An anonymous commenter, whom I call Mark Question, asked a series of questions in a previous post Suneel Won’t Answer Tough Questions, so Frank Has to Start Asking and Investigating. Now, Mark has additional questions for Suneel and myself.
Mark Question
We still don’t have enough answers.
How could these experts examine a hard drive with the photos that Suneel Chakravorty says were added after the FBI had it in their possession for a long time?
The hard drive given to Keith Raniere’s attorneys didn’t contain the photos of Cami on it.
Who is the one tampering with evidence, Suneel? Where did the photos of Cami come from that your experts looked at?
Where did the photos of Cami come from you looked at Suneel Chakravorty?
Where did the photos of Cami come from that Frank Parlato has seen, Suneel?
Where did the photos of Cami come from that Frank Parlato’s friend from another state looked at Suneel?
We want to know. We know they were not on Raniere’s discovery evidence. So how can your experts say anything about the discovery evidence?
They can only report on what you provide them.
We are still waiting on the CHAIN OF CUSTODY information as to who gave the Hard Drive to these experts. What could have happened to it between the time it left Raniere’s lawyers and went to these experts?
Yet, Frank Parlato, who says he’s an investigative reporter, hasn’t gotten that information.
Yet, Frank writes a story as if there was a CLEAN EXCHANGE and no tampering on Raniere’s side. He wants to make it all about the FBI but doesn’t ask any hard questions about Suneel or Raniere’s side tampering? Why is that, Frank?
We don’t trust Suneel or Nicki to be honest any more than we can throw the smelly guy.
This case doesn’t, and never has hinged on these photos. There was plenty of evidence to lock Raniere’s ass up for more years than he would live without the charges of child porn and child exploitation.
There was no need for the FBI to tamper with evidence in order to get a win in this case. Raniere’s other behaviors were enough to make any normal person stomach turn and find him guilty on all other counts.
A 60 -80 year sentence would have made any one of us happy.
As far as Frank Parlato’s claim that the other defendants only turned to plea deals after the child porn charges were issued, that is fact-less and his guessing.
We want to know more than what Suneel Chakravorty is sharing. His fluffy statements and Frank Parlato’s stand-by-my-NXIVM-faithful is getting tiresome.
Let’s dig into the truth of this or move the hell on. It’s wash, rise and repeat. Readers are growing sick of the BS,Frank
Grow a pair and do what you use to do, a real investigation.
Frank Parlato Replies
Frank Parlato
Sometimes, and a little bit tongue in cheek, I call my organization the FPI [Frank Parlato Investigates.] And to paraphrase J. Edgar Hoover, former head of the FBI, I would say, “the FPI is not a police organization. It is purely an investigative organization.”
If I were to guess at this stage, my investigation will likely conclude with a finding that the FBI did not tamper with Camila’s photos. If so, this will be the swan song for Raniere. I do believe Raniere sexually abused Camila when she was 15 and he was 45. What I am investigating is whether the FBI had the evidence to prove it.
I do know that if the FBI DID NOT tamper with the Camila photos, then this is Raniere’s last “Hail Mary” before everyone realizes the gate is closing permanently and he is not going to leave prison alive.
However, on the odd chance that there may be some truth in it, I am beginning my investigation.
For now, I will address one issue that Mark Question raised – for it is worthy of examination: The importance of the Camila photos on the case.
The child porn pictures were discovered on a hard drive more than 10 months after it was seized. It puzzled me because I thought they should have found those pictures sooner.
Receipt of the items seized at 8 Hale.
However, whenever they found it, the discovery was monumental.
The six NXIVM defendants, Upper Row: Kathy Russell, Keith Raniere, Nancy Salzman, LowerAllison Mack, Lauren Salzman, Clare Bronfman.
Mark Question wrote, “As far as, as Frank Parlato claims, the other defendants only turned to plea deals after the child porn charges, that is fact-less and his guessing.”
Actually, I do not think it is all a guess.
The discovery by the FBI of the Camila photos in February 2019, 10 months after Raniere’s arrest, may have impacted all five of Raniere’s co-defendants. At least three specifically mentioned it.
The two Salzmans are speculative at this point. Nevertheless, within a mere couple of weeks after the mid-February announcement of the discovery of the Camila photos, Nancy Salzman took a plea deal.
Lauren Salzman soon followed Nancy’s strategy.
In her sentencing memorandum, Lauren’s lawyer, Hector Diaz, cited emails between Camila and Raniere as the reason for Lauren taking a plea deal and her decision to cooperate. Diaz wrote “upon her review of emails between Raniere and Camila… Lauren was finally able to appreciate the nature of Raniere’s abusive and manipulative tactics.”
Some of the emails suggested Raniere began a relationship with Camila when she was 15.
The remaining three codefendants were even more explicit. They made motions to sever their trial from Raniere and cited the Camila charges as a crucial reason for seeking severance.
Allison Mack’s lawyers – William McGovern, Matthew I. Menchel, Sean S. Buckley, and Gabriela M. Ruiz – wrote in their motion to sever that the new Camila charges, “added disturbing allegations against Raniere, including two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography… The Child Exploitation Acts are unrelated to any of the allegations against Ms. Mack, including the alleged RICO enterprise…the Court must sever Ms. Mack from the trial of Raniere.” [Dkt. 461]
Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis denied her motion to sever, and, Mack quickly accepted a plea deal.
Attorney Justine Harris [l] and her client, Kathy Russell, outside the Brooklyn courthouse on April 8, 2019.
That left Kathy Russell and Clare Bronfman.
Even the steadfastly-loyal-to-Raniere Clare Bronfman had to raise Camila in her defense in terms that were unflattering to Raniere.
Bronfman’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, wrote in a letter in support of her motion to sever, “Mr. Raniere is now charged with child exploitation and child pornography. These new charges are even more inflammatory and prejudicial to Ms. Bronfman than the DOS charges, which already warranted a severance… As we have already shown, courts sever RICO cases to avoid unfair prejudice, and it is difficult to imagine a more compelling case than one in which a co-defendant is charged with sex crimes against a child…
“The alleged fact of a sexual relationship between a man in his late forties and a fifteen-year-old is alone likely to be so offensive to potential jurors and selected jurors as to deprive Ms. Bronfman of a fair trial. But here, the evidence that the government will introduce to prove the enticement and child pornography charges is so likely to appall and offend the jury that the evidence will define how the jury perceives not only Raniere, but also the women surrounding him at trial. These explicit and close-up photos—allegedly of a minor—suggest such a disregard of social norms and possibly the laws regarding sex with minors that it will be difficult for jurors to believe this did not carry over to other aspects of Mr. Raniere’s life; thus, this evidence will unfairly and inevitably infect the jurors’ perceptions of people like Ms. Bronfman, who were close to Raniere.”
When the judge denied her motion, Bronfman took a plea deal.
That left only Kathy Russell.
Russell’s lawyer, Justine A. Harris, wrote to the judge, as part of her efforts to sever Russell’s trial from Raniere: “The risk of unfair prejudice is heightened by the new inflammatory charges against Mr. Raniere. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine allegations more prejudicial to a defendant than those charged here – sex crimes against a child and child pornography.”
When the judge denied the motion to sever, Russell immediately took a plea deal leaving Raniere to stand trial alone.
I don’t think you can say I merely guessed at the impact of the Camila photos.
Meantime, as far as convicted felon Raniere and his prosecution, including the role of the FBI, is concerned, to once again paraphrase J. Edgar Hoover, “All I can say on that is that the investigation is intensively being carried on.”
