The “Missing Person” Scam: Mark Rathbun Exposes Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, Tony Ortega

TRANSCRIPT:

One of the critical parts of the Rinder-Ortega-Remini rollout of Remini was the “missing” Shelly Miscavige, the wife of [Scientology ecclesiastical leader] David Miscavige. And you know, at the time, in 2013, I think it was, Rinder told me about that—that she was going to do a whole thing about “Where’s Shelly?” and going to put the Church in just an unbelievably terrible position because, you know, he figured it all out, because he’s been in public relations his entire life.

And he figured it all out. There was going to be this untenable position where nobody could respond to it because it is so personal and it’s so—the accusation is so—one of those things like a “Do you beat your wife?” conundrum, right, the way they’re framing the accusation, that they could just go to town and make it into a, you know, a series, a serial that just keeps playing out, right.

And I said, “Mike, why would Leah do something like this, you know, if she has any concern about her own credibility and integrity? You know she’s not missing. You know that Leah Remini truly doesn’t have the rank to ask—to know exactly where she is, when, and how she does her business. That just as much as she feels like, you know, that she needs the ability to be wherever she wants and associate with whomever she wants, Shelly has the exact same right. The last—and you know that—the last person in the world she’d want to see is Leah Remini or Mike Rinder.”

Mike goes, “Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. I know all that but it’s like this perfect thing because it puts them in a position where this is the wife of the head of Scientology. It puts them in this untenable position.” He knew. He knew it was a scam from the beginning. He knew it was a cheap shot from the beginning.

I was certain that Rinder conned her on the Shelly story being a story of manufacture, and then when I called her out on it she said, “Oh yeah, I already knew that. I was running a false black PR campaign the entire time.”

I said, “You know, Mike Rinder knows this is a scam and a sham. And I could have—if you had asked me about it and asked my opinion you wouldn’t have gotten into this in the first place.” She goes, “I know that, I knew she wasn’t missing.” In other words, she told me she’s in complete and utter league and agreement with Mike Rinder.

I thought at that point I was giving her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she’s just being taken advantage of because Mike, because Mike, he’ll do any—he’ll say, you know, that’s what he is famous for. He’s the most agreeable guy on the planet and people, you know, find that reassuring to have him around them, so he’s making good, regular bucks by playing that role for her. But no, she knew that. And that was cool with her. In other words, she knew it was a scam from the beginning.

The amazing thing is, here we are, okay, that was 2014, ‘15, ‘16—we’re three years later and they’re still running it. Every several months or so they roll the thing out again, they’ll come out with an event, a PR event. She’ll file an FOI [Freedom of Information] request with the police, right. And Ortega will run this big thing and he’ll try to get it out to the tabloids.

She’s complaining because the police aren’t investigating the Shelly thing, right. They get their documents, their responses, no further story, right, because there’s nothing there. But, you know, they don’t inform the troll farm—so all these people are living in this alternate reality, that they believe this world view that they’re being fed by Remini, Rinder and Ortega who are laughing all the way to the bank.