Shadow: Allison Mack: Follow the Money

In any major  criminal investigation it is often necessary to “Follow the Money.”

Where does the money come from and what kind of activities are funded by the money?

The phrase “Follow the Money” is often wrongly attributed to FBI agent Mark Felt also known as Deep Throat in the Watergate case.  Regardless of the source of the saying, it is a useful tool to understanding any complex criminal conspiracy.

Several of my recent posts have discussed Allison Mack’s real estate activities and lifestyle and raised questions about how she financed them.  Was Mack receiving money from Clare Bronfman or earning money from illegal activities?

Joe O’Hara’s 2012 lawsuit raised the possibility of financial crimes committed by Mack and many other NXIVM figures.

She wasn’t receiving money from the impoverished Keith Raniere  who has no money or property in his own name and sponges off of his female followers like the gigolo he is.

Some commenter claimed that Mack had earned around eight million dollars from her various  media projects over the years. This comment begs the question why Allison Mack had to rely on the equity in her parents’ home and retirement accounts to fund her five million dollar bail?

Where did the eight million dollars go?

Eight million dollars buys a lot of colored sashes.

Now Clare Bronfman’s money appears to be running dry.  In any event Clare will not replenish the legal trust fund with new infusions of money.

Clare’s sister Sara is probably lying low hoping to avoid indictment and is unlikely to establish any NXIVM legal trust funds for her friends.

And yet Allison Mack just hired two new top notch criminal defense lawyers to make five criminal defense lawyers on her team.

Where did the money for Mack’s new defense lawyers come from?

Not Warner Brothers’ distributor of “Smallville.”

Mack is toxic to Hollywood.

In America’s major cities, top flight criminal defense attorneys charge six hundred to one thousand dollars per hour.  Perry Mason ain’t cheap.

In 2005 the singer Michael Jackson faced felony charges based on the accusations of one boy. One boy!  How many DOS slaves will make accusations against Allison Mack?

Ultimately Jackson was acquitted.

How much money did Jackson pay his crack criminal defense team to weasel out of the charges of one boy?

“It is thought the pop star may have to pay up to $5m to his high-powered defense team, led by celebrity lawyer Thomas Mesereau.”

($5 million dollars for Michael Jackson to beat the accusations of one boy!)

And in 2005, almost 15 years ago, Michael Jackson’s legal team was charging 500 dollars per hour.

“A top attorney like Mr Mesereau could command fees of more than $500 per hour, he said, although Mr Mesereau’s office was unable to confirm a figure”

In cases like NXIVM which involve complex charges like conspiracy and RICO the legal fees are even higher.

How many Comic Cons will Allison Mack have to attend to cover multi-million dollar legal fees?

And lawyers in complex cases frequently want the money paid up front in the form of a retainer.

“In felony cases the retainers can be $5,000-$10,000, but could easily be $25,000-$50,000 or more for extremely serious charges, such as homicide or sexual assault.”

Allison Mack’s original retainer was reportedly $150,000 dollars. That money is now long gone.

And lawyers charge in ten or fifteen minute increments. A five minute phone call can be charged as a fifteen minute phone call.  There go all those residual  checks from “Smallville.” I hope Allison qualifies for a Good Customer discount.

If Allison Mack is going into the criminal justice system as a hog, she’s going to come out as a sausage.

There is only one logical answer for where new funds for new lawyers will come from.

Mexico’s Salinas gang with an estimated net worth of seventeen billion dollars.

Why does the Salinas gang have so much philanthropy towards a second rate actress in a third rate TV show on a fourth rate TV network?  A TV show that ended eight years ago.

Maybe Emiliano Salinas is really Superman (Superhombre).

Or maybe, just maybe, well-to-do foreign gangs found the money laundering and human trafficking operations of NXIVM to be useful and they want to preserve those operations.

Perhaps Mexico’s corrupt elite hopes to take over the remnants of NXIVM’s criminal activities.

Perhaps the criminal elite of Mexico see Raniere and Mack as a firewall to protect them from indictment.

If Raniere and Mack can beat the rap, perhaps the US government will be discouraged from indicting Mexico’s corrupt elite.  Mexico’s NXIVM included the children of two ex-Mexican Presidents. The children of Carlos Salinas and Vicente Fox.

Or maybe, just maybe, the Salinas gang wants to buy the silence of the NXIVM defendants.

Just remember top notch criminal defense lawyers don’t grow on trees.  And Allison Mack’s Comic Con career is over.