By Frank Parlato
NXIVM has 12 “commandments” which followers pledge to observe.
Number 11 refers to money.
Followers “pledge to ethically control as much of the money, wealth, and resources of the world as possible,” since “it is essential for the survival of humankind for these things to be controlled by successful, ethical people.”
Ironically, Keith Raniere, founder of NXIVM, has controlled $150 million of his followers, Seagram heiresses, Clare and Sara Bronfman’s wealth, and lost most of it.
Raniere’s former girlfriend, a woman who fled from him, Toni Natalie – has told the courts, and the media, that Raniere “is a compulsive gambler, a sex addict with bizarre desires and needs, and a con man that specializes in Ponzi schemes.”
“There is probably no discovery since writing as important for humankind as Mr. Raniere’s technology,” said Nancy Salzman, president of NXIVM, in a brochure.
His ideas have helped some people, and destroyed the lives of a number of others, according to the people whose lives he touched.
Raniere, discussing his life-altering philosophy of humanity and ethics, has said, that “Most profound ideas are first met with ridicule, and then opposition before acceptance.”
His ideas have often been met with acceptance by his mostly female followers then later, rejected by these same women when they tried to leave him, laden with fear, sorrow, and regret.
Raniere however has been in control of a share of the world’s wealth.
His enemies are spared no expense in his effort at making it hard for them to survive – bringing them to justice – as he says, or, as they say, dishonestly, enviously, trying to destroy them, and rejoicing at their demise.
The sisters Bronfman, Clare and Sara, have put their fortune at Raniere’s disposal to aid in his quests.
He has used it to lose $66 million in commodities trading, $26 million in a Los Angeles real estate venture that went sour, an estimated $20 million in litigation – paid to lawyers – to attack his enemies – and another $20 million to pay salaries of his band of 80 or so followers, as well as to buy homes and offices for his use.
Some of the money – former Raniere followers say – funded spying on enemies – intimidating them – hacking into bank and email accounts– and bribing officials to persuade law enforcement to conduct criminal investigations.
Targets created in back room deals with a word and a wink.
Civil disputes turned criminal as if law enforcement was incentivized or ordered to turn what should be civil into a criminal investigation, while overlooking the obvious potential for criminality that the accuser, Raniere, may have himself.
Raniere’s enemies have been indicted.
Reporters who wrote critically have lost their jobs.
And Raniere who writes he wants “a world of successful people…. devoid of hunger, theft, dishonesty, envy and insecurity” made the claim – captured on video by two former followers – that he “had people killed.”
“Here’s the thing,” Raniere said on a 2009 video, posted on youtube.com and available on http://www.frankeport.com. “I’ve had people killed because of my beliefs — or because of their beliefs.”
Some say Raniere did not mean he ordered the assassination of individuals, but that some who opposed or supported him lost their lives.
Raniere is said to have one of the highest IQ’s in the world; it has, according to published reports, been gauged at 188-194.
Over the past 20 years, his intelligence notwithstanding, he
** lost more than $100 million of the Bronfman’s inheritance in speculative investments; although some say he did not lose it, but rather swindled the gullible Bronfmans out of the money;
** people have – it’s true – died following him or opposing him – there are at least two suicides, and reports of at least one death in Mexico;
** relentlessly attacked enemies in lawsuits;
** has a raft of ex-girlfriends who say he raped them, some of them underage at the time, hounded them when they tried to leave; going so far as to say he would die or they would – if they did not come back to him;
**had a business that was closed down by the authorities;
** lost lawsuits because his followers, and he, himself, evidently, committed perjury;
** has – according to former followers – committed various financial crimes –involving tax evasion – and lost some of his follower’s life savings.
** left a trail of tears. Women whose lives he changed, they say, for the worse include: Barbara Bouchey, Kristen Keeffe, Susan Dones, Kim Woolhouse, Kristin Snyder, Gina Hutchinson, Heidi Hutchinson, Toni Natalie, Becca Friedman, Angela Ucci, Melanie Button, Kathleen Ethier, Nellie Frost, Rhiannon Rogers, Gina Melita, Svetlana Kotlin and more.
In the video where Raniere claims to have “had people killed,” he quotes what he claims is a Christian adage – “the brighter the light, the more the bugs” to explain why so many say he is doing evil.
NXIVM claims it is “a new ethical understanding that allows us to build an internal civilization and have it manifest in the external world. It allows us to explore our most fundamental nature and to begin to redirect our power of creation, a power that we all possess in a very human sense. It is a place where humanity can rise to its noble possibility.”
Number 12 of Raniere’s NXIVM commandments concludes that a world made up of his followers will “be a better world …. (where) People will no longer try to destroy each other… or rejoice at another’s demise.”
To many people that world is alien to Raniere who, they claim, has destroyed so many and rejoiced while so doing.
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