It is peculiar – but back in July the second paragraph of the online advertising description of Toni Natalie’s new book, ‘The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of NXIVM.’ began, “Enter single mother, Toni Natalie, Keith’s Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere’s methodology and the first one to escape.”
It now reads “Enter Toni Natalie, Keith’s Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere’s methodology and the first one to escape.”
Two little words “single mother” disappeared from the Amazon description between July 28 and today.
The book will be available on September 24.
Before we look into this further, let us hear from one of our favorite commenters, Bangkok [AKA The Retard].
He rather nicely sums up her persona – in his blunt way – and helps explain why, perhaps, the publishers, or her publicist, or Toni herself, saw fit to remove the words ‘single mother’ when describing her and her noteworthy accomplishments.
Here is Bangkok [in bold]:
***
In my own humble opinion, Toni Natalie is a disgraceful opportunist who has a habit of using others to further her own agenda.
Let’s look at what FrankReport has reported so far.
The following is based upon information taken from articles written by Joe O’Hara and Frank Parlato:
1) Toni allegedly lied to Joe O’Hara and John Tighe (about having permission to use a NXIVM password) in order to encourage them to access a computer without permission. She allegedly did this to help cover her own tracks or to at least diffuse responsibility among several people, rather than just having her on the hook.
2) Toni allegedly participated in a leasing scheme which sought to gain money through bogus/phantom restaurant equipment that was never bought. Instead, the money was pocketed rather than buying the equipment.
3) Toni was a top salesperson for Consumers Buyline, a pyramid sham that was shut down by pressure from NY authorities. Toni even made a TV infomercial appearance to encourage helpless victims to invest into that sham (a sham that the NY attorney general deemed an illegal pyramid scheme).
4) After CBI was shut down, Toni allegedly started two more MLM companies which many people here have described as pyramid schemes similar to CBI. Both of those firms also failed. Does that sound like a woman who learned her lesson and changed her ways?
5) Toni allegedly bailed as a parent by sending her own adopted son back to live with his father — so that she could run away with a new man named Scott Foley, first to Florida then to NY. In my opinion, that’s akin to ditching your son for a man and it’s DISGRACEFUL since there’s no excuse for not wanting to raise your own child. Does that sound like an ethical woman?
6) Toni was allegedly in charge of two restaurants at different times, both of which failed just like her MLM businesses.
7) Toni allegedly called herself “Queen of the Comp” for making bogus complaints to hotel staff in order to get her room comped or upgraded. She was apparently PROUD of this behavior since she’s the one who gave herself that nickname according to Frank Parlato.
8) Toni allegedly ditched her own husband (Rusty) to shack up with a smelly conman named Keith Raniere. Does that sound like an ethical woman? Sounds like an opportunistic woman to me. Sounds like a woman who’ll do anything if she thinks it’ll benefit her, IMO.
How can her defenders not acknowledge these things?
Overall, I’d say that Toni’s entire life has been one big OPPORTUNISTIC disgrace.
She’s now become a woman who hides behind attorneys who visit this forum and give implied threats of legal action — while IRONICALLY using the same tactics that NXIVM used to silence their own critics. Talk about hypocrisy. LOL.
She is now a public figure (in the eyes of the law) in the context of NXIVM, ESP and Raniere related topics. She has injected herself into this public conversation by appearing on TV, doing media interviews and writing a book.
When her book comes out, I’d love to see a chapter by chapter analysis of how truthful it is.
I don’t consider it ‘normal’ to ship your adopted son away just because you wanna fool around with a new man. That’s disgraceful IMO. What kind of loving mom does that?
***
Yes, it is true, Toni abandoned her son in order to run off with Scott Foley. It is understandable. Scott is 12 years younger than Toni, who at the time was around 40. He was 28.
She had, after all, persuaded him to leave his wife and abandon his own daughter – so how could Toni expect to take a little boy along – as they traveled south in her cozy motor home to the Florida Keys?
The intimacy of their whole honeymoon would be spoiled if it became crowded with children.
As it turned out, the honeymoon with Scott lasted some 10 years before they broke up. By that time, her son was an adult and Toni did indeed meet up with him again.
Now that he did not need any care, and she was sans a husband, and the son had a good-paying job – what earthly reason would there be for not seeing him again?
He was not in the way anymore – and Toni could explain to him – as she explained away all her failures and grifting over the years – that Keith Raniere forced her to leave him. She had to flee to Florida and leave him with his father and then, even after she returned to Rochester [her son and his father lived together in Rochester] and she still did not see him – she could say that she was so worried about Keith doing something bad to him that she sacrificed her keen desire to see him and kept herself away – for his sake.
It is my opinion – and I say this without malice – and even with some slight admiration – just as one would have for anyone good at her craft – that Toni has made Keith her entire living [and her excuse for every failure] since 1990 when she first came to work for him.
An interlude with some fine artwork
MK10ART’s painting of Emiliano Salinas and Toni Natalie.
