{"id":390,"date":"2022-04-06T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queersatanic.com\/?p=390"},"modified":"2022-04-06T20:53:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T03:53:00","slug":"this-invoice-reveals-the-inner-workings-of-the-satanic-temples-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qs.gehenna.ynh.fr\/?p=390","title":{"rendered":"This invoice reveals the inner workings of The Satanic Temple’s finances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two-thirds of donation money for Satanic veterans’ memorial in Belle Plaine remains largely unaccounted for, federal court documents reveal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you gave $1,000 to The Satanic Temple, how would you know where it ended up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we’ve talked about before<\/a>, that is a much more complicated question <\/em>than most people realize, but we recently got some help understanding what is standard operating procedure for the finances of the world’s most prominent Satanic organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came in the form of a single invoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a lot going on here, so we’ve marked it up in Green, Red, Magenta, Dark Blue, Yellow, and Light Blue highlights to make it more clear as we go through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Redacted<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let’s try to explain what’s going and why it’s so important, especially what it says about The Satanic Temple and its owners Doug “Lucien Greaves” Misicko and Cevin “Malcolm Jarry” Soling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, where does this invoice come from? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is only available to the public because of its inclusion as page 93 of Dk. 84-1<\/a> in Satanic Temple, The v. Belle Plaine, City of (0:19-cv-01122). If you’re at a desktop, you may want to have that open in another tab so you can follow along for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll let The Satanic Temple summarize the case for themselves:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Satanic Temple, Inc. (\u201cTST\u201d) sued the City of Belle Plaine
on allegations of speech suppression, religious discrimination, and promissory estoppel. The City opened a public forum in its park to accommodate a Christian monument, granted TST a right to participate, but closed the forum to exclude TST\u2019s Display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The District Court dismissed several claims at the pleading stage, ostensibly \u201cwithout prejudice.\u201d But the District Court denied every mechanism to revive the claims. On timeliness grounds, a magistrate denied leave to amend and refused leave to nonsuit the surviving claim. TST refiled the claims as a separate lawsuit, but the District Judge dismissed it because, it found, the Magistrate\u2019s order was a de facto dismissal with prejudice. The District Judge also announced an intention to sanction TST\u2019s attorneys for doing what is necessary to preserve TST\u2019s right of review.<\/p>\nThe Satanic Temple Inc.’s brief<\/a> filed to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And here’s the city of Belle Plaine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This case is about two resolutions passed by Belle Plaine. The Enacting Resolution created a limited public forum in the City Park. Months later, the Rescinding Resolution ended the limited public forum. This closure was consistent with the Enacting resolution, in which Belle Plaine expressly reserved the right to close the limited public forum. While it existed, Belle Plaine issued two permits under the Enacting Resolution. A director of the Temple received one of the permits. A local club received the other permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But unlike the local permit holder, the Temple did not place its display in the City Park while the opportunity existed.
The Rescinding Resolution applied equally to all. It closed the limited public forum for all. Belle Plaine\u2019s resolutions did not violate any constitutional rights. Nor did the resolutions violate RLUIPA. Further, the permit Belle Plaine granted did not constitute a promise that must be enforced to avoid injustice under the doctrine of promissory estoppel. The district court correctly ruled in Belle Plaine\u2019s favor on all claims and correctly dismissed the second lawsuit that the Temple filed later based on the same two resolutions and the same permit.<\/p>\nCity of Belle Plaine’s brief<\/a> filed to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
\""Doug<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Even in court documents, the name “Doug Misicko” is redacted, so we can’t guarantee that’s the name used for the blacked out region we highlighted green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Misicko is the government name of a man who regularly uses the pseudonyms “Doug Mesner” and “Lucien Greaves”, including official documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Ultimately under extensive questioning as “Lucien Greaves” and answering questions about if The Satanic Temple paid “Doug Mesner” a $4,000 fee for services, Doug Misicko admits, “It doesn’t matter either way. It was — it was a 4,000 dollar payment to — to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\nBy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>To most people, the fact that Lucien Greaves was talking about himself in the third person while being deposed (while under a pseudonym) would be a red flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fans of The Satanic Temple are made of sterner stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there’s always more, and it’s always worse. So far all we’ve addressed is who was receiving money: Doug Misicko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But moving to the magenta: where did that money come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Current<\/a>, IndieGoGo version of fundraiser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Archive.org<\/a> version of fundraiser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately<\/em>, this is an easy question to answer. An IndieGoGo (originally Generosity.com) fundraiser for a veterans monument in Belle Plaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proximately<\/em> it gets extraordinarily difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The archived screenshot on the right is from June 10, 2017. Notice how it says the total was raised by “283 people in 1 month<\/strong>“. Even if it counted “1 month” as up to “two months minus one day”, that would still be referencing a campaign start date no earlier than April 10, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, in red at the top right, that invoice says it was sent April 2, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Doug Misicko figured to pay himself $4,000 before any money came or they knew how it would be needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can actually compare revenue and expenses a little<\/em> bit because Reason Alliance filed a Form 990-EZ with the IRS for the 2017 calendar year. It describes its total program expenses as going to “encourage reasoning”\u2014while also claiming Doug Misicko got no compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we know. This is convoluted and involves reading a lot of boring paperwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s not confusing: The Satanic Temple hides their finances, shuffles money between various corporations without clear restrictions on its use, and the owners use pseudonyms while paying themselves<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our attempts to be precise, we often talk about “Reason Alliance Ltd.” and “United Federation of Churches LLC” as distinct entities. The former is nonprofit, the latter is for-profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, that is not how The Satanic Temple’s owners treat those entities or their money. For example, this check that is paid to the order of “Reason Alliance Ltd c\/o The Satanic Temple”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Belle<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Going back to reference the invoice at the top, the purple highlight should be easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“64 Bridge Street, Salem, MA 01970”, housed both Reason Alliance Ltd. and United Federation of Churches LLC at that time, plus more since. The most notable of these is 64 Bridge LLC<\/a>, a for-profit business owned solely by Cevin Soling that does business as the Salem Art Gallery<\/a> and presumably collects the money from the admissions to come in and see what’s inside the shared headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even literally, there\u2019s no distance between them, but this is also true with their money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later on, “Lucien Greaves” will just say that either he or Cevin Soling (“Malcolm”) are around enough to get all the mail for all the orgs that take mail at 64 Bridge Street, and they decide what to do with it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Q<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a>Solely or jointly responsible for all of these for-profits, nonprofits, and of their money, Lucien Geaves says “it really makes no — no difference to me<\/strong>” who officially applies for what since “we were clearly sending our application on behalf of the Satanic Temple either way<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\nQ<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a>Giving his deposition as “Malcolm Jarry”, Cevin Soling explained that “Reason Alliance is a nonprofit whose mission is to promote tenets of The Satanic Temple<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it’s tactically useful and easier to get insurance with their nonprofit instead of for-profit UFC LLC, then they do that.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a>There will be people who say, “So what? All businesses\/churches\/etc. do this”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mmhmm, the ones defrauding people and cheating on taxes, do this. But not all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Doug Misicko got paid $4,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He got paid $4,000 that ultimately came from people giving to a fundraiser they believed was intended to create a Veterans\u2019 Monument in Belle Plaine, but money was directly given to an IndieGoGo campaign under the name \u201cLucien Greaves\u201d, a trademark of UFC LLC<\/a>, and raised it for <\/em>Reason Alliance. But we can\u2019t really say that\u2019s where it went. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On sworn testimony, the two men who own and officially control all the money say they don\u2019t know where it went, either. More generally, they don\u2019t seem to treat Reason Alliance and United Federation of Churches (dba \u201cThe Satanic Temple\u201d) as distinct. That shows up in how they talk about it, how they received their $100 reimbursement from the city, and the main invoice we\u2019re examining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

