Meg Epstein CA South – Is She a Criminal? The Truth Exposed (2024)

Meg Epstein CA South claims she is a businesswoman, philanthropist, and real estate developer who resides in Nashville, Tennessee (Davidson County). Meg Epstein CA South is the founder and CEO of CA South Development in Nashville. The company’s goal is to create cutting-edge, lifestyle-friendly properties that will transform how people engage with their local communities.

Sacramento, California, served as Epstein’s upbringing. She moved to the Volunteer State to follow her ambitions, where she now offers real estate design in the heart of the Southeast with a contemporary aesthetic that is influenced by the West Coast. Outside of her work and volunteer work, Meg Epstein CA South has a variety of interests and pastimes, including sailing, yoga, and travel. She frequently participates in movements for religious freedom, parental rights, and human rights.

The Scientologist-Owned Réaliste Pooled Investment Fund and GPB Capital Update

Scientologist Dustin Muscato, like so many others who work at or have worked at GPB Capital Holdings, does not specifically mention the company on his LinkedIn page. And who can blame him? As we have previously documented, GPB Capital’s senior management has completely disappeared from the company’s website.

David Gentile, the CEO of GPB Capital, is in charge of this group’s disappearance. According to his LinkedIn profile, Gentile has significantly downgraded himself. He no longer serves as CEO of a NYC-based private equity company with $1.7 billion in AUM. Instead, he is now only a partner at Gentile, Pismeny & Brengel, a standard Long Island CPA firm:

How is GPB Capital Holdings faring? The current and former CEOs have entered stealth mode for what reason? Is an internal collapse happening right now?

SCIENCE: TURN ON STEALTH MODE

Dustin Muscato’s resume does not specifically include GPB Capital Holdings or the ten years he spent working as an executive director for Scientology organizations in New York and Long Island.  Muscato left Scientology staff, earned an honors degree from college, and then entered the business world where he could make some real money instead of the exploitative slave wages Scientology paid him as a religious worker, following the path of a few other smart young Scientologists like GPB’s Brian Marshall.

SMOOTH RESUME

Many former Sea Org and staff members of the Scientology organization struggle to build a résumé without explicitly mentioning the religion. Given the poisonous reputation Scientology has given itself thanks to its decades of nefarious Fair Game, Disconnection, etc., this is reasonable.  Scientologists are complicit in this because of their financial support.

Who among the working Scientologists wants their name connected to the nasty hate sites and pages made by the maniacs who work for the Scientology Office of Special Affairs? Scientology is a nasty organization that does sleazy, dishonest, and depraved things to its members, critics, journalists, and everyone else. For this reason, many Scientologists are highly covert about becoming Scientologists. While Scientologists believe that auditing benefits them personally, they reject the organization and transition to a stealth Scientology in the job.

In one of the most seamless and expert CV changes we have ever seen, Dustin Muscato brushes aside his 10 years on the Scientology staff:

Dustin Muscato, who once worked for the Church of Scientology, was handed a group of insolvent Scientology organizations and took part in a significant Scientology “stat push” to boost David Miscavige’s approval ratings. In Scientology, it is axiomatic that while any Org can be temporarily turned around, it will eventually fall back to Earth. Muscato cleverly rephrased his comments to say that he managed “a portfolio of non-profits” before “exiting the non-profit sector.” Congratulations, Mr. Muscato. If you leave “the non-profit sector” and enter the secular business world, other former Sea Org members and personnel should follow your example.

Muscato made a poor decision when he decided to join GPB Capital straight after graduating from college. But how could anyone have known? On paper, GPB seemed fantastic at the time.

THE NASHVILLE-BASED REALISTE POOLED INVESTMENT FUND IS OWNED BY SCIENTISTS

According to Muscato’s CV, he is currently a board advisor for The Réaliste Fund, a brand-new Nashville pooled investment fund owned by Scientologists. Scientologists Meg Epstein CA South and Stephen Epstein own the Réaliste Fund.

