Rebecca Minkoff runs a handbag and fashion empire, soaking in Scientology connections.


She's got flash - Glamour Magazine covered her Tuscany wedding (20 to Scientologist Gavin Bellour (born 1977).

She had a big fashion show last September and February, at the Lincoln Center Theater, with celebrities(3), and likely will have a big one this September that would be interesting to attend.

But is she a CoS member? On the pro side, she is married to Scientologist Gavin Bellour, is the daughter of disgraced Scientologist Dr. David Minkoff (4). She has 20 course completions as Becky Minkoff, between 2001 (at age 11 !) and 2006. And, she is friend to Jenna Elfman:


On the other hand, she doesn't talk about Scientology in recent years.

(1) http://wikifashion.com/wiki/Rebecca_Minkoff
(2) http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/s ... becca.html
(3) http://fashionista.com/2011/09/rebecca- ... he-runway/
(4) http://afashionablelittlebirdtoldme.com ... ntologist/

Yes, Rebecca is the Scilon daughter of Dr. David Minkoff, the ER doctor that Lisa McPherson's handlers took her to see after she died.

https://www.facebook.com/drdavidminkoff

Rebecca's testimony on the Clearwater school named True School:

http://www.xenu-directory.net/mirrors/w ... t/DAY1.TXT

Fortunately, Rebecca later avoided Scientology schools and graduated from Gibbs High School in St. Pete, having worked in their costume department. That, and her sewing her own clothes, seems to be her only fashion experience before her NY internship with Scientologist designer Craig Taylor (see discussion below) http://www.tampabay.com/features/fashio ... 996954.ece

How did Rebecca, a high school graduate, break into the fashion biz? Talent, sure, but maybe money from Dad, too?
from ancestry.com, which also has Rebecca Aliza Minkoff's birth date 11 Dec 1980, San Diego, where her father lived and where her brother Uri was born (with the same mother, which confirms I have the right Rebecca). Her brother Uri is CEO of Rebecca's company, so Dad has extra reason to be generous.

Brother Uri put in a lot of money in 1995, so he gets some credit.
http://article.wn.com/view/2012/02/16/O ... Out_of__7/

Fashion Weekly says Rebecca got her first big break when Jenna Elfman wore her T-Shirt on Jay Leno. They also sell Ben Minkoff handbags for men, named after their grandfather. http://www.fashionweekdaily.com/the-fix ... ca-minkoff

Fashion Weekly doesn't mention them selling high-priced handbags made by low-paid Chinese workers, or stiffing their American suppliers. Rebecca Minkoff = Chinese Take-out or Scientology Garbage?, The Purse Advisory Forum, Sept 16, 2011, http://www.fashionweekdaily.com/the-fix ... ca-minkoff

Uri's bio says "Education: Hubbard College," at 40 under 40 Winners, http://www.review.net/print/40-Under-40-Winners-Page-3/

Uri Minkoff was director in 2006 of the Church of Scientology Mission of Hyde Park, in Tampa, FL, at http://www.xenu-directory.net/documents ... le.php?n=m

"Scientology has helped me to become successful in all aspects of my life and truly become me!" from Uri's I Am a Scientologist page, probably created in 1997 like many similar pages. http://www.our-home.org/uriminkoff/success.htm

Here's a timeline for Uri Minkoff:
2005 - Present, Co-Founder and Board Member - Loop, LLC, Automotive
2005 - Present, CEO and Co-Founder - Rebecca Minkoff LLC, Apparel & Fashion
2005 - Present, Board Member - Tampa Bay Technology Forum, Computer Software
2001 - Present, Co-founder and CEO - Fortis Software, Computer Software
2000 - Present, Co-Founder and CEO - Bodyhealth.com, Internet
1997 - Present, Co-Founder and CEO - LifeWorks Wellness Center, Medical Practice
1997 - Present, CEO - Home Health Works, Inc., Medical Practice
http://www.yatedo.com/p/Uri+Minkoff/nor ... 019b2847d7

