Frank Parlato in front of the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse on October 27, 2020, after the sentencing of Keith Alan Raniere.
I’m going to take a moment to write about myself and my work – and how it relates to India Oxenberg.
The four-part docuseries, Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, follows the journey of India in and out of Nxivm and DOS.
The episodes, which premiered on successive Sundays on Starz cable TV network, are:
Hooked [Oct. 18]
Indoctrinated {Oct. 25]
Enslaved [Nov. 1]
Exposed [Nov. 8].
Episode #4 of Seduced shows how my life and India’s intersected, starting on June 5, 2017, when I published Part 1 Branded Slaves and Master Raniere,
It seems to have had an important effect on India, though it may not have been very pleasant at the time.
It has been reported in mainstream media and documented elsewhere that stories on Frank Report prompted Nxivm members to quit and DOS slaves to escape.
This happened before the New York Times published their story Inside a Secretive Group Where Women Are Branded, which was the catalyst for the FBI beginning their investigation.
Frank Report stories are also credited for stopping the branding and forcing DOS to stop recruiting – and for reducing Nxivm to a fraction of its former numbers as members quit in disgust or protest.
Vanguard Week, which had almost 500 attendees in 2016, had, after the branding stories broke, about 150 in 2017,. It was also the last Vanguard Week.
Of course, none of this could have been possible without the help of ex-Nxivm members and enemies of the group. Catherine Oxenberg, Mark Vicente, Bonnie Piesse, Sarah Edmondson, Susan Dones, Joe O’Hara, Toni Zaratinni, Kristin Keeffe, Toni Natalie, Heidi Hutchinson, and others – many of whom asked to not be named – were crucial sources.
In addition, the work of journalists who wrote before I took up the subject, such as Jim Odato, Dennis Yusco, John Tighe, Suzanna Andrews, Chet Hardin, Michael Friedman, and others provided important information that provided the foundation for my own work.
And the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of NY did the actual job of arresting and prosecuting the leaders.
But as far as the media goes, the media as a catalyst of change, it might be said, without excessive bragging, that Frank Report, a blog, broke the Nxivm cult, and the biggest newspaper in America, the New York Times got its leaders arrested.
Now we learn in the docuseries, Seduced, how Frank Report impacted India in an important way.
The public already had access to the 9-part documentary on HBO, The Vow, where, in episode 4, India’s mother, Catherine Oxenberg, and former Nxivm leaders, Mark Vicente and Sarah Edmondson, reveal the existence of DOS. After I published the first stories, they relate in The Vow, it caused “a panic” – branding sessions were halted and slaves left DOS.
You can see this clip from The Vow here
In Seduced, Catherine explains how she reached out to me, and this is followed by interviews of four people who explain the results of that contact. The last of these is India herself. While she did not leave DOS immediately, her three slaves escaped the cauterizing pen.
Here is the clip from Seduced, followed by the transcription and still photos.
https://frankreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Seduced-trecho.mp4
Catherine Oxenberg: Once I had gotten no traction with Albany Law Enforcement and FBI agents, I started working with people who had defected from NXIVM and DOS. And we reached out to one of NXIVM’s archenemies, someone called Frank Parlato, of the Frank Report.
Rick Ross: Frank Parlato was originally Keith Raniere’s PR guy. But, ultimately, NXIVM turned on him. They claimed that he took money. And there were criminal charges.
Rick Ross: So, Frank Parlato decided that he would go against NXIVM.
Catherine Oxenberg: When we reached out to Frank, and we told him about the branding, he started posting on his website.
Kelly: I got a call from someone who said “Have you read the Frank Report?” And I said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.
Kelly
Kelly: So she sent me a link, and she said, “Don’t let anyone know that I’m sending you this link”.
Kelly: And I started reading about collateral. And I thought: “Collateral?” “Oh my God, is this what they were asking me to come into?”
Screenshot of the Frank Report
Naomi: When I started reading the Frank Report and seeing things for what they truly were, it just made me feel ill.
India Oxenberg: Even within NXIVM, no members outside of DOS were supposed to know that it existed.
India: As soon as the [Frank Report] posts started coming up, there were a ton of questions and a lot of chatter.
India: My slaves left immediately after that. And none of them had to complete the seduction assignment or be branded.
India: That was a huge relief.
Catherine Oxenberg: A lot of DOS slaves started to defect.
***
Happily, India never had to face the horrid, lasting reality that Allison Mack, her slave master, faced – having her slaves branded. All three of them escaped – and it should be mentioned that Vicente helped behind the scenes to ensure that at least one wavering slave got the courage to leave.
Catherine too was a vigorous warrior calling young women that India was trying to recruit and warning them off.
Over the years, women have contacted me to tell me they were not branded because of the Frank Report – and other, sadder stories have been told to me by women who were branded, but got out after they read the blog.
I also won’t forget longtime Nxivm members, women of the harem, who, when they met me, began by thanking me saying it was the Frank Report that woke them up and made them realize Keith Raniere was truly evil and not, as he pretended, a spiritual man.
It is very gratifying, to say the least, to have some tangible results for one’s hard work.
To learn more about Seduced and the people behind it, see https://seduceddocumentary.com/seduced-the-docuseries/ceciliapeck/.
For those interested in viewing all four episodes of Seduced, it is available on Flixtor.
Here is the link to watch all four episodes of Seduced.
