Scientology makes its followers feel very important and special. It's all about gaining more and more "secret knowledge" as you hand over more and more money.
Odd that you seem to have such a personal communication with him that you know that Scientology "sucks money" out of him, yet you don't know why he's a Scientologist.
We, as Scientologists, willingly donate to our Church, because we see the results of our donations.
The programs, to name a few that our donations support are: Applied Scholastics, Youth for Human Rights, Truth about Drugs, Drug Free World and Volunteer Minister International Disaster Relief.
All religions --- ALL ---- ask for donations to support the Church. We are expanding exponentially and we also support that and the new buildings for Churches world wide. We are now over 10,000 Churches, Missions and groups in 167 countries.
Go to http://www.scientology.org and watch some videos. Maybe you'll see what might be true for Tom and maybe you won't. Why we find Scientology works for us is because it worked when we used the tools. That really is all there is to it. There was truth for each individual.