At the September 30th sentencing hearing of Clare Webb Bronfman, where she was sentenced to 81 months in prison, nine women spoke as victims. The fifth to speak was Toni Natalie.
We have published the statements of the first four.
Sarah Edmondson, appeared by video: here.
Ivy Nevares, appeared by video: here.
Jane Doe 14, a DOS slave, appeared by video: here.
Jane Doe 12, appeared live: here.
The following is Toni Natalie’s statement. She appeared live. My explanatory remarks are in [brackets and in bold].
By Toni Natalie
Good morning, your Honor.
If not for a chosen few, the money, the power inherent in the Bronfman name, this criminal enterprise would never have existed. Clare Bronfman was a pivotal part of trying to destroy my life. If not for her, I would not be standing in this courtroom today.
I’d like to introduce myself to Clare as we never formally met. Clare, my name is Toni Natalie, otherwise known within Nxivm as “a suppressive,” someone that needed to be destroyed, as testified to in this very courthouse [during the trial of Keith Raniere].
I was not part of Nxivm. I’m not involved in any capacity with you and any of your businesses, yet I and my family felt the weight of your power for almost two decades.
As I stand here I say I never met Clare. And the last time I spoke to Keith Raniere, her Vanguard, is when I fled Albany in 1999.
With Nancy Salzman by his side the last words said to me were: “The next time I see you, you’ll be dead or in jail.”
He was half right, only he was the one in jail.
The relentless litigation did not end until multiple arrests. And would have not never been possible without the funding Clare has admittedly provided.
In the fall of 2014 I lost both my parents. My Mom died on October 17. She was the strongest person I’ve ever known, losing two children in her lifetime, dying from pancreatic cancer, fearing are we going to jail on false charges or being sued for millions, both brought and funded by Clare Bronfman.
Before she passed she looked at me and said: “Toni, you’re not crazy, don’t make them think you are. I’ll always be with you.”
My Dad died 21 days after losing my Mom. Our conversation was about Keith, the cult, the power, the Bronfman money, the relentless pursuit of me. And how with their unlimited funds would we ever stop them. Even the end of their lives they were still being controlled by this cult, supported by Clare Bronfman.
On February 27, 2015, I was indicted on four false felony counts of computer trespassing. And I was alone. The insurance money from their death was the only way I could afford to hire a former federal prosecutor, William Dreyer, for a second time [he had represented her on an earlier criminal matter]. Bill could not be bought off, bribed off, or scared off. But that didn’t stop them [Raniere-Bronfman]. They had a lot of money to prove their ethics.
I’m trying to keep myself together as I write this, as it seems like for the hundredth time, but you never see it coming. Every time you think it’s over, there it is, that crack in the plate. You’re triggered. They are back again with a different name or different spin, but with the same goal, destruction in the name of humanity. Same playbook, different players, as seen in the latest move, “Make Justice Blind” [a Nxivm group].
Like a Freudian slip, “make justice blind,” something you’ve [Clare] attempted to do with your relentless litigation against anyone who spoke out against your organization or your Vanguard.
My litigation started in 1999 with an eight-and-a-half year battle in bankruptcy court. The judge, granting my discharge in 2003, wrote: “This matter smacks of jilted fellow’s attempt at revenge retaliation from his former girlfriend with many attempts of tripping her up along with the way.”
Influenced and financed by Clare, the litigation continued until 2008. Appeals going all the way up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District.
In 2003 I spoke to Forbes and your father, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., desperate to expose the dangers of this cult.
“Get your girls out,” I told him.
Clare knowingly used terror by litigation to try to silence Nxivm’s perceived enemy. My name was also in the box found in Nancy Salzman basement [Boxes of documents were seized by the FBI when they raided Salzman’s house, which included private investigators’ files regarding a number of Nxivm enemies including federal judges.].
In 2005 a knock on the door by the FBI. A dossier created by Nxivm made its way into the FBI’s office. With the help of my parents, we hired a local Albany attorney. In 2006, an invoice from 2005, a retainer for $10,000-plus to conduct a discreet confidential investigation on me and my family. Juval Aviv, former officer in the Mossad, Israeli’s equivalent to the CIA, the same organization hired to go after cult expert Rick Ross. [Aviv is a private investigator hired by Nxivm to investigate its enemies. He wound up in litigation with them.]
In 2007 a 20-page dossier was sent to a reporter by Nxivm. 260 counts of my criminal violation. He had never seen anything like that before, and suggested I sue for defamation. I thanked him. And once again prayed you [Clare] would go away, knowing I could never win against Nxivm’s high-paid hired guns that were trying to, quote, “control the legal system and now the media.”
In 2007 a letter from an Albany attorney saying “take a big breath they want to move forward with the charges. A trial will cost $150,000-plus. And you should take a plea deal, possibly a short stint in a federal prison, or at best home confinement and a fine but I’d be able to work.” [Natalie was under criminal investigation for fraud.]
Hadn’t I put my parents through enough? They lost their home in Saratoga and so much more. With my Mom’s support, we declined [to take a plea deal]. And as a suggestion, we hired Bill Dreyer. In my meeting with Bill he said to me, “you don’t look like Genghis Kahn. Not even the math adds up, and this has ‘political’ written all over it. Who did you piss off?”
Bill understood the underlying influence within the organization. It had been made public that Nxivm hired Roger Stone to assist them.
