Fraud 1: Srila Prabhupada in July 1977, about 4 months before he left the planet, based on a specific question on the future of initiations in ISKCON after his physical departure, appointed eleven of his senior disciples to officiate on his behalf and initiate new disciples, who would be considered Srila Prabhupada’s disciples.
But in direct contravention of the Founder Acharya’s specific and clear institutional directive, these eleven ambitious, young disciples, fraudulently and unauthorizedly took up the position of Founder Acharya themselves and declared that they were the new “Prabhupadas”.
They divided the whole world into eleven zones amongst themselves and called themselves the corresponding Zonal Acharyas. This was the first fraud which went on till 1986, when it was exposed. And it was one of the biggest scams, from which originated all other frauds and scams in the movement.
Fraud 2: THE MULTIPLE ACHARYA SCAM
By 1986, five of the eleven self appointed “Acharya” fraud gurus had fallen from grace. One bigger scam after another rocked the movement from 1977 to 1986, with the holy men eloping with young girls, becoming drug addicts, landing up in jail for possession of illegal arms etc.
Unable to continue the fraud further, the “gurus” relented and it was established that this was the greatest disservice to the movement by them. However, in a master stroke, instead of going back to the original directive from the Founder Acharya to become only his representatives, the Zonal Acharyas inducted more new “gurus” and declared that not only they, but all others could also be made “gurus” on their authorization. The fraud continued.
Fraud 3: THE MURDER
By 1986, the rank and file devotees had started waking up. Sulochana Dasa, one of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, criticized the self – appointed Acharya fraud and started gathering evidence on what Srila Prabhupada had intended for his ISKCON Society from his letters and recorded conversations.
He was compiling his findings into a book titled, The Guru Business to expose this scam. When he was working on the last chapter of his book, one day in 1986, not very far from the ISKCON temple in Los Angeles, Sulochana Dasa was shot at point-blank range on the direction of Kirtanananda Swami – one of the original eleven fraud Zonal Acharyas!!
Later Kirtanananda Swami was convicted in 1991 and sent to prison in North Carolina to serve a thirty year sentence.
Fraud 4: CHILD ABUSE CRIMES
On June 12, 2000, 44 young adults filed a $400 million dollar damage suit against the fraud “gurus” for sexual, physical and emotional torture inflicted upon them as children. In the suit the Plaintiffs claimed they were sexually, physically and emotionally abused, along with hundreds of other children, who were kept during two decades at Hare Krishna’s boarding schools.
The suit, filed in the Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas, named the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS (ISKCON) as the lead defendant, along with sixteen other ISKCON entities and seventeen individual members of its GOVERNING BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS – all fraud “gurus”.
The Plaintiffs were from various cities in the United States, Canada and England. In February 2004, sensing that they were being cornered, ISKCON through its attorney David Liberman, filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying out the huge compensation. Finally, in November 2008, the fraud “gurus” settled with the plaintiffs – the child abuse victims – for $20 million.
Fraud 5: FALSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MADHU PANDIT DASA
Their sustained venomous rumours however, have neither dampened nor slowed the mega scale of the path breaking projects envisioned and launched by him, such as the Mega spiritual theme park in Bangalore and the multi crore cultural complex in Jaipur as well as the Akshaya Patra program which has grown from strength to strength.
Fraud 6: THE INTERNET CAMPAIGN
Further malevolent attempts have been launched with many anonymous blogs and websites with unsubstantiated mud slinging at Madhu Pandit Dasa.
The red herrings are another attempt to cover up the “guru” fraud and the subsequent scams in the movement. The strategy to misuse the power of the web to fraudulently launch a malicious libel campaign against Madhu Pandit Dasa for exposing their scam is sure to backfire with time as the truth will prevail.
But in direct contravention of the Founder Acharya’s specific and clear institutional directive, these eleven ambitious, young disciples, fraudulently and unauthorizedly took up the position of Founder Acharya themselves and declared that they were the new “Prabhupadas”.
They divided the whole world into eleven zones amongst themselves and called themselves the corresponding Zonal Acharyas. This was the first fraud which went on till 1986, when it was exposed. And it was one of the biggest scams, from which originated all other frauds and scams in the movement.
Fraud 2: THE MULTIPLE ACHARYA SCAM
By 1986, five of the eleven self appointed “Acharya” fraud gurus had fallen from grace. One bigger scam after another rocked the movement from 1977 to 1986, with the holy men eloping with young girls, becoming drug addicts, landing up in jail for possession of illegal arms etc.
Unable to continue the fraud further, the “gurus” relented and it was established that this was the greatest disservice to the movement by them. However, in a master stroke, instead of going back to the original directive from the Founder Acharya to become only his representatives, the Zonal Acharyas inducted more new “gurus” and declared that not only they, but all others could also be made “gurus” on their authorization. The fraud continued.
Fraud 3: THE MURDER
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| Kirtanananda Swami (the ghost hearted ) |
By 1986, the rank and file devotees had started waking up. Sulochana Dasa, one of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, criticized the self – appointed Acharya fraud and started gathering evidence on what Srila Prabhupada had intended for his ISKCON Society from his letters and recorded conversations.
He was compiling his findings into a book titled, The Guru Business to expose this scam. When he was working on the last chapter of his book, one day in 1986, not very far from the ISKCON temple in Los Angeles, Sulochana Dasa was shot at point-blank range on the direction of Kirtanananda Swami – one of the original eleven fraud Zonal Acharyas!!
Later Kirtanananda Swami was convicted in 1991 and sent to prison in North Carolina to serve a thirty year sentence.
Fraud 4: CHILD ABUSE CRIMES
On June 12, 2000, 44 young adults filed a $400 million dollar damage suit against the fraud “gurus” for sexual, physical and emotional torture inflicted upon them as children. In the suit the Plaintiffs claimed they were sexually, physically and emotionally abused, along with hundreds of other children, who were kept during two decades at Hare Krishna’s boarding schools.
The suit, filed in the Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas, named the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS (ISKCON) as the lead defendant, along with sixteen other ISKCON entities and seventeen individual members of its GOVERNING BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS – all fraud “gurus”.
The Plaintiffs were from various cities in the United States, Canada and England. In February 2004, sensing that they were being cornered, ISKCON through its attorney David Liberman, filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying out the huge compensation. Finally, in November 2008, the fraud “gurus” settled with the plaintiffs – the child abuse victims – for $20 million.
Fraud 5: FALSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MADHU PANDIT DASA
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| MADHU PANDIT DASA |
Intolerant of the success of Madhu Pandit Dasa and his crusade against the fraud “gurus”, a well calculated, malevolent campaign has been launched by them in the media and amongst the devotee community.
Unsubstantiated, anonymous rumours are being spread in the media and public with a devious motive to tarnish his stature and reputation, with the hope that this will dampen his crusade.Their sustained venomous rumours however, have neither dampened nor slowed the mega scale of the path breaking projects envisioned and launched by him, such as the Mega spiritual theme park in Bangalore and the multi crore cultural complex in Jaipur as well as the Akshaya Patra program which has grown from strength to strength.
Fraud 6: THE INTERNET CAMPAIGN
fraud blog named madhu bandit das
Further malevolent attempts have been launched with many anonymous blogs and websites with unsubstantiated mud slinging at Madhu Pandit Dasa.
The red herrings are another attempt to cover up the “guru” fraud and the subsequent scams in the movement. The strategy to misuse the power of the web to fraudulently launch a malicious libel campaign against Madhu Pandit Dasa for exposing their scam is sure to backfire with time as the truth will prevail.
