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Speaker 1: I was at work when I heard the news. It

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Speaker 1: was January two thousand and eight. I had a miscalled

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Speaker 1: from an old friend from Rannon Christe. She was out

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Speaker 1: of the Legion by then and we hadn't spoken in

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Speaker 1: a while. When I called her back, she told me

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Speaker 1: Mazille had died the day before. They were organizing a

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Speaker 1: big event. She even warned me to be prepared because

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Speaker 1: rumors were he was getting canonized. At least that was

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Speaker 1: what people inside the Legion were thinking. Mazille died in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Speaker 1: He was eighty seven years old. The report said it

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Speaker 1: was from natural causes, a quiet death in bed, Colleagues

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Speaker 1: by his side, maybe his daughter Narmita, just twenty one,

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Speaker 1: holding his hand. I couldn't stop thinking about it. This

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Speaker 1: was a man accused of abusing children for more than

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Speaker 1: half a century, boys who had trusted him, even his

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Speaker 1: own children, And after all of it, he left this

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Speaker 1: world without a trial, without even facing the people he

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Speaker 1: had destroyed. He died with many still calling him a saint,

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Speaker 1: a congregation of thousands mourning him. But for some of us,

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Speaker 1: that day didn't bring closure. It just ripped the wounds

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Speaker 1: open all over again. And for Mozille's oldest son, forra

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Speaker 1: Wul Gonzalez. It was the day the silence finally broke.

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Speaker 2: I was arriving to my house and my brother Omar

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Speaker 2: was walking.

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Speaker 3: He was going out.

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Speaker 2: He said, hey, roll stop and I said what something happened?

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Speaker 2: I said what what happened? He said or that he died?

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Speaker 2: And I said what and he said, yes, he died, okay,

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Speaker 2: And we stayed quiet.

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Speaker 1: The feelings were mixed pain, relief, confusion. But what I

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Speaker 1: will remember most are the tears rolling down his face

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Speaker 1: before he even realized his father, his abuser, the man

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Speaker 1: he could never question while he was alive, was finally gone.

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Speaker 1: My name is Elena Sada and this is sacred scandal.

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Speaker 1: The Many Secrets of Marcel Marseille, Episode eight, The Quiet End.

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Speaker 1: That night, after the news, Raoul closed the door to

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Speaker 1: his room. The house was quiet, The phone calls had stopped,

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Speaker 1: His mother and his brothers had gone to bed. It

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Speaker 1: was just him now, the silence and the weight of

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Speaker 1: his secret he had carried since he was seven years old.

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Speaker 1: Twenty years later, the man who had hunted him was gone,

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Speaker 1: and for the first time, Raoul was able to stand

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Speaker 1: up to him, speaking the words he had swallowed for years.

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Speaker 2: That night, I said, that's the time that I'm going

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Speaker 2: to talk with you. That's the only way I could

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Speaker 2: confront him after he died, and I said, why do

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Speaker 2: you do it? Okay, I couldn't tell you in person,

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Speaker 2: but I know that you can hear me and tell

49
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Speaker 2: me why did you do that?

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Speaker 3: The abuses?

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Speaker 1: Raoul would lie awake, staring at the ceiling, having long

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Speaker 1: conversations with the ghost, talking to his father as if

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Speaker 1: he were still there. As he replaced everything in his mind,

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Speaker 1: Raoul fell the emptiness of it. There had been no reparations,

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Speaker 1: not for him, not for his brother, not for any

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Speaker 1: of his victims. Maciel was gone, and with him the

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Speaker 1: chance for justice.

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Speaker 2: So you have to start working, to start repairing all

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Speaker 2: the damage that you have made.

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Speaker 1: And then another memory surfaced. I promise his father had made.

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Speaker 2: He always told me that his balloon tat that his

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Speaker 2: will is to give us six million dollars.

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Speaker 3: And he didn't tell me one time.

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Speaker 2: He always told me that.