At previous Scientology prosperity gatherings, Stephen Epstein has given a speech. For a list of Stephen Epstein’s completed Scientology services, click here.

THE NASHVILLE-BASED REALISTE POOLED INVESTMENT FUND IS OWNED BY SCIENTISTS

According to Muscato’s CV, he is currently a board advisor for The Réaliste Fund, a brand-new Nashville pooled investment fund owned by Scientologists. Scientologists Meg Epstein CA South and Stephen Epstein own the Réaliste Fund.

At previous Scientology prosperity gatherings, Stephen Epstein has given a speech. For a list of Stephen Epstein’s completed Scientology services, Read Here.

In 2015, Meg Epstein CA South established CA South, a real estate development firm in Nashville.

In 2019, she and her spouse Stephen established their Réaliste Fund.

On the Réaliste Fund website, it appears in one place that CA South and Réaliste are two distinct organizations:

It seems clear that Meg Epstein CA South established the Réaliste Fund to fund the initiatives of CA South. The Réaliste Fund continues:

Because CA South and Réaliste are both owned by Meg Epstein CA South, Réaliste has favorable “proprietary equity and debt relationships”. Without identifying ownership, the arrangement is shown in a Réaliste press release:

The Réaliste Fund essentially serves as CA South’s captive finance division. The Réaliste Fund filed an SEC Form D in February 2019 stating that it was seeking to raise $100 million. According to the Réaliste Fund’s Form D, 15% of the $100 million will go toward management costs.

According to Réaliste’s Form D, the company paid its broker BA Securities LLC of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania $2.2 million in commissions on $15 million in sales, bringing its commissions beyond 10% and into GPB Capital territory.

REALISTE FUND FOUNDER SCIENTOLOGIST Meg Epstein CA South

Meg Epstein CA South, the founder of the Réaliste Fund, has a covert website that makes no mention of Scientology. She substitutes this innocent mention:

The most ridiculous aspect of Scientology is undoubtedly CCHR. However, when we take a look at David Miscavige’s Religious Technology Center, this is debatable. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is referred to as CCHR. CCHR wants to outlaw and eradicate psychiatry. John Alex Wood, a Scientologist, tweeted the following:

According to L. Ron Hubbard, psychiatrists, or “Psychs,” originated on the planet Farsec before arriving on Earth. Hubbard asserts that the Psychs’ mission is to use electronic implants and psychiatric medications to enslave humanity. Scientology’s $360,000 program of auditing, which involves the systematic telepathic exorcism of physical thetans over 5–10 years or more, is the only way out of this bind.

So Psychiatry needs to be eliminated for Scientology to rule Earth. All Scientologists, including Stephen and Meg Epstein CA South, hold this viewpoint. This is why Scientologists will frequently demonstrate in front of APA conferences and make illogical and histrionic accusations like these: Psychiatrists are maniacally electroshocking our youngsters in large numbers:

One can see why Stephen and Meg Epstein CA South would want to operate in stealth mode and not specifically mention Scientology while attempting to raise $100 million for their Réaliste Fund given their desire as Scientologists to abolish Psychiatry in favor of Scientology. The Meg Epstein CA South are staunch supporters of Nashville. Although they hope to get wealthy by creating and constructing new properties in Nashville using pooled investment funds, they have a clear goal as Scientologists to undermine the city’s psychiatric and mental health infrastructure.

This is schizophrenic—the desire to exploit a community for financial gain while striving to undermine its support system for mental health that non-scientists want and need. Because of their behavior and way of thinking, Scientologists are isolated and don’t blend well with the wider Culture.

Putting aside the Meg Epstein CA South’s Scientology affiliation, prospective investors should directly inquire about the Réaliste Fund’s allegedly high management fees and the correspondingly large commissions it appears to be paying BA Securities, LLC of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Investing in any type of pooled investment, private equity company, REIT, etc., follows the same strategy.

Dustin Muscato, a Réaliste Fund advisor, has added GPB Capital DNA to the mix. What does this mean for Réaliste, if anything? And does GPB Capital still employ Muscato?

