Educational tool only. All groups exist on a spectrum of control. Individual experiences vary. Based on publicly available reports, ex-member accounts, court records, and expert analyses — not medical or legal advice.

Asia

193 group profiles operating in Asia. All scores are BITE-derived from publicly available sources.

Export 193 entries:

JavaScript is disabled — showing the 60 highest-CLCI groups without filters or search. Enable JavaScript for the full 193-group browser. A complete A-Z index is available at /groups/a-z.

Aum Shinrikyo (Shoko Asahara)

Japanese new religious movement founded by Chizuo Matsumoto (Shoko Asahara) in 1984. Combined Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian apocalyptic elements with paramilitary training. Perpetrated the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack; Asahara and 12 others executed in 2018.

Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj movement (Satlok Ashram)

Indian guru-led devotional movement founded in 1999 by Rampal Singh Jatin, who broke from established Kabir Panth tradition and built a personal-following organisation centred on his own claim to be the 'tatvadarshi sant' prophesied in Bhagavad Gita 4.34. Rampal is currently serving life imprisonment following separate murder convictions arising from the November 2014 Barwala ashram standoff in which six people died.

Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (Apollo Quiboloy)

Philippines-based restorationist Christian movement founded in 1985 by Apollo Quiboloy, who identifies himself in the organisation's own publications as 'the Appointed Son of God'. Subject of an active US Department of Justice federal indictment including sex-trafficking charges, an FBI Most Wanted listing, a Philippine Senate inquiry, and a September 2024 Philippine criminal arrest. All charges remain pending.

Shincheonji Church of Jesus

Korean apocalyptic Christian movement founded by Lee Man-hee (1984) claiming to be the promised pastor of Revelation. Notorious for deceptive 'gospel-fishing' recruitment via front churches and the 2020 COVID-19 super-spreading event in Daegu.

Shincheonji Church of Jesus / Lee Man-hee

South Korean apocalyptic Christian movement founded 1984 in Anyang by Lee Man-hee (born 1931). Approximately 300,000 baptised members and millions of associated 'Bible students' globally. Centred on Lee's claim to be the 'promised pastor' who uniquely interprets the Book of Revelation. Globally notorious after the February 2020 Daegu COVID-19 super-spreader event that produced South Korea's first major outbreak. Lee convicted 2020 of obstruction of disease-control investigations; acquitted of embezzlement charges on appeal 2021.

AROPL / Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq)

Small Mahdi-claimant Islamic-derived new religious movement founded ~2015 by Egyptian-American Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (b. 1983). Hashem teaches he is the awaited Mahdi (Islamic eschatological end-times figure), Christ returned, and 'Riser of the House of Muhammad'. Distinct from — and rejected by — the mainstream Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Multi-jurisdiction asylum-claim trail (Egypt → Turkey → UK → Switzerland → US Texas) and documented coercive-control patterns including group-marriage rituals, communal child-rearing, surrendered passports, and shunning of departing members.

Grace Road Church / Kwon Shin-chan (Fiji)

Korean apocalyptic Christian sect founded 2003 by Shin Ok-ju (born 1962) in South Korea, with subsequent global expansion. From 2014 Shin and approximately 400 followers relocated to rural Fiji on the basis of a 'flood prophecy' that South Korea would be inundated. Documented forced labour at Fijian agricultural and industrial sites, beatings of disobedient members, and exit prevention via passport confiscation. Shin extradited from Fiji to South Korea 2018; convicted October 2019 of multiple offences including child abuse and false imprisonment (6-year sentence; extended on appeal).

Providence / Christian Gospel Mission (JMS, Jeong Myeong-seok)

Korean Christian-derived movement founded by Jeong Myeong-seok (1980). Leader convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault in 2009 (10y) and again in 2024 (23y). Subject of Netflix's 'In the Name of God' (2023).

God Worshipping Society / Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (historical)

Hong Xiuquan's God Worshipping Society, born of his visions identifying himself as Jesus's younger brother, grew into the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom — a millenarian theocracy that held Nanjing for a decade and administered totalist control over tens of millions: sex-segregated camps, communal treasuries, destruction of rival religion, and death penalties for doctrinal violations. The vast historiography makes it the canonical pre-modern case of doctrinal totalism at scale.