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Speaker 1: Maziel always told Raoul the same story that one day,

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Speaker 1: when he was gone, there would be money six million

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Speaker 1: dollars set aside in a trust in Switzerland, and not

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Speaker 1: for Raoul, his brothers and his mom. But when Raoul

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Speaker 1: went looking, the money had disappeared. He thought that maybe

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Speaker 1: it was just another life from his father. Maybe the

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Speaker 1: six million had never existed at all, maybe it all

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Speaker 1: had gone to the Legion, or was spent on the

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Speaker 1: lavish trips Masielle took in his final years. And then

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Speaker 1: the Legion finally gave him a copy of the trust.

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Speaker 1: The money did exist, but had been withdrawn by Norma

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Speaker 1: Vanus to be given to her daughter, Normita. Normida was

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Speaker 1: the one always at Mazille's side, the one who received

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Speaker 1: the attention and privileges her half brothers never did. Maziel

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Speaker 1: made sure she attended the best schools the Legion had

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Speaker 1: in Madrine and Mexico. He even introduced her in reunions

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Speaker 1: of Concerradas in Rome, not as her daughter, of course,

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Speaker 1: but as a benefactor. I couldn't believe it when I

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Speaker 1: first heard about his daughter. What shocked me even more

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Speaker 1: was how quickly the Legion explained it away. They said

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Speaker 1: it was normal, that she had come from a beautiful

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Speaker 1: love story, that even San Agustin had a son of

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Speaker 1: Normida's childhood, Very little is known. Her mother, Norma Vanos,

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Speaker 1: first met masiel in a Capulco. She was still underage

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Speaker 1: when the relationship began. Norma Normita never made any public statements,

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Speaker 1: but a Spanish newspaper managed to track them down in

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Speaker 1: Madrid years after Masielle's death. They lived in an upscale

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Speaker 1: apartment building with properties valued at around two million euros.

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Speaker 1: The mother said she hadn't really known who Marsielle was

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Speaker 1: until the very end, and she also suggested that her

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Speaker 1: daughter had suffered abuse from him, that the drama of

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Speaker 1: that childhood had never really left her. If that is true,

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Speaker 1: then Normita wasn't simply the daughter who seemed to have everything.

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Speaker 1: She may also have been another victim, another life damaged

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Speaker 1: by Masille's secrets, but whether that was the case we

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Speaker 1: may never truly know. After that, both mother and daughter

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Speaker 1: disappeurred completely from public view. All that remains are a

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Speaker 1: handful of photographs, family snapshots at opilion gatherings, Normita smiling

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Speaker 1: quietly besides her father. Meanwhile, what we do know is

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Speaker 1: that Raoula and his brothers grew up with far less.

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Speaker 1: Raoul and Armita were just children growing up side by side,

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Speaker 1: but their paths could not have been more different. Raoul

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Speaker 1: was left on his own, caring the trauma of the abuse,

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Speaker 1: the betrayal of a father who lied to him for years,

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Speaker 1: lied about being a priest, about having another family, about

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Speaker 1: a will that never existed. One disappointment after another, the

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Speaker 1: only thing Raoul had left from his father was anger

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Speaker 1: and a need for reparations for himself and for the

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Speaker 1: rest of the victims.

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Speaker 3: First, we're looking for justice.

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Speaker 2: Is legitimate that victims of sexual abuse have to look

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Speaker 2: for a retribution.

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Speaker 1: When Raoul began ask him for compensation, what the legion

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Speaker 1: said was that he only wanted to get money, but

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Speaker 1: that was never the point. What he wanted was justice.

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Speaker 1: But when the abuser died, justice died with him. So

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Speaker 1: the only thing that could make things right was reparations

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Speaker 1: from the institution that had protected Masille's perversions all his life.

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Speaker 1: Raoul started reaching out to priests who knew the truth

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Speaker 1: of who he was, but none of them gave him

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Speaker 1: an answer, so he wrote a letter meant for the Pope,

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Speaker 1: where he introduced himself as the legitimate son of Masielle.

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Speaker 1: He stated that since the trial was no longer possible,

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Speaker 1: the least the Church could offer was financial compensation.

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Speaker 2: All the crimes had to be repaired. Like when you

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Speaker 2: go and committed a crime, you kill a person, you

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Speaker 2: have to go to jail and you have to pay.