My comment: This looks like Uri couldn't get into a college other than the unaccredited Scientology front Hubbard College, either through poor schooling or fear of SP's. So, wealthy Daddy Dr. David Minkoff bought his little boy a nice resume. He made Uri the CEO of Daddy's health companies, at age 22 (Uri was born 1975). Uri's background was unsuitable: I-went-through-high-school-in-one-year home-schooler. Any Hubbard College training is mostly indoctrination, weekly sales goals obsessions, and simplistic management-by-organization-chart. Next in 2001, Uri becomes a founder of Fortis Software. He talks about Fortis being a consulting company, and Uri's role may have been "get-rich-though-Hubbard-management-techniques" consultant. It looks like Uri supplied start-up capital and his friend Paul McDaniel provided actual software expertise. http://www.office-outlook.com/outlook-vendors/

Paul McDaniel is on many Scientology course completion lists, and donations ($250,000 donation to the IAS, $100,000 to the Cornerstone Club (Super Power Building).

Business Week says Paul McDaniel has a B.S degree from the U. of Kentucky, he has more education than the home-schooled Uri: http://investing.businessweek.com/resea ... d=10635743 . Uri boasted of completing high school in less than a year, so what else did he do from 1990 to 1997? (Besides taking ten Scientology courses, see http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/st ... nkoff.html .

Paul McDaniel described what Fortis did. Maybe Paul did the software and Minkoff provided seed capital and did the marketing.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-mcdaniel/0/39/5a7

Lifeworks Wellness, as well as Fortis Software were W.I.S.E. members in 2004, http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/st ... ctory.html which increases my suspicion that another role for Uri was getting clients, consulting to them, and persuading them to join W.I.S.E. on an ongoing bases. Uri could use his pseudo-credentials as a "founder" of his Dad's medical care companies to impress clients. If he did sell W.I.S.E. techniques, it was a mistake for his clients, since W.I.S.E. promotes rigid and authoritarian management-by-statistics, and its member companies have been sued for forcing their employees to take Scientology courses.

Interestingly, as his sister Rebecca Minkoff's handbag business has grown, Uri appears to have left behind Fortis Software. It's in one little suite of an office building in Clearwater, and the remaining workers have to hustle to sell their own products and consulting services, although they do some success. Uri has found there is more money in handbags. It would be most unfortunate if Uri is using W.I.S.E. techniques to run Rebecca Minkoff handbags. The "stats" obsession isn't so bad during the "up" phase of a business, but fashion is fickle, and statistics must go down eventually; then W.I.S.E. techniques show their toxic true nature. Underlings are punished for events beyond their control, and even with the poor sales, W.I.S.E. still wants a slice of the pie. Vendors and business partners have complained of lies, unfair lawsuits, and unpaid bills from W.I.S.E. member companies.

What's depressing about Uri's boastful bio is that the company he claims to have founded, Lifeworks Wellness Center, even ADMITS that Dr. Minkoff has lost his hospital admitting privileges.
Its patient form states on page 10:
http://lifeworkswellnesscenter.com/wp-c ... -forms.pdf
Dr. Minkoff lost his privileges due to his wrongful care of Lisa McPherson. If Dr. M had insisted on a face-to-face visit with Lisa, which medical protocol demands, Dr. M. would have seen the grave situation she was in. His negligence was a large factor in her death. So, the medical clinics that "Uri" founded were really a desperate fall-back for his father. In any event it's absurd to think an ordinary 22 year old high school grad could be "founder" of even a new-age woo-soaked clinic and be CEO over doctors and nurses. His real role was likely collecting overdue accounts, and networking to find new sheep to shear.

Uri Minkoff donates to the IAS, famed for locking members in a room and demanding they donate. The International Association of Scientologists spends its money on private investigators, black ops, and lawsuits attacking free speech. See 'Scientology Hates Clean Ice: The "Fair Game" Operation That Should Turn Your Stomach' Oct 12, 2011 Village Voice, http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/10/robert_almblad_scientology_clean_ice.php
IAS Donations:

Founding Patron is $40,000. Patron $ amount not listed.
http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/st ... amily.html

She couldn't OF had such success in a school that taught grammar properly, I guess.

Does anyone know if Fortis is the company that wrote the internet filtering software for CoS? Seems as though that kind of software would be a great project for the company. With the experience they boast of, filtering software would be a snap.

