"I can't make up my mind if these guys are really stupid or really smart."
As a strategy to keep a few followers, that might work if you can keep them in the dark and feed them their BS.
As legal and financial strategy, it seems like it will lead to payout after payout; Zalkin's firm alone has many lawsuits tee'd up.
Think about it; if they pull this stunt again, the judges will see the complete contempt for the legal system, and punish them accordingly, just as Judge Lewis did.
Or, they let Losch be deposed, and let the fun begin.
Not to mention that Zalkin has Richard Ash (formerly Service Dept, now with CCJW), in deposition, saying that WT has all of the information gleaned from the BOE direction of 3/1997 to turn in all information about abuse cases, and that the WT scanned it, and OCR'd it!
They have ALL of the information on any abuse claims that went into the files!