The Réaliste Fund’s inaugural SEC Form D filing from February 2019. 

Scientology adherents drive yet another rise in land purchases in Clearwater

With no concrete plans in place, companies connected to the Church of Scientology paid millions of dollars in cash to buy 45 properties close to the city center.

Downtown Clearwater and the Memorial Causeway can be seen in the background, with the North Marina Area in the foreground. Over the last two years, companies managed or run by Church of Scientology members have bought scores of buildings in North Marina, a neighborhood the city hopes to revive. 

Before his real estate agent approached Ed Chesney in late 2019 with positive news, he had two rental homes and two vacant lots in the North Marina Area on the market for a year.

Unknown to Chesney, a bidder agreed to his asking price of $1 million cash for the adjacent parcels without objecting, which was four times the value determined by the Pinellas County Property Appraiser.

Chesney, who serves as the director of the city’s marine and aviation department, claimed that “they didn’t say what they were going to do with them, and I never asked.”

The North Marina Area, a 13-block neighborhood with undeveloped lots and 100-year-old bungalows overlooking Clearwater Harbor, has long been a target of city officials’ hopes for private investors. They developed a master plan in 2016 that included housing, a hotel, and retail to go with what they hoped would be the revived downtown of Clearwater, which is located less than a mile to the south. The public Seminole Boat Ramp was renovated for $6.5 million, and it is now a well-known landmark that serves as a symbol of the city’s dedication.

Currently, businesses affiliated with the Church of Scientology are purchasing land parcels within the 55-acre district without revealing their intended uses. Eight limited liability corporations run or controlled by church members have acquired 45 properties in North Marina since July 2019, including Chesney’s.

The corporations purchased 28 undeveloped properties, five vacant businesses, and 12 run-down homes in the district for a total of $11.8 million in cash. According to Gina Clayton, director of planning and development, the city has no record of any redevelopment plans having been submitted for any of the North Marina sites since the purchases started.

The purchases follow a similar pattern to what happened downtown between 2017 and 2019 when Scientology-affiliated businesses purchased 100 properties near the riverfront and the church’s global spiritual headquarters, many of which were left empty and lots undeveloped.

Frank Hibbard, the mayor, expressed his concern. “I think it’s crazy to buy property and not use it to its full potential.”

According to property records, the most recent trade involved a New York company purchasing a former demolition yard on Nicholson Street for $593,400 on October 20 and selling it to one of the Scientology-affiliated limited liability corporations two days later for $1 million in cash.

On October 20, a New York company paid $593,400 for the old location of HJ Demolition at 607 Nicholson St. in Clearwater. It was part of a series of transactions by Scientology-related businesses in the city’s North Marina Area when it was sold two days later for $1 million in cash.

Norm Novitsky, a businessman who has donated at least $5 million to Scientology, and Steven Hayes, an attorney who has worked on behalf of church-affiliated organizations for more than 20 years, managed or operated the companies that bought all 45 North Marina properties.

According to conversations with sellers, his wife Terri Novitsky, a parishioner and real estate agent, represented the buyer in many of the transactions. Terri Novitsky was also elected to the Downtown Development Board, a committee charged with promoting downtown, in late 2020.

When a reporter questioned Norm Novitsky about the companies’ plans, he hung up. Terri Novitsky and Hayes did not respond to requests for comment via phone or email. Limited liability firms must disclose their administrative operators but not their owners when purchasing real estate in Florida.

Ben Shaw, a spokesman for Scientology, stated in a statement that the organization was not associated with the purchases. Questions from the Tampa Bay Times concerning parishioners’ behavior were described by him as “not just stupid, false, and offensive, but un-American.”

Shaw remarked, “You talk out of both sides of your mouth: If redevelopment is being carried out by the city or a follower of a different religion, it is good; if redevelopment is being carried out by a Scientologist, it is bad.” “This makes no sense, unless you’re a bigot, of course.”