I followed his [Dreyer’s] guidance, held my breath, and waited for my time to be up, at least this time.
In 2007 it was stated on camera that Nxivm had scorched earth policy pursuing their enemies. I wasn’t just scorched; I was incinerated.
In 2010 someone claiming to be an FBI agent showed up at my work. A group of nine women left Nxivm and they {Raniere, Bronfman] were desperate to scare and silence everyone. Notwithstanding the legal pursuit of my mother, going as far as buying a creditors position in her bankruptcy.
And my brother, a brother who I lost on March 12, 2009, to an apparent suicide, according to the autopsy. My brother was in communications with Keith, as explained to me in heart-wrenching detail. John was desperate to stop the ongoing litigation that was destroying our family, pulling us apart. I don’t believe my brother woke up that day and decided to take his own life. I believe people who died, deal with this type of relentless pursuit do things to ease the pain, you drink, you take drugs, you over medicate, you stop caring for yourself as you should. [Her brother’s longtime live-in girlfriend told Frank Report that he died of a heart attack and was not suicidal but wanted to live, was not distressed or frightened of Raniere, and that he had not spoken to his sister for several years prior to his death.]
Nxivm teaches in one of their modules that suicide is honorable if you’re not bringing value to your family.
Clare claims she never participated with illegal activities. This is not true. What is true was she never was charged with any of her illegal activities until now. And why? The question [is] better answered by the [NY Northern] district that let this cult run rampant for decades.
In 2012, I was invited to Mexico by a reporter, a free trip, to discuss this story. I declined.
In October of 2013 my home was raided, searched for anything Nxivm or Keith Raniere related. The police – I had been giving information to about illegal activities, including underage girls and the girls from Mexico — were now at my home for a warrant for me. This was followed by civil suit for millions.
September 2015, a civil case, the civil case was thrown out. Judge Kahn’s ruling stated: “Ms. Bronfman, a member of Nxivm’s executive board, acknowledged during an unrelated bankruptcy more than two years before the lawsuit was filed, that she suspected intrusions of her computer system.” [This established that Bronfman lied about the date of discovery of the computer trespass in order to preserve the statute of limitations on the lawsuit.]
The judge noted with some troubling facts, but ultimately declined to impose Rule 11 sanctions. That, however, was purely an issue of law. And did not alter the fact that Clare had lied in order to continue her litigation.
[The judge in dismissing the civil case that cost multiple defendants as much as a million dollars in legal fees, wrote that he was unable to punish Clare for her perjury because of a time-related technicality, but acknowledged she lied to the court. The case could not have been brought if she told the truth about the date of discovery of the computer trespass. She was only caught in the lie because of previous statements she made on the record in another legal matter.]
Nor did it stop her from pursuing bogus criminal charges [on the same matter – the computer trespass. That criminal case was resolved when it was discovered that Clare lied about the location of the Nxivm computer server].
In 2015, a patent, I was unaware I owned, until a lawsuit, filed by Mr. Raniere and funded, as stated, by Ms. Bronfman, against AT&T and Microsoft for patent infringement in excess of $20 million. The Court ruled I was the only one that could bring the claim, yet in the midst of the criminal litigation. I barely had taken a breath before I was served by AT&T, Microsoft and Keith Raniere in the state of Washington, with little time to respond and clearly not the resources needed to defend the actions.
In February of 2016, broken and exhausted, I reached an ACOD [adjournment in contemplation of dismissal in the criminal computer trespass case]. They say an ACOD returns you to your prior life. If that be true, I’d like my life back. I miss my child, my parents, my home, my reputation, my work, my life, and what it should have been.
The most difficult thing in my life was losing my Mom. The second, were the seven weeks of this [Keith Raniere] trial. It was like watching a parallel universe run through my mind, as timelines collided with so many witnesses.
In 2004 I was diagnosed with PTSD and fibromyalgia, then filed by CPTSD, Complex Post Traumatic Stress.
I live alone with my dog since 2010. The pressure destroyed my marriage. My life is difficult to explain to anyone, and I feel safer for people to keep a distance. I jump each time the door rings. I live where I can all around me. I don’t allow my dog to go outside unless I watch her; my last dog was poisoned. I look over my shoulder always.
My son lives with his dad in a different state.
Each time I felt it was safe to bring my child back into my world, it would implode again. My world was never safe place to raise a child. He’s a grown man now. I missed most of his childhood fighting legal battle after legal battle. Working to stay alive, funded by you [Clare].
I believe it’s just a matter of time before it starts all over again; if it hasn’t already. And I don’t know how much more fight I have left in me.
I’m sorry, your Honor, this is so long and disjointed.
Clare’s response to the Court [her letter refusing to disavow Raniere] suggested to me that she has absolutely no remorse. I feel it’s only appropriate that she now stand before this Court to be sentenced to prison. And there is no amount of time that will give me back my family or the many years of my life I fought these monsters off to stay alive. I hope every day she’s behind bars, Clare reflects on the evil and damage she inflicted on so many others. And brings back to the world something other than the destructive force she has brought so far.
In closing, I ask for one more thing, as a favor to a family, truth for Kristin Snyder [a woman who disappeared in Alaska after leaving a Nxivm course]. Someone [in Nxivm] knows something [about her disappearance].
I’m grateful for the Court for their time and consideration. Thank you.