Manmin Central Church (Lee Jae-rock)

Seoul-based Korean Pentecostal sect founded in 1982 by Lee Jae-rock, who claimed to be sinless and capable of healing miracles. The Christian Council of Korea declared Manmin a heretical group in 1999. Lee was convicted in 2018 of raping eight female members and sentenced to 15 years.

World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG) / Heavenly Mother Zhang Gil-jah

South Korean apocalyptic Christian organisation founded 1964 by Ahn Sahng-hong (1918–1985). Identified Ahn as the 'Second Coming Christ' after his death. From 1985 led by Zhang Gil-jah (born 1943), identified as 'Heavenly Mother God'. Approximately 3 million claimed members across 175 countries. Multiple deceptive-recruitment lawsuits in the US and South Korea 2014–2024.

Salvation Sect (Guwonpa) / Yoo Byung-eun (Sewol ferry context)

South Korean Evangelical Baptist Church / 'Salvation Sect' (Guwonpa) founded in 1962 by Kwon Shin-chan and Yoo Byung-eun. The Yoo family controlled a sprawling corporate-religious empire whose subsidiary Chonghaejin Marine operated the MV Sewol — the ferry that capsized 16 April 2014 killing 304 (250 of them schoolchildren on a class trip). Yoo Byung-eun was found dead in June 2014 while a fugitive; sons Yoo Dae-gyun and Yoo Hyuk-kee subsequently convicted on embezzlement charges.

Eastern Lightning / Church of Almighty God (China)

Chinese new religious movement teaching that the female 'Almighty God' (a woman known publicly as Yang Xiangbin) is the second incarnation of Christ. The 2014 Zhaoyuan McDonald's beating-killing of a non-member by Eastern Lightning members drew international attention. Banned in mainland China since 1995; large overseas diaspora; refugee-status claims contested in multiple Western jurisdictions.

Shuvu Banim (Eliezer Berland)

Israeli Breslov-derived sect led by Rabbi Eliezer Berland (born 1937 in Haifa). Berland was convicted in February 2022 of multiple sexual assaults committed against female followers in 2010s, sentenced to 18 months; further convictions followed in 2023 for fraud and exploitation. The community continues to operate under Berland's direction from prison and via close family successors.

Asaram Bapu organisation

Indian guru organisation. Asaram Bapu convicted in 2018 of raping a teenage devotee in 2013; sentenced to life imprisonment. Son Narayan Sai also convicted of rape (2019).

Global Ikhwan / GISB Holdings

Global Ikhwan / GISB Holdings (GISBH) is the corporate and communal continuation of Al-Arqam, the Malaysian Islamic movement banned in 1994 over deviant-teachings allegations against founder Ashaari Muhammad. In September 2024 Malaysian police raided 20 GISBH-linked welfare homes and rescued more than 400 children — a number that rose past 600 — amid allegations of abuse and trafficking; GISBH's chief executive and twelve other men have since been convicted and jailed 15 months for unlawful-society membership, with nine women fined in the same case, while organised-crime and 230 consolidated money-laundering charges remain pending and unadjudicated.

Unification Church / Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) / Moonies

Korean-origin global new religious movement founded in 1954 in Seoul by Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012). Distinctive doctrines include Moon as 'True Father' completing Jesus's incomplete mission, mass arranged 'Blessing' weddings of strangers (4,000+ at first big event in 1982 at Madison Square Garden), and intensive 'Heavenly Tribute' financial extraction. Approximately 1–3 million members at peak (1980s); ~100,000–300,000 today. Daughter Hak Ja Han leads since Moon's 2012 death; son Hyung Jin 'Sean' Moon leads breakaway Rod of Iron Sanctuary Church. Massively scrutinised in Japan post-2022 after Abe assassin attributed motivation to family's UC financial ruin.

Sokushinbutsu / Shingon mountain ascetic self-mummification (historical)

Sokushinbutsu (即身仏 — 'Buddha in this very body') refers to the historical Japanese Esoteric Shingon mountain-ascetic practice of self-mummification through a multi-year extreme-dietary regimen culminating in living entombment, practised between roughly 1000 and 1879 CE primarily at Mount Yudono and adjacent Dewa Sanzan temple complex in Yamagata Prefecture. Approximately 24 confirmed sokushinbutsu mummies survive in Japanese temple display. The Meiji government formally outlawed the practice in 1879. The entry is a historical reference for extreme-religious-asceticism BITE-pattern analysis; the practice is no longer performed.