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Speaker 2: It's the same way. The thing here is that Church

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Speaker 2: has his own rules, and that's not fair.

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Speaker 1: No answer came. Every letter to the Legion was ignored,

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Speaker 1: Every petition to the Vatican vanished into silence. By then,

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Speaker 1: more victims were stepping forward. Mazielle was gone, but the

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Speaker 1: damage was still alive and it was spreading. Raoul began

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Speaker 1: to calculate what fair reparations might look like. His figures

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Speaker 1: startled even the journalists who interviewed him. Twenty million dollars.

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Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking, twenty million dollars is a

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Speaker 1: lot of money, but Raoul had done the math. With

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Speaker 1: all the schools, the properties, and the endless flow of

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Speaker 1: the nations, twenty million could change for the Legion. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the real problem was that no one had ever been

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Speaker 1: able to pin down how much they had. Even the

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Speaker 1: most seasoned reporters tried to pull apart the Legion's finances

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Speaker 1: and kept hitting a wall. After the break, we'll hear

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Speaker 1: from one of those journalists who followed the Legion's money

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Speaker 1: trail and learned just how deep it went. We'll be right.

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Speaker 4: Back, Almost so imperiodista interestalent investigators as onto the corruption

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Speaker 4: as the comment in Tolo nivels.

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Speaker 1: Raoul Almost is an award winning investigative journalist known for

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Speaker 1: uncovering networks of corruption and organized crime. He's also the

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Speaker 1: author of The Financial Empire of the Legionaries of Christ,

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Speaker 1: one of the detailed investigations into their fortune and the

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Speaker 1: secrecy that protected it. Almost was chasing other stories when

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Speaker 1: he happened to cross paths with the legionary priest who

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Speaker 1: had been Masile's secretary in Rome, and as they talked,

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Speaker 1: the priests shared details that left Almost stunt. Up to then,

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Speaker 1: legion had never really been his focus as a reporter,

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Speaker 1: but at that moment he knew this was a story.

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Speaker 1: One of the first things Almost learned about the Legionaries

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Speaker 1: of Christ was how others referred to them.

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Speaker 4: The manera colloquial selia, mavalos, millionarios Cristoo.

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Speaker 1: The millionaires of Christ.

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Speaker 4: Joseph prepensulci masiel nosvieli cal exit.

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Speaker 1: It didn't take long for Almost realize something very simple

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Speaker 1: if Mazielle hadn't been a priest, he could have just

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Speaker 1: been a successful businessman, and in a way he actually was,

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Speaker 1: because that's how he ran the Legion more like a

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Speaker 1: corporation than a church. This started early on in the

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Speaker 1: forties when the Legion just began. Mazielle set up a

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Speaker 1: real estate business called Fuentes Protentes. The whole point was

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Speaker 1: to buy property, and that land that's where the Legion

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Speaker 1: built its fancy schools in Mexico City.

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Speaker 3: Was Collegi combres Cooly And now what those.

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Speaker 1: Schools and universities weren't for everyone. They were only for

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Speaker 1: Mexico's elite. Families paid a high monthly fee, and the

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Speaker 1: Legion collected thousands of dollars every month, and it didn't

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Speaker 1: stop there. On top of tuition, families were asked to donate.

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Speaker 1: One of the most common causes was a project called

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Speaker 1: Manuamiga helping Hand. The Legions said those donations made it

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Speaker 1: possible for under privileged children to get a free education.

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Speaker 1: But when almost investigated, he found something very different.

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Speaker 4: Familia like a studio and this is a squillas Estevan

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Speaker 4: of Legado Sagarcotas Itoavia Meara Mazoso saw Kemucholos professoris a

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Speaker 4: professors Losian communa labor sociale.

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Speaker 1: The school wasn't free at all, the appearance of those

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Speaker 1: less privileged kids still had to pay fees, and many

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Speaker 1: of those teachers worked without a salary, convinced it was

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Speaker 1: charity that they were serving an honorable cause. We as conserradas,

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Speaker 1: also worked for free, convinced we were serving a higher

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Speaker 1: cost every person. We collected from bake sales to big

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Speaker 1: donations while supposed to support our health care and our

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Speaker 1: daily needs, but it didn't. It went straight to the Legion.

