Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation International

Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation International
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh driving past followers in Rajneeshpuram in 1982
Court	United States District Court for the District of Oregon
Full case name	Helen C. Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation International
Decided	May 25, 1985
Citation(s)	Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation Intern., 634 F. Supp. 489 (D. Or. 1985)
Case history
Subsequent action(s)	Multiple motions by Rajneesh Foundation International
Holding
After a jury award in favor of Byron, the court denied motions for a new trial and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and upheld an award of punitive damages.
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Chief Judge Owen M. Panner

Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation International was a 1985 lawsuit filed by Helen Byron in Portland, Oregon, against Rajneesh Foundation International, the organization of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now known as Osho). Byron had been recruited to join the Rajneesh movement by her daughter, Barbara. She traveled to India to join her daughter and the organization. Byron provided over US$300,000 to the organization, and some of the money was used to buy an armored Rolls-Royce for Rajneesh. Byron spoke to the legal leader of the organization, Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman), and requested that her money be returned, asserting that it was a loan. Sheela reportedly told her that the money would be returned to her once the group moved to Oregon. Byron followed the organization to its location in Oregon, known as Rajneeshpuram, and requested through an attorney that her money be returned. In 1985, she filed a lawsuit against the organization in federal court, in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Both Byron and Sheela testified in the case: Byron testified that her money was a loan to the organization to purchase land in India, and Sheela that the money was a donation to the organization. A survey submitted by the Rajneesh organization in the case was deemed unreliable by the judge because the survey had been conducted by volunteers who were also members of the organization. The jury decided in favor of Byron, and awarded her her money plus punitive damages. Subsequent to the jury decision, Ma Anand Sheela and an inner circle of followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh at Rajneeshpuram compiled a hit list of people they planned to murder, including both Helen and Barbara Byron, as well as United States Attorney Charles Turner and Oregon Attorney General David Frohnmayer. Sheela and other followers obtained handguns in Texas and false identification in New York, but the plot was never carried out.