Written by Be Scofield, founder of The Guru / bescofield.com
UPDATE 12/17/19: In addition to the lawsuit & smear campaign, Aaravindha has now hired a private investigator who is calling my former classmates looking for dirt on me and, in total, spent 7 months investigating me.
October 14th, 2019
On August 17th, I visited the FBI bureau in San Diego and reported a cyberstalking, harassment, and smear campaign by the cult leader Aaravindha Himadra. Just a few weeks after I exposed him for the murder of his student, two websites appeared online smearing me as a fugitive on the run from police, a sociopath, a hate cult leader, a rapist, an attempted murderer, pedophile and a druggie who is being secretly funded by foreign entities.
He also targeted a cult reporter named Anke Richter, who had covered my work, on the same sites. He compared her to Hitler and said she is a “serpent” with the “dark soul of a conniving banshee.” Aaravindha also threatened to sue a newspaper that published Anke Richter’s story about me, as it mentioned my reporting on him.
I also immediately informed my attorneys Ambika Doran and Tim Cunningham, of Davis Wright Tremaine, of everything, including the story "Is Be Scofield, Gurumag.com Blogger a Pedophile?” I shared this story claiming I'm a pedophile with the FBI as well. Tim and Ambika are representing me from Aaravindha’s $250,000 lawsuit and have been very supportive, despite the smear campaign.
When I interviewed Aaravindha, he warned me at the end of the call he would slander me if I went forward with the story. He's now pulled from Scientology's "Fair Game" tactics to try and defame me.
Aaravindha hired ghostwriter and background researcher Alexander Fred—who had written a piece for Bentinho Massaro attacking me—to set up these sites and write numerous fake news stories and hit pieces. He was following me on Facebook for years. I recently got a 15-second blank phone call from his exact location in Beavercreek, Ohio. He's also repeatedly acted highly aggressively toward me in Facebook comments and shared several of these defamatory articles.
I published my expose about Aaravindha Himadra on January 24th, 2019. On February 8th, I was first notified he was suing me. The two defamatory sites with articles wondering if "Be Scofield is a pedophile" appeared on February 14th and 19th. The two articles defaming Anke Richter appeared on August 6th and September 28th, after she had covered my work.
The fact that a cult would try to smear me as a pedophile is unsurprising. There are dozens of examples of journalists, lawyers, and activists who have been targeted by cults with smears of pedophilia, sexual perversions, abuse, and drug use. Some have been killed or faced violence or decades-long harassment campaigns.
Paulette Cooper, who took on Scientology, had 300 letters sent to neighbors accusing her of sexually molesting a baby girl and being a prostitute. Jon Atack took on Scientology and was smeared for child abuse, being a drug dealer, a rapist, a heroin addict, and an attempted murderer.
Alexander Fred used several aliases in his articles on the two sites to try to portray me, Be Scofield, as a pedophile, sociopath, druggie, and abuser. These include characters of a psychologist, a fraud investigator, a "group" of colleagues, a married man and a freelance writer for Disney. Each site even contained articles with nearly identical section headlines. From Baxter’s Journal: “How Be Scofield Creates Unethical Journalism.” From Culture or Cult: “How Be Scofield Creates Fake Stories.”
Expect more attacks on me given my position as a highly prominent cult reporter. As noted, this type of smear campaign is a reality for adversarial journalists and whistleblowers who have damaged the livelihoods of powerful cult leaders.
Sincerely,
Be Scofield