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Speaker 1: Every day was fundraising for us, and any excuse for

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Speaker 1: fundraising was valid. As Roberta Grasa remembers, You know Roberta

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Speaker 1: from early episodes. She's my cousin and journalist who has

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Speaker 1: spent years studying high control groups like me. She grew

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Speaker 1: up inside the Legion and has many memories of that world.

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Speaker 1: The constant fundraising was one of them.

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Speaker 5: They raised funds for Marsiell's you know, birthday. They raised

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Speaker 5: funds for the next gymnasium at my school. I don't

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Speaker 5: know if I already told you this, but at my school,

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Speaker 5: they raised money for a gym, to build a gym

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Speaker 5: and a pool.

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Speaker 1: By the way, that pool for Roberta's school that never happened.

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Speaker 1: Roberta remembers another moment years later, when she just had

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Speaker 1: a baby.

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Speaker 5: I couldn't really give them that much, but I offered,

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Speaker 5: you know, I could work for you, I could do

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Speaker 5: whatever you want. I could volunteer. And I just saw

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Speaker 5: the priest's face turned.

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Speaker 2: Sour and churl.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 5: It was like, ugh, not this again. I don't need

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Speaker 5: your you know, your personhood that I don't care about that,

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Speaker 5: I want your money. It was so clear and so disgusting,

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Speaker 5: and I was like, oh my god, what am I

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Speaker 5: doing here?

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Speaker 1: That was a moment she started slipping away from the Legion,

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Speaker 1: but half of her family stayed in the fault, including

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Speaker 1: Roberta's brother Luis Garza, who would go on to become

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Speaker 1: the Legion's second in command. So up to this point,

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Speaker 1: we know religion had its properties, the tuition from its

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Speaker 1: elite schools, and then non stop fundraising. But when even

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Speaker 1: that wasn't enough, Maciel went further.

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Speaker 5: He directly solicited money from the very wealthiest honors, and

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Speaker 5: he would say things like, oh, the Pope has you

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Speaker 5: know John Paul the second, he he has entrusted me

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Speaker 5: with a very important and secretive matter in the Eastern countries,

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Speaker 5: the Russian countries, to free themselves from the yoke of communism.

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Speaker 5: And he would get to check or he would get

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Speaker 5: the transfer at an account that was not religions. Why

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Speaker 5: wasn't it diligions, Oh, because it's for this very important

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Speaker 5: project for the Pope.

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Speaker 1: And where did all that money go? Not to the

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Speaker 1: Pope's secret mission.

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Speaker 5: Clearly that went, you know, to maintain his mistress, as

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Speaker 5: his children, and his sexual tourism that he did every

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Speaker 5: couple of times.

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Speaker 1: So if you start doing the math where Raoul and

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Speaker 1: almost and many reporters did the numbers get huge. It

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Speaker 1: added up to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

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Speaker 1: Some estimates put it at three hundred million, others closer

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Speaker 1: to six almost puts it in a way that's hard

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Speaker 1: to forget. The Legion brought in so much money it

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Speaker 1: could have bang brailed the Vatican itself. But with that

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Speaker 1: kind of fortune out in the open, they had to

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Speaker 1: find somewhere to hide it. After the break, we followed

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Speaker 1: the money into the shadows we're back with Raoul Almost,

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Speaker 1: the journalists who wrote The Financial Empire of the Legionaries

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Speaker 1: of Christ. Much of what you're about to hear comes

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Speaker 1: from his reporting in that book. As he began his investigation.

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Speaker 1: One of the first things almost uncovered where companies registered

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Speaker 1: under Massill's own name, not in Mexico, but in a

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Speaker 1: very different country.

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Speaker 4: Las Primersquillo localise for Los ange Cendas don the maziell

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Speaker 4: is loke Broi Mazielle at Parisia como fiermante de tres

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Speaker 4: de las and prices Establishas and Panama.

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Speaker 1: Panama, a country known for its beaches, the canal that

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Speaker 1: connects two oceans, and for something else. It's offshore companies.