There was an alleged plot that Salinas and Keith Alan Raniere tried to lure Toni Natalie and other women to Mexico and once there they would be falsely imprisoned and raped.
Toni has made much of this plot over the years to show just how much danger she was in.
According to several accounts – including hers – she knew the whole time that Keith was behind the supposed plot and she had no intention of ever going to Mexico. The old saying “you can’t con a con artist” or ‘bullshit a bullshitter” seems to be true here.
Toni was not afraid – nor almost lured to Mexico – though she certainly used this story many times to increase her stock as the ultimate victim of Raniere.
The Mexican plot seems to be little more than Keith trying to fuck around with her – much like she was fucking around with him – by going into his computer system and stealing his customer list, then passing out the password that she seems to have stolen to others – and claiming it was given to her.
The two – Keith and Toni – are so similar that at times it is quite striking.
MK10ART painting of Toni Natalie and Keith Raniere.
Some have written that Toni didn’t do anything wrong by abandoning her son, claiming INCORRECTLY that it was only her ‘stepson’ and that it was normal to ship him back to his dad when she wanted to run off with Scott Foley.
He was not her stepson – she was his adopted son. [She and husband number 3, Rusty DeCook, adopted the child].
It was, however, in keeping with her character.
After all, she ran away from her husband, Rusty, after starting an adulterous affair with Raniere.
Then, when she started an adulterous affair with Scott [he was married], it was natural for her to run away from Keith.
The only problem was her adopted son. She could hardly sport about with Scott – who is 12 years younger – and lug around an inconvenient child.
Allegedly, she left with money she stole from the business she ran with Keith. This hardly makes Keith a victim because Toni allegedly stole from him.
Keith and Toni had evidently stolen the money to start their new business in the first place – stolen mostly from members of Consumer’s Buyline who never got what they purchased and never got a refund.
Toni knew this. She was around during the rise and fall of Consumer’s Buyline and knew full well that the money to start their new business [a similar type MLM called National Health Network] came from hundreds, perhaps thousands of swindled members of their failed pyramid scheme.
Funny, Toni’s new book is about the Rise and Fall of Nxivm – which she had little to do with and knows very little about.
But she could have written a most excellent book about the Rise and Fall of Consumer’s Buyline – for she was an integral part of both the rise and the fall of that scam.
L-R: Dr. Oz, Susan Dones, Toni Natalie, Rick Ross, and Melissa Moore.
Toni Natalie has portrayed herself as the heroine of Nxivm – a sort of Joan of Arc.
But those who know her say she exaggerates her role.
In fact, some say that she, more than anyone, has profited from Nxivm.
Sources say she is on Social Security Disability and collects money [more than $2,000 per month] based on her alleged PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder]- which she claims was caused by Keith Raniere.
She has not been with Keith in 20 years, yet she has somehow persuaded the government to go on paying her monthly payments based on her decades-old association with Keith. [Of course, as long as Keith keeps doing things to her, real or imagined, the trauma continues and she can keep persuading her therapist that she is deeply traumatized].
For that reason alone, she needs to keep Keith as a menace.
Now that he is in prison and she is writing a book and speaking at forums and giving interviews and making a podcast – it is not clear how much longer she can keep claiming she suffers from PTSD because of Keith.
But with Toni’s acting ability and her wondrous charm, she might be able to stay on disability for years to come.
Maybe even after Raniere passes away. Who knows?
To help demonstrate how really unafraid of Keith, Toni Natalie has always been, consider this: Toni was sued in 2017 by Raniere over a patent he put in her name more than 20 years ago when they were together.
It was Raniere’s invention, but just after the Consumer Buyline debacle, he decided to put nothing in his name. So, he put the patent in the name of a shell company and made Toni the president of the company. The patent lay dormant for decades – and then, in 2017, Raniere initiated a lawsuit against Microsoft and AT&T claiming they infringed on his patent.
He claimed they were using his patent for their teleconferencing technology. In short, he claimed he invented teleconferencing.
Without getting into the merits of the patent at all, Microsoft and AT&T simply argued that Natalie owned the patent, not Raniere. The lawsuit was about to be thrown out of court when Toni saw an opportunity.
She attempted to sell the patent, held in her name, to Raniere for $1 million (She actually called him personally to discuss the matter). She figured Clare Bronfman would cough up the money easily. Toni would have enabled Raniere to pursue his fraud against Microsoft and AT&T if the price was right.
This was in 2018, just before Raniere was arrested. So, how’s that for being traumatized by Raniere?
When Raniere refused to pay Natalie, she tried to sell the patent to AT&T and Microsoft. They offered her $50,000 – mere nuisance value. She turned it down and Keith was arrested days later and the case ended.
Toni later admitted she was foolish to turn down the $50,000 offer. After Raniere’s arrest, Microsoft and AT&T had no interest in paying anything for the patent.
Perhaps no one should condemn Natalie for wanting to get a quick million off of Raniere [courtesy of Clare Bronfman] but it does suggest that she was far less fearful of Raniere than she claims.
