"Tax Inspectors Target Tony Quinn Organisation", Sunday Tribune, by Richard Oakley
TAX inspectors are to investigate the self styled lifestyle guru Tony Quinn's organisation to establish the extent of its activities in Ireland.
Dublin-born Quinn currently lives in the Bahamas as a tax exile. However, parts of his organisation are based in Ireland. It is understood that the Revenue Commissioners has been approached about the tax affairs of the Irish arms of the Quinn organisation and is expected to try to determine where the money earned ultimately ends up. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of the Quinn organisation.
The tax inspectors have agreed to examine the Quinn organisation following contact with Dialogue Ireland, a group which provides information on religious and lifestyle groups. Dialogue Ireland said it was in the process of supplying tax inspectors with copies of cheques and receipts relating to Quinn seminars.
Over the past few years, Dialogue Ireland has been approached by people who attended Quinn seminars and claimed to have had unsatisfactory experiences.
A multi-millionaire. Quinn charges over €18,000 per person for his seminars, which are attended by up to 50 people at a time.
In 2001, an investigation by this newspaper showed there were questions about Quinn's teachings.
The investigation showed that a significant period of time at the seminars was taken up by Quinn advising those attending that his "life system" would work best for them if they sold it to others. They were given taped recordings of this part of the seminar to take home and told to listen to them daily A copy of the tape was obtained by this newspaper and an independent hypnotist said that the people, who could be heard crying out and applauding as Quinn spoke, were in some form of relaxed state and under Quinn's influence.
A number of academics then examined Quinn's lifestyle philosophy, called Educo. Professor Ciaran Benson, head of UCD's psychology department, said the system was "simplistic in the extreme and without any acceptable research".
Listen to the Tony Quinn tape:
