- Now that we have arrived at the new year, a time when we will have plenty to say, perhaps this handy offering from the Department of Justice – giving in fairly plain language – the nature of the charges against the Nxivm defendants – might be of interest.
- The DOJ writes:
- Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman conspired to commit identity theft arising out of a scheme to obtain the email usernames and passwords of perceived enemies and critics of Raniere in order to monitor their electronic communications.
- Raniere and Bronfman participated in an identity theft conspiracy involving the use of credit card and banking information belonging to one of Raniere’s sexual partners [Pam Cafritz] after her death in November 2016. Bronfman sent Raniere regular emails documenting expenses charged to the woman’s credit card for Raniere’s “review and approval.” Those expenses included payments to a chiropractor for Raniere’s benefit, as well as thousands of dollars’ worth of clothing and shoe purchases for the mother of Raniere’s child.
- Bronfman encouraged and induced the illegal entry into the United States of an alien for Bronfman’s financial gain, engaging in international wire transfers to make it fraudulently appear that the victim had the financial resources to obtain an investor visa.
- Raniere and Lauren Salzman trafficked a victim, who was once a sexual partner of Raniere’s, for labor and services. The victim was confined to a room in Halfmoon for nearly two years as punishment for having romantic feelings for another man [Ben Myers]. The victim was told that if she left the room, she would be sent to Mexico without any identification documents.
- Raniere and Lauren Salzman obtained property and services from their slaves through fraud and extortion. After Dominus Obsequious Sororium [DOS] was exposed, Salzman was one of the leaders of a disinformation campaign designed to spread lies about DOS and NXIVM members in order to discredit victims.
- Nancy Salzman, in her role as second-in-command to Raniere within NXIVM, conspired with Raniere and others to obstruct justice by altering records in connection with a civil lawsuit initiated by NXIVM against a former student [Stephanie Franco, as part of the Rick Ross case]. As part of the discovery in the former student’s countersuit, Nancy Salzman was ordered to turn over videos of courses the student had taken. Nancy Salzman engaged in a scheme to edit videos of courses she had taught to remove materials that she and her co-conspirators believed would have supported the former student’s claims.
- Raniere and Russell conspired to commit identity theft as part of a scheme to smuggle an alien into the United States through Canada after the alien was denied entry. Russell provided the alien with an identification card bearing the last name and birthday of a dead woman.
(Source: U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn)
In addition to these charges we have the better known sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy – which involved the DOS slaves and the collateral that was held over their heads by Raniere, Allison Mack and others.
