A foundation in Panama, a company in Delaware, a private investment fund, millions of dollars in assets and allegations of tax avoidance. The faithful of a controversial religious group based in Estrie, the Order of the Essenes, have for years been injecting their generous donations into a financial structure worthy of a multinational.
Some of them are now biting their fingers. With the sudden death of its prophet Olivier “Manitara” Martin, in 2020 at age 56, the group of a few hundred faithful – who worship archangels, Egyptian deities and figures of Christianity – is fractured by a major schism.
It is the legal battle between the two factions of the group which exposes the finances of the organization, pinned down by the French anti-sect administration and from which Immigration Canada attempted to expel certain leaders.
The Order of the Essenes (or the estate of Olivier Martin) owns a vast Cookshire-Eaton estate “valued, in 2018, at approximately $6 million, with the village of Terranova, France, worth a minimum of $400 000 €, a village in Panama, at least one publishing corporation (Essene Church Publishing), several foundations,” including one in Panama, listed judge Johanne Brodeur in a decision last fall. “ [De plus], 21 corporations still in force are linked to the Christian Essene Church. Corporate entities, one of which was located in Delaware (Esseway LLC), also held trademarks. »
PHOTO FROM THE ORGANIZATION’S WEBSITE
Olivier “Manitara” Martin
The Press was unable to establish the volumes of money that passed through these structures over recent years. In a 2021 letter included in the court file, a Church administrator raises the possibility of a “transfer of several hundred thousand dollars per year” from the Quebec structure to Panama, “a tax haven”.
Faced with the proliferation of lawsuits between Essenes, judge Johanne Brodeur was called upon to decide a central question: who should succeed Olivier Manitara as “King” of this religious movement?
His eldest son Nazarh Guérin, allied to his mother Magali Guérin? Or the mother of the deceased, also an Essene, allied to the personal secretary of the prophet?
Lost donations
It was Nazarh Guérin who won the game, since “the Essene Nation is constituted as a royal dynasty”, ruled judge Johanne Brodeur. The young man therefore acquired total authority over the Church and its property. With his siblings, he also inherited a small hamlet in the south of France, where his father got his start as a religious leader.
Since then, Essenes who consider themselves “traditionalists” have been excluded from the group, accused of “illegal attempt to take power”.
Frantz Amathy, a member of the group who resides in the French hamlet, said of Olivier Martin’s widow and children: “We do not recognize them at all as heirs of tradition. […] For me, there is a whole deviance that has happened and it no longer has anything to do with it. The small sums that I was able to donate were diverted from their original objective. There are many Essenes who invested their money, which was used for other things […] which no longer have anything to do with religion. »
[Les enfants d’Olivier Manitara] thought they could deport us overnight. They tried, they even came here with the intention of deporting us, but there are laws in France.
Frantz Amathy, member of the Order of the Essenes residing in France
The mayor of Montlaur, the municipality which includes the disputed site, confirmed that police had been called to the scene at the time of the visit by Olivier Martin’s heirs. The town hall is in conflict with the religious group due to illegal construction – a similar dispute pits the Essenes against the municipality of Cookshire-Eaton, in Estrie.
In Quebec too, control of real estate assets creates friction. A “traditionalist” Essene is now suing the “corporation” for $105,000, the value of the house he built on the estate.
Pier-Antoine Marier, who long chaired the board of directors of the Quebec corporation, affirmed in an out-of-court interrogation that he had given “around three hundred and something thousand” to the Essenes. He is now suing the small claims corporation to recover $15,000 of his deposit.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Pier-Antoine Marier, former president of the board of directors of the Order of the Essenes, in 2014
Foreigners by the dozen
The documents made public as part of this judicial guerrilla war also reveal the method used for years by the Essenes to immigrate to Quebec many co-religionists: a provision of the Immigration law exempting priests and other religious figures from work permits.
Reproductions of dozens of letters from the Church to its foreign “priests” guaranteeing their care in Estrie are found in court files. A letter from a lawyer trying to resolve a disagreement with Immigration Canada is also there.
In 2012, the French Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Combating Sectarian Abuses (MIVILUDES) described the Essenes as a group with “apocalyptic theses” led by a “sinister individual”.
“A group of several hundred people between France and Quebec. It’s a somewhat mystical order, a bit of a Freemason, but outside of all official circuits,” explained Serge Blisko, president of MIVILUDES, at the time. He specified that the Essene Church “very much resembles” the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS).
In 2008 and 2009, Ottawa attempted twice – without success – to expel Olivier Manitara and his wife from Canada for “serious criminality”.
They had been convicted in France for “abuse of corporate assets” (i.e. the use of company funds by a director of this company) and sentenced to eight and ten months suspended prison terms. The courts had determined that their fault was not sufficient to justify expulsion from Canada.