Everyone who claimed to be a victim in the federal case against Keith Raniere, and his codefendants, was named in a document accidentally published on the US courts website, PACER.gov., [Pacer is an acronym for Public Access to Court Electronic Records] earlier today.
In the past, the court has taken extraordinary pains to shield the identities of most of the women who alleged they were victims of Raniere, and his codefendants, Allison Mack, Clare Bronfman, Nancy Salzman and Lauren Salzman.
The accidentally published document was filed by attorneys for Raniere, who produced a 121-page package including exhibits, to present to the US Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York, detailing their written objections to the US Attorney’s recommendations for restitution for his alleged victims.
On the first page of the document, it reads “FILED UNDER SEAL,” meaning it was not supposed to be made public but available only to the court, the prosecution, and the defense.
The document was first noticed this morning at around 8:00 AM on Pacer.gov. In accordance with an order of US District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, only the existence of the document, not its contents, was supposed to be published. Judge Garaufis sentenced Raniere to 120 years in federal prison following his conviction on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor and other felonies.
The document published today includes a chart with the full names of everyone who alleged they were a victim of Raniere, some of whom have never been identified before, in addition to the amount of restitution each one requested and how much the government recommended they should receive. There are 117 individuals named; some 92 women and 25 men.
The document remained online for hours before being taken down from the PACER website after Frank Report associate editor Joe O’Hara took steps to notify interested parties. It was taken down shortly afterward.
It remains unclear whether it was a filing error on the part of attorneys for Raniere or by PACER. It is not known how many downloaded the document during the hours it was available online.
