If Suneel Chakravorty is wrong about everything else in his support of Raniere, in his belief in his goodness, in his contention that the US DOJ unfairly convicted him, that the judge was biased — he may not be wrong about his expert: James Richard Kiper Ph.D.
Chakravorty stated that three forensic experts examined some of the evidence from Raniere’s trial and stated that the FBI most likely tampered with it in the prosecution of Keith Raniere. The evidence in question was the Camila photos.
We do not know if or when the Rule 33 motion is to be filed. The deadline is June 2022.
A Rule 33 is a motion for a new trial and must be based on evidence that was newly discovered after the trial – and that could not have been discovered before or during the trial.
This Rule 33, if it is ever filed, is to be based purportedly on “newly discovered evidence” from three computer forensic experts whose reports claim that the FBI tampered with photographs of Camila that were used as evidence to convict Raniere of child porn and the sexual exploitation of a child.
We learned from Chakravorty the names of these experts. The primary one is Kiper. The others, Steve Abrams Esq. and Wayne Norris, serve as corroborators of Dr. Kiper.
According to Chakravorty, Kiper and the others stated:
Nude Photos were added to the camera card while the device was in FBI custody, between 4/11/19 and 6/11/19. [Exhibits were substituted during the trial.]
Dates and times of nude photos on the hard drive were manually altered.
Folder names that contained the nude photos were manually set to certain, very precise dates and times in 2005, to corroborate the “fabricated” photo dates.
The backup folder on the hard drive containing the nude photos was backdated and manually placed on the hard drive and efforts were made to conceal the alterations to make it look like a legitimate, automatic computer backup.
Dr. James Richard Kiper
Who is Dr. Kiper?
Dr. James Richard Kiper retired from the FBI in 2019, having served 20 years in the agency, mainly as a computer forensic examiner. He was, according to his resume, Unit Chief of the FBI Academy in Quantico, as part of the Investigative Training Unit.
He supervised curriculum and instructors for the FBI New Agent Training Program and National Academy in Cybercrime, Counterterrorism, and Counterintelligence, and served as Leadership Coordinator for the FBI Academy and advanced instructor in the FBI Instructor Development Program.
Went Around the World to Train Nations in Computer Forensics
While at the FBI, Kiper was chosen to develop and deliver cybercrime investigations training to law enforcement “partners” in the following countries on behalf of the FBI and the Department of Defense International Counterproliferation Program.
Albania,
Bosnia,
Singapore,
Moldova,
Georgia,
Bulgaria,
Colombia,
Serbia,
Azerbaijan,
Saudi Arabia,
Philippines
Since retiring, he continues to teach the detection of cybercrime around the world.
In addition to being a teacher, Dr. Kiper had a career in the field, detecting and solving crimes. Among some of his duties were:
Coordinating the largest telemarketing fraud victim restitution in the history of the Department of Justice at the time
In the field during the 2017 WannaCry Ransomware attack
In the field during the October 2018 political mail bombing case
Handled six American citizen kidnappings.
Served in various FBI investigative programs, doing investigations, working especially in the transnational street gangs program
Coordinated with FBI Crisis Negotiation personnel
Coordinated with FBI Victim Witness Specialists
He also provided FBI training to the Salvadoran National Police, including tactical and investigative training, and spearheaded the first-ever U.S.-led witness security training for El Salvador, which culminated in a Witness Security Conference that was televised nationally in El Salvador.
Dr. Kiper distinguished himself also as a watchdog for the American public. His case is well known.
In 2011, Kiper observed that funds were being misused and mismanaged – and at a level that it might be called waste and fraud – at the FBI training academy. He raised the issue with his immediate superiors at the FBI, doing so without a lawyer present.
Rather than correct the problem, they retaliated and removed him from his position, despite the fact that he had outstanding evaluations from his supervisors, and that he had received several awards during his tenure at the Training Division.
The story is well known. Certain officials made accusations against him for having made whistleblower disclosures, but he was vindicated. Based on his efforts and the fight he waged against retaliation, he got a law passed in Congress – the FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016 – which clarifies that FBI whistleblowers are protected if they report wrongdoing to their supervisors or through their managerial chain of command.
Dr. Kiper worked with US Senator Charles E. Grassley in writing the law, enacted because of his perseverance.
“This is a really important provision for the patriotic men and women at the FBI who have gone without the whistleblower protections given to other federal employees for far too long.,” Senator Grassley said.
Kiper Claims Tampering
Dr. James Richard Kiper
Dr. Kiper stated in his report on behalf of Raniere: “In my 20 years as an FBI agent, I have never observed or claimed that an FBI employee tampered with evidence, digital or otherwise. But in this case, I strongly believe the multiple, intentional alterations to the digital information I have discovered constitute evidence manipulation. And when so many human-generated alterations happen to align with the government’s narrative, I believe any reasonable person would conclude that evidence tampering had taken place. My analysis demonstrates that some of these alterations definitely took place while the devices were in the custody of the FBI. Therefore, in the absence of any other plausible explanation it is my expert opinion that the FBI must have been involved in this evidence tampering.”
Some six years before he wrote this, Dr. Kiper testified before the United States Senate, Committee on the Judiciary Whistleblower Retaliation at the FBI: Improving Protections and Oversight, on March 4, 2015.
He said:
“Like thousands of other FBI employees, I work hard at my job every day… I take seriously my responsibility to keep the American people safe, but I also recognize the importance of effectively managing the resources they have entrusted to me… However, I never imagined that my desire to promote excellence would be used against me… I was making a disclosure of wrongdoing to ‘an appropriate recipient.’ I was just trying to do the right thing – as I’ve always done. I made these disclosures to the highest-ranking officials at my work site, hoping these executives would at least consider making positive changes… Thank you for considering the expansion of the FBI Whistleblower protections so that the FBI is held accountable for its actions and held to the standard of its motto ‘Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.’”
Suneel Claims Experts Were Paid Normal Fees
Obviously, whenever one hires experts, the experts know that they are hired by clients hoping to hear certain results.
In the Raniere case, the additional issue is that Clare Bronfman has funded the Raniere defense to the tune of millions.
The question naturally arises, did Bronfman’s money influence Dr. Kiper?
Suneel
According to Suneel Chakravorty, who has Raniere’s power of attorney, “The cyber experts charged their standard fee and I and a few friends of Mr. Raniere paid for their services. The total monies spent on this investigation into the tampering are, including expert consultation and equipment, to the best of my knowledge and records, amount to $98,666.71.
“As far as the experts, I did not ask them to simply affirm the findings. I asked them to either corroborate them or disprove them. I doubt they would have affirmed anything they did not believe to be true, based on their sterling credentials and reputations, yet I made it clear that if there were any innocent explanations for the findings, we wanted to know.”
Would Dr. Kiper alter findings for the sake of dollars and cents? He did not when it came time to stand up to his superiors at the FBI or when he spoke before Congress.
We have to presume that Dr. Kiper means what he says when he states, “In the absence of any other plausible explanation, it is my expert opinion that the FBI must have been involved in this evidence tampering.”
So, is there another plausible explanation? I think it is high time we interview Dr. Kiper. He seems like an expert we can trust.
Is it possible that despite Raniere’s despicable nature and the fact that he would cheat on a dime to save himself, and that maybe Suneel is wrong about anything concerning Raniere, Kiper seems like the real McCoy to me?
I do not see how I can ignore this. Let us explore if there is any other plausible explanation. I look forward to interviewing Kiper if he will agree to it.
This investigation is underway…