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Speaker 1: For decades, Panama has been a global hub of banking,

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Speaker 1: secrecy and tax havens. There are other havens places like Bahamas, Luxembourg,

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Speaker 1: Jersey in the UK, and even Denaware, and the legion

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Speaker 1: had set up companies in all of them. But here's

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Speaker 1: the question. Why would a religious ordered like the Legion,

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Speaker 1: an institution already exempt from paying taxes, needed tax heaven.

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Speaker 5: They used these financial structures to be exempt from taxes

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Speaker 5: from the things that they could not be exempt but

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Speaker 5: more specifically to hide the money. Now that doesn't mean

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Speaker 5: these accounts were illegal. It just means that the Legion

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Speaker 5: had access to an incredible amount of money that was

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Speaker 5: not supervised, that was not fiscalized, that you didn't really

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Speaker 5: know where it was going on, how it was used.

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Speaker 1: We don't even know how much money the Legion was

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Speaker 1: moving through these off short companies.

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Speaker 3: No one does.

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Speaker 1: The numbers are getting say, I.

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Speaker 5: Think it was in twenty twenty one the National Catholic

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Speaker 5: Reporter mentioned that they were moving as much as two

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Speaker 5: hundred ninety five million dollars through those trusts of short

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Speaker 5: trust and subsidiaries.

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Speaker 1: And then there were the so called investments on paper.

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Speaker 1: The Legion poured millions into projects that looked noble. One

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Speaker 1: of them was a retirement home for elderly priests. It

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Speaker 1: was supposed to be a sanctuary for aging clarity.

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Speaker 5: They only have one retirement home that we know of,

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Speaker 5: and it's in Cancuna, and it's a very nice house,

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Speaker 5: but it's a humble house. It hosts a couple of

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Speaker 5: you know, ten twelve priests, I don't know how many,

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Speaker 5: but it's small. It definitely does not need millions and

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Speaker 5: millions in funding.

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Speaker 1: But most of those properties weren't even in the Legion's name.

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Speaker 1: They were registered on their other people outside the Legion

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Speaker 1: barred identities. Jogerta remembers one visit in particular, when her

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Speaker 1: brother Louis you know him, the legions former CFO showed

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Speaker 1: up asking their siblings to sign papers for a new trust.

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Speaker 1: On paper, it was meant to hold funds for the

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Speaker 1: retirement of priests. It was a noble cause.

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Speaker 5: And I we already say, oh, that's fantastic, and he

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Speaker 5: asked them to sign for it, to build it under

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Speaker 5: their name, and I wondered at that time, why is

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Speaker 5: this happened? I mean, why would you ask my brothers

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Speaker 5: and sisters to do that if it's such a legitimate endeavor.

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Speaker 5: And of course the money that that trust fun was

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Speaker 5: departoma papers exposed that trust amount of money and it

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Speaker 5: was millions and millions and millions of dollars.

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Speaker 1: That humble retirement home in Cancun. Investigators later found that

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Speaker 1: that project hid another one of Marcille's schemes, another way

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Speaker 1: to shuffle money.

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Speaker 4: Around topeescadimas Manneharan's momento constructor.

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Speaker 3: As I said, Cargo La labor.

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Speaker 4: Therification, Tanto, the La Institutionkativas come inclusive the Princess.

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Speaker 1: The construction company building most of the Legion's schools, and

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Speaker 1: even projects for outside businesses also belonged to the Legion.

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Speaker 1: In other words, the money was going out the front

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Speaker 1: door and then walking right back in through the back.

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Speaker 1: The Legion ran it. All sports clubs, we have centers,

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Speaker 1: a medical device company, a supplemental business. They even opened

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Speaker 1: a tourist resort in the Holy Land, on land gifted

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Speaker 1: by the Vatican itself. And if that wasn't enough, they

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Speaker 1: went ahead and created their own financial institution.

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Speaker 4: And this they own a postal the hobiness see for

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Speaker 4: impulsar loto gamento, the creditors.

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Speaker 3: Senora's the condition of Milda. The sectoris popularists.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't exactly a bank in the traditional sense. It

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Speaker 1: was more like a landing operation. One were people who

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Speaker 1: struggled to get credit anywhere else could.