New Religious Movement

Pana-Wave Laboratory (Yuko Chino)

Pana-Wave Laboratory (パナウェーブ研究所) was a Japanese millenarian new religious movement founded ~1977 by Yuko Chino (千乃裕子, 1934–2006), notable for the May 2003 nationwide Japanese mass-panic incident in which the group's white-clad, white-vehicle convoy traversed central Honshu pursuing what Chino prophesied as the only safe location to escape an electromagnetic-attack apocalypse. Chino's apocalypse predictions failed (May 15 2003 deadline passed without incident); she continued teaching until her 2006 death. Members continued under successor leadership at substantially reduced scale. The case is a canonical example of contained-millenarian-cult mass-panic in modern Japanese NRM scholarship.

Nithyananda 'Kailasa' micro-state project

Self-styled Hindu guru Swami Nithyananda (born A. Rajasekaran, 1977) fled India in November 2019 ahead of his arrest on multiple rape and child-confinement charges. From 2020 he has claimed to have founded the 'United States of Kailasa,' a sovereign Hindu nation purportedly located on an unnamed Caribbean island. Multiple documented fraudulent municipal engagements (Newark 2023; Paraguay 2023; UN ECOSOC sessions 2023) have produced reversals and embarrassed officials globally.

Rampal (Satlok Ashram, India)

Indian self-styled guru Rampal Singh Jatin (born 1951) — a former irrigation department engineer who left government service in 1995 to preach an idiosyncratic interpretation of Kabir Panth and Sant Mat — convicted of two murders for the November 2014 Satlok Ashram siege deaths. Six followers (five women, one infant) died inside the Barwala compound during the standoff; Rampal received concurrent life-imprisonment sentences in 2017 and 2018. Organisation continues to publish his discourses and operate satellite centres under his sons.

Sathya Sai Baba ashram residential schools (Puttaparthi)

Free residential schools and university operated by the Sathya Sai Central Trust at the Puttaparthi ashram (Andhra Pradesh, India). Decades of child-sexual-abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) and the unresolved 1993 ashram shootings.

New Religious Movement

World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG)

Korean-origin Christian movement founded by Ahn Sahng-hong (1964) believing him to be the Second Coming. Current 'Mother God' is Zhang Gil-jah. Aggressive global recruitment using initial cover as 'Bible study' or community-service group.

New Religious Movement

Chen Tao (God's Salvation Church)

Taiwanese-derived UFO religion led by Hon-Ming Chen, briefly notorious for the failed 1998 prophecies that God would appear in Garland, Texas. The group dispersed after the failure.

Oneness University / Ekam (Kalki Bhagavan / Sri Bhagavan)

Indian guru-led devotional movement founded in 1989 by Vijaykumar Naidu (known within the movement as 'Kalki Bhagavan' and 'Sri Bhagavan') and his wife Padmavathi ('Sri Amma'). The movement operates internationally as 'Oneness University' and more recently 'Ekam', offering 'deeksha' transmission practices and 'awakening' programmes from an ashram complex in Andhra Pradesh, India. Subject of 2019 Indian Income Tax Department raids on properties and documented in academic work on contemporary Indian gurus and in sustained Indian press coverage.

New Religious Movement

Hyung Jin 'Sean' Moon / Sanctuary Church / Rod of Iron Ministries

Sun Myung Moon's youngest son Hyung Jin 'Sean' Moon (b. 1979) heads the Sanctuary Church / World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, a 2015+ splinter from the mainstream Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) led by Hyung Jin's mother Hak Ja Han. Distinguishing features: AR-15-rifle 'iron rod' weapons-as-sacrament doctrine, the February 28 2018 'Cosmic True Parents Coronation' ceremony with crowns of bullets at the Newfoundland Pennsylvania compound, financial intertwining with brother Justin Moon's Kahr Arms firearms-manufacturing company, and post-2018 Q-adjacent / January 6-adjacent political activity. Sarah Posner's 2018–2024 *Type Investigations* + NYT + Vice + AP coverage is the canonical journalistic record.

New Religious Movement

Unification Church (Moonies / Family Federation for World Peace)

Founded by Sun Myung Moon (1954, South Korea). Famous for mass marriage 'Blessing' ceremonies pairing thousands of couples. The 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by a son of a financially ruined Unification Church member triggered new scrutiny.

