-rich church

Funds like that are hard to find

I just can't get it off my mind

Ain't it sad?

But then I found out - entry's free

The Mormon church is just for me

Not too bad!

So I must leave, I have to go

To Salt Lake City or somewhere so

I'll win a fortune in the game

Polygamy, it's all the same

Money money money

It sure smells funny

In a cash-rich church

Money money money

Morals scummy

It's a cash-rich church

Ahaaa, aaa-ha-haaa

All the things they can do

Cause they have a lot of money

It's a cash-rich church

robindch

An unknown number of UK citizens were sent to Mother and Baby homes in Ireland:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66031767

"Several organisations in the UK, which have been named by researchers as being linked to repatriations, did not respond to requests for comment."

Plus ça change.

Odhinn

"Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family. "

"Despite dowries - both giving and accepting - being illegal for more than 60 years, 90% of Indian marriages involve them - according to a recent study. Payments between 1950 and 1999 amounted to a quarter of a trillion dollars."

"According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 - an average of 20 women a day - for bringing in insufficient dowry."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66084575

Odhinn

filthy bastards still at it

"The Christian Brothers have transferred property so it is now beyond the reach of a man seeking damages for historical sex abuse, it has been claimed.

The claim, which is denied, was made on Tuesday in the High Court in relation to land in Glasnevin, Dublin; Mount Merrion, Dublin; a gate lodge on Griffith Avenue, Dublin 9; and number 10, Rosmeen Gardens, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin.

He outlined to the court four property transfers which, he said, had all taken place since the High Court proceedings were initiated in 2019. One property transfer took place in February of this year.

Because the congregation, which is not an incorporated entity, has opted not to put forward a nominee to be sued on its behalf, Mr Grace has had to sue more than one hundred mostly elderly Christian Brothers to advance his case. This has meant he has accumulated huge legal costs and has had to repeatedly return to court seeking new orders."

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/07/18/christian-brothers-hiding-assets-from-sex-abuse-victim-high-court-told/

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2023/0731/1397395-patrick-mcentee/

Canon McEntee is a former president of St Michael's College in Enniskillen, where he was a long-standing staff member.

Most recently he was parish priest of Dromore for more than 20 years.

He took a leave of absence from that role in March while, what was described as a "safeguarding issue", was addressed.

In a statement issued last week Clogher Diocese said Canon McEntee was on leave from ministry while the issue was addressed.

It said that would continue until "all due processes" had been concluded.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120927173#Comment_120927173

Doing the lawds work. Money provided by parishioners of course. Or taxpayers for the lawyers

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2023/07/30/spiritans-face-more-than-30-legal-cases-over-past-child-abuse/

The Spiritans are facing more than 30 civil cases filed in the High Court over past alleged child sexual abuse in schools run by the religious congregation, which could result in settlement costs running into the millions.

These and the other orders mentioned in the article deserve far more than mere bankruptcy, if it even comes to that...

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931710#Comment_120931710

RCC has endless money. Cost of doing business for them. The antics of the so-called Christian brothers warrant a legal challenge to prevent them from keeping up the delays. No hope that the RCC controlled Dail will do anything about it, though

Hotblack Desiato

Interesting look at the murky finances of the so-called Christian Brothers.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/08/08/christian-brothers-accused-of-trying-to-deal-with-abuse-legacy-as-cheaply-as-possible/

The congregation is still a wealthy organisation. The Charities Regulator website says the Christian Brothers in Ireland had an income of €7.3 million in the year to August 2021, expenditure of €6.2 million and assets of €66.25 million. No detailed accounts are published by the congregation, and it is not known how these asset values are calculated.

While the congregation no longer owns its network of schools, it does control a number of Irish companies with substantial assets. Richmond Newstreet CLG, Cantor Fitzgerald House, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, was incorporated in 1994 and includes Gibson and Garvey among its former directors. Its main object, according to its incorporation documents, is the care, education and evangelisation, within the Roman Catholic tradition, of people throughout the world, particularly the young. It also supports the formation and training of new brothers, and the financial needs of retired brothers.

The latest filed accounts for the company are for 2021 when it produced a surplus of €2.95 million, had an investment fund worth €22.6 million, and cash in the bank of €1 million. 

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987176#Comment_120987176

Not sure why a tie-up with Cantor Fitzgerald. I remember them from 9/11; their floors in the WTC were the ones directly hit by the plane that hit the North tower. They're a big-time investment firm. I doubt they give two rats about any organized religion other than the almighty $$$.