But we\u2019re not done, because the invoice also says \u201cSpectacle Films Inc.\u201d (bottom center, light blue)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, it is not a secret that in 2012\/13, \u201cThe Satanic Temple\u201d was a prank film documentary. Cevin Soling and Doug Misicko stuck with it while David Guinan moved on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What the hell is \u201cThe Satanic Temple\u201d?\u200a\u2014\u200aEp. 2: Spectacle Films Inc<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about this, Cevin Soling says it must have been a mistake:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

And I must have taken an existing document that must have been in the footer of the document, and it should have been deleted. So it’s there erroneously.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
\"Q<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

(For the sake of brevity, we\u2019re skipping a line of questioning about a gap in the records The Satanic Temple provided Belle Plaine between the dates of March 2, 2017, and April 13, 2017. The date on this invoice, April 2, 2017, falls in between those two dates, but this is complicated enough already beyond noting the invoice preceded the work and the fundraising.)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Q
\"drafting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a>The excuse Cevin Soling gives is that he was just assisting<\/em> Lucien Greaves with drafting that invoice, and somehow Soling made an error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soling also notarized the application for the monument despite Doug Misicko signing it \u0337L\u0337u\u0337c\u0337i\u0337e\u0337n\u0337 \u0337G\u0337r\u0337e\u0337a\u0337v\u0337e\u0337s\u0337 “Doug Mesner”, up above, remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sloppy guy, that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Cevin Soling is the same guy who entered himself into the federal court record by:

> Pursuant to LCR 7.1, Plaintiff United Federation of Churches, LLC (dba \u201cThe Satanic Temple\u201d) states that it has the following members: Calvin Soling and Doug Misicko.https:\/\/t.co\/7yF3zam5iz<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/oeA7rdYfBL<\/a><\/p>— QueerSatanic is on hiatus (@QueerSatanic) April 6, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>