In 2000 , the German Stern magazine published the results of its investigation of the asylum case . It asserted that several rejection letters which the woman had submitted as part of her asylum application – ostensibly from potential employers who were rejecting her because she was a Scientologist – had in fact been written by fellow Scientologists at her request and that of Scientology 's Office of Special Affairs , and that she was in personal financial trouble and about to go on trial for tax evasion at the time she applied for asylum . On a 2000 visit to Clearwater , Florida , Ursula Caberta of the Scientology Task Force for the Hamburg Interior Authority likewise alleged that the asylum case had been part of an " orchestrated effort " by Scientology undertaken " for political gain " , and " a spectacular abuse of the U.S. system " . German expatriate Scientologists resident in Clearwater , in turn , accused Caberta of stoking a " hate campaign " in Germany that had " ruined the lives and fortunes of scores of Scientologists " and maintained that Scientologists had not " exaggerated their plight for political gain in the United States . " Mark Rathbun , a ( former ) top Church of Scientology official , said that although Scientology had not orchestrated the case , " it would have been nothing improper if it had . "