By Susan Dones;
Clare and Keith cannot sue everyone who is leaving now, if they all come forward.
I did speak out about what I found out when I left NXIVM to try to save those who wanted to listen. I found out about what I believed to be unethical behavior by Keith Raniere as the founder of the company. He was having sex with many of his students. Yes, they were adults, but they were students, and some were employees of his company. At the time, all but Nancy Salzman who were members of the executive board were sleeping with Keith. This is a huge conflict of interest not only for a company but in regards to promotion within the company. There can be no fair objective standard. I saw people who didn’t have the qualifications get promoted (Sara Bronfman) and others who did have the qualifications not get promoted.
Keith was also borrowing large sums of money from students (millions – 68 million just from the Bronfmans but there were many others) who were students in his company, another conflict of interest. You don’t do that in business, they are your students.
I saw a lot of inconsistency’s throughout my time in NXIVM. When I questioned “why do you teach this but do this, it goes against what you teach?” I only found harsh punishment. Not by Clare, she was not yet on the inside like she is now. Her sister, Sara, was more a power player at that time.
NXIVM did sue my partner and me after leaving. It’s not as bad as one would think, scary, yes, but we were so broke that I couldn’t afford a lawyer. I represented us, myself. I did have help (with a couple of people who know the law and others who knew how they sue, who helped me with everything. They became my advisers. In nine months I was free from NXIVM legal battles and the cost was not that much overall.
NXIVM sent Clare and Jim Del Negro to testify against me. Big mistake. Neither one of them are good on the stand, and when one knows NXIVM’S lies, it’s easy to prove through motions and their testimony in court that they are lying.
NXIVM also had seven high-paid lawyers, but I knew NXIVM’s inside baseball game, so it was easy to expose them in court. I was able to get a lot of information into court documents due to their lawsuit against me. The best thing was a Judge finally ruled what their confidentiality means, what it covers and does not cover.
It only covers their course materials and only when sashes are worn, and the mission statement is read before the class. Other than that, anything else you learn, you can share. NXIVM was attempting to make it mean that if I learned Keith was having sex with multiple women, I couldn’t talk about it. The Judge in my case said, ‘No.’
They attempted to sue me for financial damages, but when it came time to turn over their financials in discovery to me, they refused (they don’t want to turn over their books because they haven’t paid taxes in years.) When they ran out of time with the court to turn them over, they dropped the charges against me, which made the Judge angry as it was half of the 200+ claims against me.
I know a lot of people are fearful about lawsuits, but there are some of us who have paved a path for you and we have knowledge of how to beat them in court now. One thing that has happened is we have gotten dragged into each other lawsuits to be deposed in each of these lawsuits. It’s easy for us to bring lawyers up to speed and to help them to help you win a case.
It’s been a long time since NXIVM or Keith has had a win in court. We can help you find lawyers who can take you on either pro bono, sue for counterclaims and do it for a percentage of what they can get from a settlement, or a team that can help you take NXIVM on yourself.
NXIVM also shot themselves in the foot when they paid a company out of Canada to get financial information on all the judges in all their cases at the time. This information got leaked out after Kristen Keeffe left NXIVM and made it into the Albany Times Union. All the Judges now know and you can’t tell me that judges don’t talk to each other. I think they are going to have a hard time in any court system now. This is why I think they are trying to go with law enforcement to try criminal charges.
With Clare and Keith both on the run, it’s hard to sue from another country. They have to be available to be deposed. To do that, they have to come back to the United States; if they do that, the authorities can be tipped off to when the deposition is. If they don’t show up for a deposition, the lawsuit will end.