Rebecca and Uri have peddled a touching story of the plucky young woman, struggling in the NY fashion scene, rescued by money from her whiz-kid "entrepreneur" brother. The two are often photographed together, Uri the CEO and Rebecca the designer, attractive and tall hipsters, both wearing Rebecca's fashions.
However, Uri is not a self-made man. My speculation: His Dad paid him high salaries for helping in the family business and promoted him at age 22 to be a CEO. Medicine and health apparently bored him, so he used that money as seed capital with his Scientologist software designer, to make some more money and look more like his own man. Describing himself as a serial entrepreneur, he lost interest in software when his sister started to look like a winner. Now he's Mr. Fashion saying fashion-ish things. It's an act - what he really likes is the money and power. In all his money-making deals, he was the untrained hustler. His doctor father pulled the weight at the medical clinics, software designer Paul McDaniel pulled the weight at Fortis Software, and of course his sister pulls the weight at Rebecca Minkoff. He preens and brags about finishing high school in one year, and being a "founder." Bullsh!+.

As Rebecca rises, he is socking away money and getting flattery and prominence. The fashion world is good for him; many aren't college-trained, and, just like CoS, the fashion world worships success at SELLING. Yet New Yorkers observe him with secret criticism. I've been a Florida-raised kid who was fortunate to go to college up North and improve my grammar and knowledge; I definitely heard mockery and criticism until I cleaned up my worst errors. Now my friends back in Florida who didn't go to college sound like country bumpkins to me. They can talk okay about their interests like sports, but abstract or nuanced issues? They don't have the grammar, reading and debate experience to impress anyone. Home-schooled, likely shielded from newspaspers and magazines (especially to prevent hearing about Daddy's Lisa McPherson horror) and Scientology-drilled, Uri must have serious trouble talking issues with sophisticated New York University fine-arts grads. If Rebecca makes Uri a figurehead and hires a CEO with real training and experience, Uri has nothing in New York City. His "friends" there have flocked to him only to kiss up to Rebecca, and if he's a lightweight, "just her brother," nobody will respect that. If Rebecca Minkoff fashions lose popularity, Uri won't even have the figurehead job. He'll have to find a new talented person to pull the weight in a new start-up.

There's nothing wrong with never going to a real college, or being a go-getter that helps talented people find their customers. Uri may or may not be a hardworking partner and a great boss that mentors and respects his employees. He can charm rich ladies and celebs at fashion shows so they want to buy handbags and shoes. He can fool butt-kissing fashion magazine reporters with his self-made-big-brother fable. But his W.I.S.E. training may make him see his employees as stats-producers, not as great sources of ideas and improvements, and certainly not as advisors on how HE should manage talented New Yorkers. He thinks he's smart off-sourcing his manufacturing to China, but he may not like the tedious business of supervising the Chinese companies to prevent them from cutting corners and slipping in cheap materials. He doesn't have the eye and the decades of experience that Italian competitors have, to keep quality genuine. His job history shows that the big dream of his life isn't vitamins, or software, or fashion, it's making money and being the big shot. He has learned fashion lingo and new phrases like "listening to social media" but he's leeching off his sister. He may work his employees to the bone, but the employees should not expect loyalty back, unless they are favored pets of his sister.

I believe he hasn't been challenged yet, on his history, his management, his educational gaps, and his thoughts about his father's disgrace. People don't correct him because of his supposed status, but they may talk about his gaffes behind his back. Can he commit to his company, and not just see it as a steppingstone to another start-up? Can he exhibit grace under pressure? Can he answer the simple question: Do you support the leadership of the Church of Scientology? That's the true measure of a person.

The Scientology-soaked internship:

http://www.bagtrends.com/news_rebeccaminkoff.htm
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219578
Honor students in fashion design colleges have to compete hard for internships, but Rebecca Minton, a Clearwater teen with no design experience or training, gets one HANDED to her. The trick? ..use Scientologist connections to get Scientologist Craig Davis to hire her.
Craig Taylor, Featured Alumni, Hubbard College of Administration, http://www.hubbardcollege.org/craig-taylor.php

Craig Taylor is one of the few real success stories of Hubbard College of Administration. A 2012 article describing and criticizing the school mentions Craig, at http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/01/30 ... chool-1-6/

Craig Taylor + Christina "Kumi" Kimball are Cornerstone Club ($35,000) donors to the Super Power Building, http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.p ... Power-Scam

Craig Taylor also doesn't talk much these days about Scientology, or his easy-to-mock Hubbard College courses. He wants people to think of his childhood in Europe, and supposedly learning tailoring in London. http://www.craigtaylor.com/about

Here Craig claims about himself in Miami: from http://www.craigtaylor.com/blog/4?page=2 . An architect? Show us your degree in architecture. Car design doesn't count.