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Speaker 4: Come and barren money perkwando los participants in estate and

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Speaker 4: Ativa and para queso era ready to abily versific Carci

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Speaker 4: and peso a transform marse and on institution and financier.

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Speaker 1: What started as charity turned into a business. The operation

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Speaker 1: grew diversified and eventually morphed into a full flashed financial

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Speaker 1: institution what today is known as Bangko Compartamos, known for

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Speaker 1: charging very high interest rates on its loans. The Legion

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Speaker 1: strategy was simple, make money, hide money, spread it around,

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Speaker 1: and then, like the savvy businessman, Masielle was invested.

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Speaker 4: Abia Impersions and Actions, then press As the Armies, then

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Speaker 4: press as the anti Conceptivus, then press Us and Sumamento,

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Speaker 4: con companies and pornographia.

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Speaker 1: They invested in almost everything you can think of, from

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Speaker 1: KFC to AT and T, energy, oil mining, telecom, soft, drinks, entertainment,

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Speaker 1: and not just that, they also putting money into companies

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Speaker 1: tied to alcohol, tobacco, gambling, breath control, and even pornography.

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Speaker 4: Total Lokeroviano or the Stava mal aos Evan lumbertian anestos

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Speaker 4: pondos in bersionestass all over the world.

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Speaker 1: The Legion preached that these things were since off limits

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Speaker 1: for the faithful, and yet behind the curtain they were

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Speaker 1: pouring their followers' money straight into the very industries they condemned.

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Speaker 1: And that double life didn't end with Masiele's death. The

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Speaker 1: structure he built outlived him.

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Speaker 4: See yes in Aberta's parents Loke cambiero ferro, los caracas

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Speaker 4: pero el mismo mechanismosine replicando see los mismos vicios incluso

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Speaker 4: Lamentablo mine Jodia Casta a los rdros Thesa's conductor, sexualists,

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Speaker 4: Elicitas de Maciel sir replicaren Era on a le jon

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Speaker 4: de mitas Masiel.

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Speaker 1: Even after their leader's downfall, the Legion never truly reformed.

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Speaker 1: They only changed the faces at the top, but the

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Speaker 1: same had stayed, the secrecy, the money games, even the abuses,

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Speaker 1: as almost all those. The Legion became a group of

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Speaker 1: imitators of Monsieur.

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Speaker 3: So the same as the Castle of Cassideron.

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Speaker 1: Then, and he wasn't exaggerating. There weren't just a few incidents.

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Speaker 1: There were dozens of priests accused, protected by silence, chilled

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Speaker 1: by the same machinery that once guarded Mossiel. Behind every

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Speaker 1: cover up, more victims, hundreds of them. Massiel may be gone,

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Speaker 1: but his shadow still lingers, because the crimes didn't stop,

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Speaker 1: They just went deeper underground. That's next on Sircus Scandal,

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Speaker 1: The many secrets of Marcel Massil Sacres Scandal The Many

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Speaker 1: Secrets of Marcel Masill is a production of A half

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Speaker 1: podcast in partnership with Iheartmichael Dula Podcast Network, and is

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Speaker 1: hosted by me Elena Sada, written by Menissa Hendrix and

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Speaker 1: Alvalo saz Pedes, Produced by alvaaloces Pedes and Robert Tagarza.

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Speaker 1: Research and reporting by Robert Tagarza, edited by Jasmine Rometo

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Speaker 1: with the help of Carmen Gratol, fact checking by Annapla Tovar,

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Speaker 1: the vocal coach for me Elena Sada is in a Tabia.

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Speaker 1: Executive producers at a Half Podcast are Carmen Graterol, Isaac Lee,

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Speaker 1: and j h KR mixing on sound design by Patrick

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Speaker 1: and Jones, original music by Darko and I Am based

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Speaker 1: on Patrick Hart's original composition. Executive reduce users that I

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Speaker 1: heard are Leo Gomez and Arlene Santana. Alexis Cardoza also

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Speaker 1: serves as producer. Circars Scandal was created by Melanie Bartley

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Speaker 1: and Paula Varos