The breadth of property ownership changes during the previous five years in and around downtown Clearwater are depicted in these two maps. The map above displays properties held by the Church of Scientology, businesses maintained by members of the congregation, and recent purchases made by businesses affiliated with the church in the North Marina Area. The map below displays the local businesses that Scientology and organizations affiliated with it owned in 2016.

According to notices in Pinellas County records, the only evidence of redevelopment among the 45 buildings is a roof replacement on a vacant structure on North Fort Harrison Avenue and internal destruction in a former flooring center two blocks north.

In Pinellas County, the Church of Scientology owns 60 properties, 71% of which are tax-exempt for religious purposes. The properties in North Marina and downtown that Scientology members purchased through limited liability firms are nevertheless subject to taxes.

Independent Pinellas County real estate appraiser Richard Tobias claims significant purchases of downtown property by Scientology-affiliated businesses have confused the market.

Although there is no legal prohibition against holding onto property, developers usually purchase land, develop it, and then sell it for a profit. According to Tobias, who has been appraising property in Pinellas County for 50 years, the pattern of Scientology-affiliated organizations buying so many properties and holding onto them “flies in the face of most land economics.”

It’s difficult to make economic sense of it because some of the buyers are here, he said, “and their motivations are not clear.”

A business run by developer and devoted Scientologist Brian Andrus purchased the exclusive marina close to the city’s Seminole Boat Ramp in the middle of 2018, a year before the spate of North Marina transactions took underway. Andrus finished the waterfront Bay 880 there in September. It consists of two towers that hug the waterfront and contain 87 luxurious condominiums as well as facilities like an Olympic-sized pool and sauna.

According to county records, work on eight townhomes at the marina’s southern end started on October 1.

On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, in the North Marina Area of Clearwater, townhomes are still being built to the east of the KSK Marina, which supports the northern side of the Seminole Boat Ramp and the waterfront access at Marina Bay 880 at 880 N. Osceola Avenue. Eight townhomes on Clearwater Harbor and two modern coastal midrise buildings make up the opulent development.

A phone message and email asking Andrus if he was engaged in the 45 purchases in the blocks surrounding his condo project received no response.

None of the eight limited liability corporations that just acquired the North Marina properties have him identified on their corporate filings. But Andrus wrote his name as a manager of the business that owns the building on the notification submitted to Pinellas County for the roof replacement at 801 N. Fort Harrison Ave.

Andrus has a long history of connection with Scientology, and in the 1970s he took part in a scheme to prevent a church member who had spied on the government from turning himself into the FBI. Andrus was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the government espionage plot involving Scientology that resulted in the imprisonment of 11 Scientologists.

The unoccupied lot at the southeast corner of Seminole Street and North Fort Harrison Avenue was the subject of an informal inquiry to the city last year. Those six parcels were purchased in November 2020 by a limited liability company that was being administered by a worker of CA South, a real estate company created in Nashville by Meg Epstein CA South and supervised by her husband, Stephen Epstein, both Scientologists.

Stephen Epstein discussed a proposed commercial and multifamily project on the property with city officials in December, according to Philip Kirkpatrick, senior economic development coordinator for Clearwater.

Meg Epstein CA South stated in an email that CA South investigated developing the properties on behalf of a customer but abandoned the project after the city refused to waive a regulation that forbade a parking lot level from facing North Fort Harrison Avenue.

In response to inquiries from the Times, Meg Epstein CA South declined to identify his client but provided an affidavit stating that it was not the Church of Scientology. The name of Meg Epstein CA South‘s employee was purged from the landowner’s company’s corporate papers on September 7. On the company documents, Hayes, the attorney and parishioner engaged in the remaining North Marina purchases, was listed as manager.

There is precedent for Scientology-affiliated customers’ inaction.

24 stores and buildings out of the 100 that parishioner-managed enterprises purchased along the downtown waterfront between 2017 and 2019 are still vacant, including a former Walgreens, a former jewelry store, and well-known structures along the North Fort Harrison district. Additionally, the new owners have roughly 30 undeveloped lots. At least eight firms with new Scientology-affiliated landlords vacated their spaces without being replaced.