It also suggests she was willing to do business with him – at any time – if the price was right.
Toni’s claimed fear of Raniere is part of her shtick. Via taxpayers who pay for her disability payments – it has also been her living for years.
Let’s Get Back to the Book
Toni takes down two little words from her current Amazon description.
Here is the entire description of the book.
A jaw-dropping insider look into the world of the so-called “Hollywood Sex Cult” NXIVM chronicling the rise of enigmatic cult leader, Keith Raniere, from its “Patient Zero,” his former girlfriend and test subject for his coercive control techniques.
Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere, to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin?
Enter single mother Toni Natalie, Keith’s Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere’s methodology and the first one to escape. THE PROGRAM begins with the origin story of NXIVM, follows its rise to international prominence, and takes the reader into the downfall of Raniere through Toni’s eyes. During this time she bore witness to the evolution of his methodology, including his use of sex, blackmail, and employment of psychological tools such as neuro-linguistic programming to control and punish those who would not heed his wishes. She uniquely details the fortunes lost and the lives left in disarray that she witnessed contemporaneously, including members of DOS, a group of women coerced into sexual acts under the guise of a “women’s empowerment” inner circle, whom Raniere exercised extreme control over directly and through his lieutenants.
But far from being a victim’s story, in the spirit of Erin Brockovich, Toni’s is a nuanced narrative of a multi-dimensional woman saving herself, and then working tirelessly to help other women do the same for themselves. Today, Toni is happy, reunited with her son, and surrounded by friends and family – it is this perspective that makes her such a unique storyteller.
***
Aside from this being almost an entirely false narrative – Toni had nothing to do with saving other women.
She did not save herself – she made her living off of fighting with Keith.
She also knew little to nothing of DOS and she certainly did not help any DOS slaves escape.
She did not witness blackmail, or even sex – according to her previous accounts. She claims she thought she was in a monogamous relationship with Keith.
Going to back to the removal of two words
“Single mother” has been removed from Toni’s description.
This may be because Frank Report pointed out that Toni abandoned her son after she began an adulterous relationship with Scott Foley. It is kind of raw to brazenly state you were a single mother – when you, in fact, abandoned your child.
At the end of the advertising description – it does state that “Today, Toni is happy, reunited with her son, and surrounded by friends and family.”
She is reunited with her son – after she literally shucked him off to his father. Her son is now an adult man. It is not like she is still caring for him or that they live together.
As for being surrounded by her family, this is not quite true either. Her parents are dead. Her brother and sister are dead. She has no living siblings.
She is not married and has no other children other than the one she abandoned. So, how is she surrounded by family? What family? She has no living family.
By the way, Toni created what seems to be another fictitious story – that Keith persuaded her brother, John, to commit suicide.
Her brother was, in fact, a drug user and alleged dealer – and a bankrupt guy who almost bankrupted his parents. He was chronically depressed and he had little to nothing to do with Keith.
Toni’s brother lived in Rochester and Keith lived in Albany.
In fact, there is the suggestion that John was not adverse to Keith at all. The story is told that several years before he died, John pitched Keith about investing in one of his many business ventures. [Toni did not object – for she was not really afraid of Keith].
John had not seen and barely spoke to Keith for years before he committed suicide. It would be fair to say that even though Keith is a bad guy, he cannot be blamed for John’s death.
But Toni saw that her brother’s death – if caused by Keith – would not only be deeply traumatizing – but also one hell of a story.
And here’s another one. Toni claims that Keith ordered a hit on her dog – because he was such a good watchdog.
This, too, seems very dubious in light of what we now know about Toni. We know of no record of her making a complaint to the police or of any autopsy she ordered to show the dog was poisoned.
We are not making light of a dog dying but it does seem doubtful that Keith had anything to do with it – or even that the dog was poisoned.
But perhaps Toni can show some evidence that it is true.
Toni and the Mafia
Toni always liked to brag about her so-called Mafia connections. She used to actually intimidate Keith sometime with her veiled threats of arranging a hit on him – through her family.
And Keith is far from a physically brave man.
Toni used to say that her father was a mafiosi and well connected. Actually, he was a low-level thief and bookmaker in the Rochester area by all accounts.
According to women who knew Toni during her days with Keith, Toni often said that her first marriage [she has had four] was a gala mafia style wedding. She would later claim that the movie ‘Married to the Mob’ was based on her life story and the wedding she had to a son of a Mafia leader.
Toni claimed that the 1988 movie Married to the Mob was based on her wedding. Michelle Pfeiffer played Toni.
Yes, Toni is one hell of a storyteller and like the description on Amazon says, “Toni is happy, reunited with her son, and surrounded by friends and family – it is this perspective that makes her such a unique storyteller.”
And why shouldn’t she be happy? She seems to have bullshitted her way into a book deal with a bullshit story and chances are there will be many people who believe what’s in her book to be true.
Evidently, her publisher and editors do because they mis-labeled it as “non-fiction”.
