Yesterday, I posted an article, Operation Legatus: NXIVM Crimes Revealed by Susan Dones Might be Worth Looking at by NDNY.
The article detailed crimes that Keith Raniere and his racketeering enterprise Nxivm committed, as alleged by Susan Dones in a deposition she gave in 2010.
AnonyMaker commented, “Unfortunately, I assume that most or all of this is past the statute of limitations.”
Actually, that is not true.
The crimes – such as fraud, tax evasion, etc. would be, if treated as stand-alone charges, beyond the statute of limitations. However, if named as predicate acts for charges of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, these crimes would not be beyond the statute of limitations.
Racketeering predicate acts can go beyond the statute of limitations in order to prove a pattern of racketeering.
Racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges are warranted for Clare Bronfman, her sister, Sara Bronfman-Igtet, Nancy Salzman and, of course, Keith Raniere.
While Raniere will almost certainly get 20 years or more for charges already proven against him in the Eastern District of NY [DOJ], Clare got off with a plea deal with sentencing guidelines in the 21-27 month range.
She purchased this deal by paying a $6 million fine to the feds.
Nancy also got off with a light deal with one felony – racketeering conspiracy and a sentencing range likely to be around 2 1/2 -3 years.
The feds also kept $520,000 in cash found in her house.
Of the three biggest criminals of Nxivm, only Keith faces serious time.
Nancy Salzman with Sara Bronfman at V-Week 2017.
Legatus: The reason I’m conducting Operation Legatus [Legatus is a tribute name for Clare – like Prefect for Nancy or Vanguard for Raniere] is to try to demonstrate to the Northern District that they have an easy, robust, solid and profitable case of racketeering against the Bronfmans, Salzman, and Raniere.
Of course, Raniere is sewn up for decades, but he needs to be included in the case since he is the leader. He must be included in order to nab Clare and Sara Bronfman and get them to pay for their crimes.
And by “pay” I mean it literally. The sisters will pay millions to buy down their sentences.
The Northern District is sitting on a pot of gold in fines and forfeitures that would put them on the map for money collected in seizures, fines and forfeitures among the US DOJ’s 93 district offices – for 2020.
If they couldn’t get $20 -$30 million out of those two criminally-minded dunce sisters, I would be astonished.
It will be good for taxpayers also since it would not cost anywhere near that much to prosecute the sisters.
On top of that, it will make a reputation for some smart assistant US attorney in the NDNY – especially if he or she focuses on the Bronfmans. That bright AUSA will likely wind up – like Moira Penza did in the EDNY after prosecuting Raniere – being offered a partnership in some white-shoe law firm and jump from $150,000 at the DOJ to a million per year.
Over-saturated on Nxivm? No Way
Even though the headlines were plenteous in the first NXIVM case – the focus was on Raniere and Allison Mack. And the sex crimes.
To get fame for this prosecution, the NDNY should keep focused on the Bronfmans. Privileged, super-wealthy sisters who cared naught about anyone else and used their fortunes to squash other people’s lives. Both at Raniere’s direction and on their own – for the pure pleasure in it. And because they could.
The name Bronfman will make headlines; this could be a great international news story.
This time it is not about an ugly man with his crazy TV actress abusing women in a sex cult – it will be about the abuse of wealth and privilege by the elite – those who normally escape justice.
Keep the focus on Bronfmans – not Raniere – skip Allison Mack. True, her fame helped the EDNY – by elevating the sex aspects of the crazy case – but it will be a distraction in the NDNY prosecution.
I would advise the NDNY to try to keep the trials together – Bronfman with Raniere – so that the child porn charge against Raniere which is sitting right in their laps – remains part of a larger joint trial.
Keith Raniere in his library at 8 Hale Drive
Back in April, Judge Nicolas Garaufis dismissed four charges against Raniere including possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child – Camilia – who was 15 in 2005 – because of jurisdictional issues. He took nude pictures of her. The brilliant Vanguard kept those pics for 12 years – even after he fled for Mexico – and the feds found them on a hard drive when they raided his library].
Clare [l] and Sara [r] Bronfman
Keeping the trials together will put pressure on Clare and Sara to take plea deals and pay big money to get out of it.
To recap:
The reason for the post recalling Susan Dones’ old allegations – that would otherwise be beyond the statute of limitations – is that they can still be part of a racketeering charge.
Racketeering charges are based on predicate acts. Some acts need to be within the statute of limitations – but others can go back well beyond the statute of limitations – to prove a longstanding racketeering enterprise.
