Author's reminiscences #2: Did Raniere spend a lot of time with you

More questions from readers:

Q: Did Keith spend a lot of time with you, feeling you out, before trusting you?

A: We spent a fair amount of time together. Although I never made it to the Friday night volleyball games, I had a lot of one on one time with him on the phone.

My personal meetings with him however almost always saw Nancy Salzman in attendance and were usually at her house where, I later learned, they secreted large amounts of cash in the basement.

Nancy kept an elegant, clean home, nicely but comparatively sparsely furnished.

She had a large comfortable couch and Keith and I would sit on the couch talking; Clare Bronfman, if she was there, would sit at his feet; Nancy and Kristin Keeffe and others might sit across from us and discuss strategies.

I recall Raniere saying that I was the first outside consultant who was available round the clock, had moved to Albany to be available – and was competent to get work done.

I also had a very competent assistant and Raniere remarked humorously that he wished he had an assistant like her since no one in NXIVM had her hard work ethic.

Raniere seemingly trusted me from the start because we spoke as equals and that I was sincerely trying to help him.

I was told he began to distrust me when I began to snoop too hard into the Los Angeles real estate deal. When I uncovered the fraud against the Bronfman sisters and recovered $26 million from an absconding partner – the partner Raniere, himself, selected – I was done, finished, as far as Raniere was concerned.

Too dangerous to be permitted to stay.

At that time I believed Raniere, like the Bronfmans, was a victim of the partner. Sometime later I reevaluated that premise.

And now I wonder if Raniere was not involved in the systematic fleecing of the Bronfman sisters out of part or all of about $100 million in the commodities and real estate markets.

I will explain in detail how this occurred in some future post or to law enforcement when they are ready to listen or will feel compelled to as the facts emerge.

It will be an eye opener.