Scientology Leader Spends $10,000 Weekly to Spy on His Father Who Left the Church

The Church of Scientology spends $10,000 a week to pay private investigators to follow the father of the church's leader, according to reports released on Thursday.

According to police documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the Church of Scientology was paying as much as $10,000 a week to have private detective Dwayne Powell follow Ronald Miscavige on a full-time basis. He is the father of David Miscavige who has been the leader of the Church of Scientology since 1986.

Ronald Miscavige left the church in 2012 and shortly after leaving, Powell said he was hired to start following him and keep a record of his whereabouts.

The Times' investigation finds the church paid "two detectives $10,000 a week through an intermediary, the records indicate, all because Miscavige feared that his father would divulge too much about the organization's activities."

Dwayne Powell said he was asked to go through the father's garbage and spied on his emails and conversations.

Meanwhile, David Miscavige denies he hired the investigator and a Scientology spokesperson calls the investigator's statements a "baldfaced lie," according to People Magazine.

According to the report, Powell said he and his 21-year-old son were hired full-time to follow the elder Miscavige and claimed the firm Terry Roffler and Associates subcontracted him.

"He explained that Ron and his younger wife, Becky, left the church and David is worried that they will divulge details about the church's activities and that their job was to know who Ron talked to, emailed with, met with, where he went, what he did, etc," Detective Nicholas Pye wrote in the police report.

"Powell stated that if Ron was doing anything that was deemed to be not in the best interest of the church, he would report to his contact and the church would send people from L.A. to intervene and speak with Ron to correct his behaviors," Pye wrote.

The highly controversial religious institution recently came under scrutiny with the release of  "Going Clear," an HBO documentary that attempts to unveil the secrecy surrounding Scientology's controversial practices.