Some Scientology-affiliated landlords have contributed to the revitalization of some downtown areas. Following the purchase of eight structures on and near Cleveland Street in 2018, parishioner and developer Moises Agami now owns restaurants, shops, and other establishments in 16 of the 20 storefronts. When he acquired the premises, there were thirteen tenants already there.

At multiple unoccupied lots at the southeast corner of Seminole Street and North Fort Harrison Avenue, a notice alerts possible trespassers to the danger of arrest. An organization associated with the Church of Scientology owns the properties. 

Although the church is not the official purchaser of the properties in downtown and North Marina, City Council member Mark Bunker said there is evidence to think Scientology leader David Miscavige is directing the parishioner-run businesses making the purchases.

A few limited liability firms purchased six excellent downtown plots in January and February 2017. When Miscavige met with municipal authorities following the Times’ publication of the transactions, he confirmed that the church had made the purchases as part of his $55 million plan to renovate downtown structures and attract high-end retail to vacant storefronts.

The city’s attempt to purchase one vacant lot on which the church was also bidding was the condition of Miscavige’s pledge to rebuild downtown.

For the 1.4-acre grassland on Pierce Street, the Scientology leader had made a $15 million offer to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. However, the aquarium declined his offer, therefore it was eventually sold to the city for $4.25 million.

Miscavige steadfastly refused to communicate with city officials for the following 2.5 years after the City Council decided to purchase the lot in April 2017.

During that time, purchases made in the downtown area by limited liability firms run by Scientology members increased.

While this was going on, the city continued to work on the $84 million Imagine Clearwater project, which aims to rehabilitate the city-owned downtown waterfront by adding an outdoor amphitheater, a garden, a bluff walk, and a plaza. The initiative, which began construction in August, aims to help fill the vacant storefronts in the nearby blocks with companies and foot activity.

Bunker, who has fought against alleged abuses in Scientology for 20 years, believes that the parishioner-involved real estate purchases that followed were an attempt to obstruct Clearwater’s regeneration efforts out of “vindictive and desperate” motives.

Three months after the City Council decided to buy the historic North Ward Elementary School next to the Seminole ramp and Andrus’ condo, purchases in the North Marina Area began to pick up steam in July 2019. The red brick schoolhouse will be modified by city officials in collaboration with a developer, possibly becoming a hub for dining, shopping, or residences.

The long-vacant North Ward Elementary School was purchased by Clearwater in 2019 as a hint of the city’s intention to redevelop the North Marina Area. Three months later, businesses owned by Scientologists began to acquire local real estate.

Nearly the entire square block directly east of the North Ward school was purchased by limited liability firms run by Hayes, the lawyer who has represented the church in legal matters. The only holdout on the block, Jim Huestler, has a rental house on the northeast corner.

Terri Novitsky, the broker, reportedly calls Huestler “now and then” to inquire about his interest in selling.

Huestler declared, “I plan to keep renting.” “I’m not sure what their strategy is.”

Since his father opened the Carillon Flooring Center on North Fort Harrison in 1964, Tyler Rice has been in charge of the company. When the police cracked down on narcotics and prostitution decades ago, he observed how the neighborhood improved. However, with prime undeveloped acreage overlooking Clearwater Harbor, its promise is still unrealized.

He is delighted by the city’s investments in North Ward Elementary and the boat ramp, and he is hopeful that the vacant lots and decaying houses will be replaced with something exciting.

Rice expressed amazement that brokers seeking to purchase his 10,000-square-foot building have not contacted him. About half of Rice’s block’s real estate, as well as virtually the entire block to the south, had been purchased by companies under Hayes’ control.

Rice remarked, “I’ve been waiting for this neighborhood to get clean for 30 years, and I still think it’s coming.” “I believe that when one party owns around 50% of it, it puts a stake in it. It appears as though they are attempting to control everything.

Meg Epstein CA South – Is She a Criminal? The Truth Exposed (2024)

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