In this same video, Craig says he taught himself tailoring in Florida by taking apart a finely made shirt, making patterns, and recreating it. This video also shows (1) that he lives and has his headquarters in Clearwater, which helps explain how Clearwater resident Rebecca Minkoff's family knew him, which led to her internship with his NY office, and (2) that his lovely wife Yul is starting her own line of handbags, so watch out Rebecca ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Aq6Bd8nR0 . Yul looks talented, http://www.craigtaylor.com/yul-taylor/about . Yul has Scientology completions in 2009. Craig Taylor Design Studio is at 519 Cleveland St., Suite 213, Clearwater, FL, located above Caliyogurt; Entrance to the building is around back. I got Craig's birthday, Jan 10, from a posting of Yul's at http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=270316931833 . From that, I got Craig's birthdate of Jan. 10, 1960 and middle initial "L" from US Public Records at ancestry.com, from when he lived in Pasadena, CA.

So, who is the female "CEO" of Craig Taylor that took Rebecca "under her wing?" Christina Kumi Kimball, who is a named Scientologist:

http://www.mombu.com/religion/general/t ... 58090.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,401321,00.html

Kumi, born 1957 according to ancestry.com, has course completions including on the Freewinds. Rebecca, Uri, and Dr. David Minkoff, and Craig Taylor also got exposed to blue asbestos on the Freewinds.

Kumi and Craig boast about their "volunteer" actions at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks. One of Kumi's "accomplishments" was to prevent psychiatric help to victims, so she is hardly a humanitarian. The volunteer Ministers were making a game out of disobeying police orders. Both quotes from http://www.xenu.net/archive/WIR/wir6-22.html

Tellingly, Kumi's 9/11 story includes that This underscores the Volunteer Ministers as a public relations, psychiatry-blocking and fund-raising dodge that hands out other charities' supplies and then settles in with the grabby-hands touch assists and recruitment, and photo opportunities. http://www.mombu.com/religion/general/t ... 58090.html
Kumi's CEO job with Craig Taylor ended in 2005. Her resume describes that job, plus her minding of Isaac Hayes and her coaching of Rebecca Minkoff, at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/96309907/CH ... -Visionary

Rebecca Minkoff's first employer Craig Taylor has inconsistent claims of a glamorous career designing cars, starting in 1983. He would be only 23, since ancestry.com gives him a birth date of Jan 10, 1960. The claims are as follows:
http://www.hubbardcollege.org/craig-taylor.php

Craig needs Hubbard College to tidy up that blurb. He said on this interview that he went to "auto design school" and then worked in England designing racecars for about a year, and then went to Peugeot/Citroen in Paris to "head up their advanced show car division." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Aq6Bd8nR0


http://www.craigtaylor.com/about

Here is yet another version, now highlighting his green credentials: .
http://www.craigtaylor.com/blog/4?page=5

How, in 1983, did this son of an American and a Dane, get a cool job at Talbot Motors in Coventry, where Jaguars are designed? And, within weeks or months wins the Porsche Design Award in the same year? But that wasn't enough, he had to get weekend training as an expert tailor in London. A year later, he "heads up the Paris office" for Peugeot/Citroen. Why would prestigious London tailors spend their weekends training some foreigner? How did he get a work permit for England and then France? Even if he were born in one of those countries, that didn't get him a work permit for the other country, back in 1983. Auto companies don't put young people in prestigious spots right away, especially not foreigners.

Craig Taylor's bio sounds and awful lot like LRH's ... different stuff, but almost as outlandish.

True, LRH claimed a past life as a racing car driver. I suppose Craig Taylor designed those cars in HIS past life.