New Religious Movement

Unification Church successor groups

Post-Sun-Myung-Moon (d. 2012) Unification successor groups, including the Hak Ja Han-led Family Federation and the Sean / Hyung Jin Moon-led Sanctuary Church. Inherit core control patterns of the parent organisation.

University Bible Fellowship (UBF)

Korean-origin campus-focused Christian missionary organisation founded in 1961 in Gwangju, South Korea, by Samuel Lee (Chang-woo Lee) and Sarah Barry. The organisation built an international campus-targeted missionary apparatus and operates as a closed-discipleship structure under appointed shepherds. Documented internal patterns include intensive one-to-one 'shepherding' relationships, leadership-directed marriage practices, financial expectations on students, and family-displacement reports across the long-running ex-member testimony archive.

Ger (Gur) Hasidic

Polish-origin Hasidic dynasty headquartered in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. ~11,000 families globally. Distinctive 'Takkanot' rules sharply restricting marital intimacy and a 2019 succession split between the mainstream and Shaul Alter branches.

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU)

International guru-led devotional movement founded in 1937 by Lekhraj Kirpalani ('Brahma Baba') in Hyderabad, Sindh (now Pakistan), and headquartered since 1950 at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India. The organisation holds UN ECOSOC general consultative status and runs over 8,500 centres internationally. Substantial academic study (Lawrence Babb, Julia Howell, John Walliss) and a long-running ex-member testimony archive document a set of internal control patterns including strict lifetime celibacy, sustained early-morning meditation discipline, distinctive cosmology centred on a 5,000-year cycle, and family-displacement patterns for committed adherents.

Aleph (Aum Shinrikyo successor)

Direct successor organisation to Aum Shinrikyo. Renamed Aleph in 2000. Under continuous Japanese Public Security Intelligence Agency surveillance. Continues to retain ≈1,500 members despite legal restrictions.

New Religious Movement

Japanese Unification Church successor branches (post-2022 Abe)

Japanese branches of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, post-2022 Abe assassination. Subject of Japanese government dissolution petition filed 2023.

New Religious Movement

Post-Soviet Russian and Eastern European NRMs (umbrella)

Umbrella entry covering a documented pattern of high-control new religious movements that emerged in the post-Soviet space following the 1991 collapse of the USSR — concentrated in Russia, Ukraine, and adjacent former Soviet states, and documented in Russian and international academic work on post-Soviet religious revival, in sustained Russian and Ukrainian press, and in multiple national regulatory and criminal proceedings against named figures. Several specific named movements within this pattern are profiled separately in the catalogue. This umbrella covers the pattern at the genre level; it does NOT generalise to the broader diversity of post-Soviet religious revival.

Dami Mission / Lee Jang-rim (historical)

Korean 'Mission for the Coming Days' movement led by Lee Jang-rim, which fixed the Rapture for October 28, 1992. Tens of thousands across Korea and diaspora communities prepared — some leaving jobs, schools, and families, with military desertions and at least one reported suicide in the ferment — before the date failed under live television coverage. Lee was convicted of fraud after authorities found collected funds invested in bonds maturing after the supposed end.

Olive Tree movement (Park Tae-son / Jeondogwan)

Park Tae-son's Olive Tree movement (Jeondogwan, formally the Korea Christian Revival Association) was the largest of South Korea's post-war messianic revivals — at its late-1950s peak it claimed membership in the hundreds of thousands to millions and built self-contained 'Zion' factory towns where believers lived, worked, and worshipped. Park progressed from healing revivalist to 'Olive Tree' and 'Righteous Man of the East' to, ultimately, declaring himself God incarnate in his later Cheonbukyo phase. The movement combined faith-healing commerce, communal economic capture, and harsh treatment of critics, and served as the incubator for the next generation of Korean messianic leaders.

Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ)

Filipino Christian denomination founded by Felix Manalo (1914), now headquartered in Quezon City under Eduardo V Manalo. Notable for disciplined bloc-voting in Philippine elections and the 2015 'Lowell Menorca' family-internal abduction allegations.

Members Church of God International (Eli Soriano / 'Ang Dating Daan')

Filipino Christian movement founded by Eliseo 'Eli' Soriano (1947–2021). Soriano fled to Brazil in 2005 facing rape and child-abuse charges; the case was dismissed and later refiled, and he remained a wanted fugitive who never returned to face trial, dying in Brazil in 2021 with the case unresolved. Successor: Daniel Razon.