There are already several racketeering predicate acts the NDNY is aware of. The reason they are aware of it is that it was handed to them in a gift basket. The EDNY in April dropped several charges against Raniere and one against Clare – declaring these occurred in the Northern District.
The charge against Clare – conspiracy to commit identity theft [with Raniere] is ripe for prosecution.
Two other easy crimes – are her perjuries in the criminal and civil Computer Trespassing cases and her blatant perjury in the grand jury against me. These are slam dunk cases and easy to prove. I will be writing more about these soon.
Susan Dones identified several more crimes back in 2010 but nobody was paying attention back then.
Just to remind readers that old crimes can still be used effectively for the prosecution in racketeering cases, keep in mind that in the case against Keith Raniere in the EDNY, more than half [11] of the 16 racketeering predicate acts were beyond the statute of limitations if they had been charged as separate crimes. Some of them were as old or older than the matters Dones brought up.
And the fraud – about Bronfmans knowing Keith was lying about his accomplishments – in order to induce people to pay to join Nxivm – is within the statute of limitations if it were to be charged as a stand-alone crime. This then would open the door to money laundering and wire fraud. The Mexican money laundering also continued within the statute of limitations.
But even if they were all beyond it, let’s look at the EDNY’s 16 predicate acts and see how 11 of them occurred from 2002 to 2012.
EDNY Racketeering Acts beyond statute of limitations
1A (Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft – Ashana Chenoa)
Raniere conspired with Kathy Russell, Kristin Keeffe, Nancy Salzman, and others to get Daniela into the US illegally by using the name of the late Ashana Chenoa, a perfect stranger to them.
1B (Conspiracy to Unlawfully Possess Identification Document)
They had a bogus ID for Chenoa that got Daniela across the border.
Racketeering Act 2 (Sexual Exploitation of a Child on November 2, 2005 – Camila).
Racketeering Act 3 (Sexual Exploitation of a Child on November 24, 2005 – Camila) [beyond the statute of limitations].
Raniere took nude pictures of 15-year-old Camila on Nov. 2, and Nov. 24, 2005. He kept those in his so-called Library at 8 Hale Drive in Clifton Park to be found by FBI agents.
5A (Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft)
5B (Identity Theft – James Loperfido)
Raniere and his coconspirators – including Kathy Russell and Daniela hacked into accountant James Loperfido’s email account. They were trying to spy on one of his clients, Joe O’Hara.
5C (Identity Theft – Edgar Bronfman)
Raniere and co-conspirators Clare Bronfman and Daniela hacked into Clare’s father’s email account so they could spy on him.
6 (Conspiracy to Alter Records for Use in an Official Proceeding)
Raniere and Nancy Salzman – with the help of Mark Vicente, who testified he did not know why he was asked to do it – altered video that was later used in evidence in a federal civil case Nxivm brought against Rick Ross.
7 (Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft – Marianna)
Raniere, helped by Daniela and others, hacked into Mariana’s accounts.
8A (Trafficking for Labor and Services – Daniela)
They forced Daniela to do labor and services – without pay – which included a series of book reports on books in Raniere’s library.
8B (Document Servitude – Daniela)
Raniere, Lauren Salzman and others – after confining Daniela to a room in Clifton Park NY for 700 days – refused to return her birth certificate and other documents – when they let her return to Mexico.
Not Beyond the Statute if charged as separate crimes
4 (Possession of Child Pornography)
Raniere can be charged for this as a stand-alone crime in the NDNY.
9 (Extortion)
The extortion arose out of the fear of DOS slaves who were required to do certain acts – while Raniere and the other DOS slave masters, such as Lauren and Allison Mack, held collateral over them.
10A (Sex Trafficking – Nicole)
10B (Forced Labor – Nicole)
Nicole had to do various chores for Pam Cafritz’s memorial service because Raniere and Mack held her collateral.
11 (Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft – Pamela Cafritz)
Raniere, along with others, notably Clare Bronfman, used the late Pam Cafritz’s American Express credit card to charge up hundreds of thousands of dollars. They did pay the charges on the card (quite likely from Pam’s bank account) – but it is a crime to use a dead person’s credit card – even if you pay it.
***
So you can see by the way the EDNY put their predicate acts together to support the racketeering charges they reached back in time and continued up to the present.
The same technique can be applied to the NDNY’s Bronfman racketeering case.
Forget about when the crimes were committed. Let us snag old Legatus and her companions in crime for their racketeering that has harmed so many people for so many years.
Stay tuned for more on Operation Legatus.
We are far from done.