Hotblack Desiato

Pretty shocking stuff. Ryan remained a priest until 1990.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2023/09/23/the-padre-by-jennifer-oleary-a-priest-with-blood-on-his-hands/

Based on extensive interviews with Patrick Ryan, this is the previously untold story of the “Provo Priest” who, as the subtitle says, “armed the IRA with Gaddafi’s money”.

O’Leary outlines in detail the career of a man who started out giving money from collection boxes in Co Tipperary – meant for the missions – to the IRA and whose republican convictions, single-mindedness and sheer ruthlessness turned him into their “man” in Libya.

Ryan explains with disturbing pride how he adapted Memo Park timers – devices he saw Swiss drivers use to remind them their time on a parking meter was about to expire – to make the IRA’s bombs more reliable.

The IRA went on to use them in “scores” of attacks, including at Warrenpoint, Canary Wharf and in Brighton, when the IRA failed to assassinate Margaret Thatcher but killed four others.

He also obtained essential microswitches – without which the IRA would have been unable to continue its bombing campaign – which were used in Hyde Park and Regent’s Park in London, leading to a death toll of four soldiers, seven military bandsmen and seven horses.

Though Ryan’s is a remarkable story, it is also a chilling one: “The only regret I have was that I wasn’t more effective; that the bombs made with components I supplied, didn’t kill more.”

Hotblack Desiato

Trouble in the RCC's last European stronghold.

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/09/29/clerical-sex-scandals-in-poland-overshadow-catholic-synod-in-rome/

Last weekend Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak of southern Poland’s Sosnowiec diocese issued a pastoral letter apologising for “painful events” in the town of Dąbrowa Górnicza.

Though the bishop declined to go into details, several media reports suggest the “painful events” involved several of his priests at a party to which a male prostitute was also invited.

The gathering was “purely sexual in nature”, according to a source with knowledge of the event, to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

“Its participants took potency enhancement drugs,” the source added, “the party got out of control and the male prostitute lost consciousness.”

An ambulance was called but paramedics, when they were refused entry on arrival, had to call the police to force entry. Two investigations are now under way, involving a church commission and state prosecutors. Failure to assist someone in a medical emergency can result in a three-year prison sentence.

Gazeta Wyborcza said on Friday the priest is now on leave in Turkey from where he sent them a statement from his personal email, attacking reporting of the incident as exaggerated and an “attack on the church”.

“If something similar had happened to a person who was little known and had a different profession, was not a clergyman, it would not be an issue at all,” according to the statement printed in Gazeta Wyborcza.

Last March in the same diocese a 26-year-old deacon was stabbed to death and, hours later, a 45-year-old priest died in what local media reported was a crime of passion murder-suicide.

Another priest took his own life last month in northern Poland after it was revealed that he had been fined for an indecent act on a public beach.

In March, a new book and television documentary claimed Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, had covered up priest child abusers during his time as archbishop of communist-era Krakow.

Defenders of the late pope, still highly revered in his homeland, have dismissed the allegations. Coming after years of sleaze revelations about senior bishops, a steady stream of sex abuse allegations and controversy over abortion restrictions, new census figures suggest ordinary Poles are voting with their feet.

The proportion of Poles who identify as Roman Catholic has dropped to 71 per cent, down from 88 per cent a decade earlier. In total 6.6 million Poles no longer identify as Catholic; the proportion say they belong to no faith has tripled to nearly 7 per cent; the number who refused to answer the question also tripled, to 20.5 per cent.

A recent poll showed the number of regularly practising Catholics has dropped to 43 per cent, down to 23 per cent among young people.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/10/16/former-christian-brother-80s-jailed-for-sexual-abuse-of-former-students-at-kilkenny-school-in-1970s/

A former Christian Brother has been sentenced to 4½ years in jail for the sexual abuse of 19 former students of a Co Kilkenny school in the 1970s.

Liam Coughlan (87), who is already in prison having been found guilty of the abuse of other boys in a trial earlier this year, is to serve the latest sentence from today.

The Garda investigation that led to the conviction started in 2010 and involved interviews with hundreds of the man’s former students, the victim said. Sample cases were then taken for the purposes of the prosecution.

“It was the sheer scale of it,” he said. “The guards told me there were as many as 400 victims in this.”