The Message of the Hour / William Branham / Voice of God Recordings

Post-WWII Pentecostal prophet movement founded around the ministry of William Marrion Branham (1909–1965), an American faith-healing evangelist. After Branham's December 1965 death in a road accident in Texas, followers organised around the Voice of God Recordings ministry in Jeffersonville, Indiana (now led by Branham's son Joseph), which distributes Branham's sermon recordings as scripture-equivalent. Doctrines include Branham as the end-times Elijah, the 'Serpent's Seed' doctrine, and a distinctive pre-tribulation rapture timeline. Approximately 500 congregations and 1-2 million followers globally.

Miles Jesu (Vatican-suppressed Catholic ecclesial institute)

Catholic ecclesial institute founded 1964 by Father Alfonso María Durán Ariza (1922-2009). Approximately 200 members at peak across multiple countries. Suppressed by the Vatican in 2007 following an apostolic visitation that documented cult-like coercive-control practices; founder Durán removed from leadership and ordered to a life of prayer and penance. Smaller but well-documented case in the Catholic ecclesial-movement-as-cult research literature.

Gülen Movement / Hizmet / Cemaat (Fethullah Gülen)

Turkish-origin Sunni Islamic civic-religious movement founded by Fethullah Gülen (1941-2024) from the 1970s onward. Operates approximately 1,000 schools, hospitals, and media outlets across 100+ countries. Designated terrorist organisation (FETÖ) by Turkey in 2016 following the failed coup attempt; subject to mass purge in Turkey 2016-2025. Documented coercive-control patterns include the 'Himmet' donation system, blackmail-file network, and total-organisation-loyalty above national or family obligation.

Bobov Hasidic

Polish-origin Hasidic dynasty headquartered in Boro Park, Brooklyn. One of the largest Hasidic communities in North America (~10,000+ families). Long-running Bobov-45 / Bobov-48 succession schism since 2005.

Belz Hasidic

Galician-origin Hasidic dynasty centred in Jerusalem (Kiryat Belz). ~7,000 families globally. Substantial Israeli political influence through Agudat Israel and the Council of Torah Sages.

Vizhnitz Hasidic

Bukovinian-origin Hasidic dynasty (Vyzhnytsia, now western Ukraine) with multiple modern successor courts (Vizhnitz–Bnei Brak, Vizhnitz–Monsey, Vizhnitz–Israel-second-court). Several thousand families globally.

Hizb ut-Tahrir

Transnational political-Islamist organisation founded by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani (1953) seeking the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate. Banned in numerous countries including UK (2024), Germany, Russia, and many Muslim-majority states.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Dahn Yoga / Body & Brain (Ilchi Lee)

Korean-origin yoga and brain-training network founded by Ilchi Lee (1985, Korean operation; US 1991). Subject of Julia Siverls (2003) wrongful-death lawsuit and ongoing US civil litigation over staff conditions and financial demands.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Avatar Course / Star's Edge International (Harry Palmer)

Active intensive-seminar network founded in 1986 by Harry Palmer (a former Scientology mission holder) and operated through Star's Edge International from Altamonte Springs, Florida. The Avatar Course is delivered as a sequence of multi-day residential intensive seminars (the Avatar Course, the Masters Course, the Wizards Course, the Avatar Professional course) under a Scientology-derived 'tech' adapted into a non-Scientology commercial format. Documented in academic Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) literature, in sustained mainstream press, and in long-running ex-participant testimony archives.

Science of Identity Foundation / Chris Butler

Hawaii-based offshoot of the Krishna-consciousness tradition led by Chris Butler ('Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda'), operating through low-visibility satsang networks, schools, and political engagement rather than temples. Ex-members — several now public figures' critics — describe absolute guru veneration, purity rules, homophobic teaching, and children raised under total deference to Butler. Coverage expanded after adherent-raised politician Tulsi Gabbard's campaigns drew scrutiny to the network.

Local Church (Witness Lee / Living Stream Ministry)

Christian movement growing out of Watchman Nee's 'Little Flock' and developed by Witness Lee in the USA. Distinctive 'pray-reading' practice, hierarchical structure tied to Living Stream Ministry, and one-recognised-church-per-locality theology.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)

Pakistani Barelvi political-religious party founded in August 2015 by Khadim Hussain Rizvi (1966–2020) following the February 2016 execution of Mumtaz Qadri, assassin of Punjab governor Salman Taseer. Built around mass street mobilisation against any perceived softening of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, with multiple violent confrontations killing dozens of police and civilians. Banned under the Anti-Terrorism Act in April 2021; ban lifted in November 2021 after backroom negotiations with the Imran Khan government. Now led by Rizvi's son Saad Hussain Rizvi.

