[4] This included about $2 million he spent on the Lisa McPherson wrongful death case;[4] Minton also offered a reward of $360,000 to anyone who would leave Scientology with enough information to cause the organization to lose its federal tax exemption.
Supporters of the Lisa McPherson Trust engaged in picketing outside Church of Scientology buildings in Clearwater, and there were frequent confrontations between the LMT and Scientologists.
[11] In 2000, Minton was the first recipient of the "Alternative Charlemagne Award" from the European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom.
The film was a presented as a work of fiction, meant to educate the public about cults and con men, but was widely seen as a parody of the Church of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
[15][16] In his 2022 book A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology, Mike Rinder writes how he and Marty Rathbun were pressured daily by David Miscavige to do anything and everything to "Stop Minton".
[17] In October 2009, Rinder and Rathbun told the St. Petersburg Times that Scientology eventually silenced Minton by digging into his financial details and secretly recording conversations.
[18] Rinder told the Times: "There were things that, really, he was worried about and had caused problems for him in the investigation that we had done" and that Minton and the church had reached a private settlement.
[20] In a 26-page affidavit, Minton stated that Tampa attorney Ken Dandar asked him to lie, drew up false court records for him to sign and urged him to generate bad publicity for the Church of Scientology to prejudice potential jurors in the McPherson wrongful death case as Scientology tried to get the wrongful death case dismissed on grounds of serious misconduct by Ken Dandar and his client.
[22] Despite the allegations the presiding judge declined to remove attorney Dandar from the case, stating that she did not believe Minton's testimony, and that he had lied in an attempt to escape paying income taxes.
[24] In August 2009, John Fashanu, who in 2000 accused Minton and Ibrahim Babangida of stealing money from Nigeria,[25] apologized, saying, "I can say it again and again, that there was nothing like debt buy-back or any billions stacked away in any account anywhere.