A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than $900,000 on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group’s activities.

The court convicted the Church of Scientology’s French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used “commercial harassment” against recruits.

A spokeswoman for the French branch of Scientology, Agnes Bron, said the verdict was “an Inquisition of modern times,” a reference to efforts to rout out heretics of the Roman Catholic Church in centuries past.

The group’s French branch said it would appeal the verdict.

“It’s really all bark and no bite,” said the spokesman of the Church of Scientology International, Tommy Davis. “The church will emerge victorious on appeal.”

via Church of Scientology convicted of fraud in France.