Neturei Karta (anti-Zionist Haredi)

Small insular anti-Zionist Haredi group (founded 1938) opposing the State of Israel as illegitimate before messianic redemption. Controversial alliances with Iran and other anti-Israel governments.

Jewish Defense League (Meir Kahane lineage)

Religious-Zionist militant organisation founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in Brooklyn, New York (1968). Built around the slogan 'Never Again' and a combination of vigilante street action, anti-Soviet-Jewry advocacy, and increasingly virulent anti-Arab political theology. The FBI in 2001 listed JDL among 'right-wing terrorist groups' active in the United States. Kahane was assassinated in November 1990; his Israeli successor parties (Kach and Kahane Chai) were outlawed by Israel after the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre by Kahane disciple Baruch Goldstein.

Word of Faith / Prosperity Gospel networks

Word of Faith and Prosperity Gospel networks (Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, T.B. Joshua, much of TBN's flagship roster) blend Pentecostal worship with explicit teaching that financial gifts to the ministry produce divine wealth.

Jesus Christians (Dave McKay)

Small active communal-living Christian movement founded in 1981 by Dave McKay (an Australian-born ex-Children of God / Family International member) and his wife Cherry. The movement operates as a sequence of small communal households across Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, and Kenya, organising around a literal-discipleship interpretation of Christian texts. The movement is internationally known for its members' documented practice of voluntary kidney donations to strangers as an expression of that literal-discipleship framework. Documented in sustained BBC and Sydney Morning Herald long-running coverage and in documentary work.

Political / Ideological

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)

Indian Hindu nationalist paramilitary-style organisation founded by K.B. Hedgewar (1925). Largest volunteer organisation in the world. Documented links to political violence including the 1948 Gandhi assassination.

New Religious Movement

Honmichi (Tenrikyo offshoot, Onishi Aijirō)

Tenrikyo schism organised by Onishi Aijirō in 1925 (and twice suppressed for lèse-majesté in 1928 and 1938) on the basis of the living-Kanrodai revelation. ~300,000 adherents at peak; today substantially smaller.

Political / Ideological

OneCoin (Ruja Ignatova)

Bulgarian-Indian-marketed cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme founded by Ruja Ignatova (2014). Estimated $4+ billion fraud. Ignatova disappeared in 2017; FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list since 2022. Multiple co-conspirator convictions.

Hikari no Wa (Aum Shinrikyo successor splinter)

Aum Shinrikyo splinter group founded by Fumihiro Joyu in May 2007 after he led a faction breakaway from Aleph (the renamed parent organisation). Joyu — Aum's media spokesperson during the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack period and Asahara's designated successor in the late 1990s — explicitly renounced Asahara veneration in 2007 and reframed Aum's doctrine in deliberately moderated terms. Approximately 200 members across Japan as of 2024; remains under ongoing Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) monitoring under Japan's 1999 Group Regulation Law along with Aleph and Aleph successor 'Circle of Rainbow Light'.

Sathya Sai Baba movement

Global devotional movement around Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011), who claimed to be an avatar and drew millions with materialisation miracles and vast charitable works — hospitals, schools, water projects. From the 1990s, ex-devotees and international media documented allegations of sexual abuse of young male devotees and unexplained 1993 ashram deaths; no case reached independent adjudication in his lifetime. The post-2011 trust continues the institutions; a rival 'Muddenahalli' successor claims a channelled continuation.

Ram Bahadur Bomjon / Bodhi Shrawan Dharma Sangha

Ram Bahadur Bomjon ('Buddha Boy'), a Nepalese ascetic who drew mass attention from 2005 after claims of months-long fasting meditation, leads a multi-district ashram network (Bodhi Shrawan Dharma Sangha) in Bara, Sarlahi, Sindhupalchok and Sindhuli districts. He was convicted of rape by the Sarlahi District Court in 2024, then acquitted by the Janakpur High Court in 2025 on statute-of-limitations grounds — a procedural ruling that did not examine the merits — with the Attorney General's Office now appealing that acquittal to the Supreme Court. Separately, at least five disappearance investigations tied to his ashrams remain open, alongside an unresolved money-laundering case.

Loading…