A reader wrote:
Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman will be trying desperately to keep Nancy Salzman from turning on them, through a combination of sucking up to her, and suggesting how badly things could go for her and her daughters if the Raniere-verse goes down.
The authorities will be trying equally hard to flip her, or keep her flipped.
Keith and Clare will be trying desperately to minimize the number of DOS members who turn on them, through the usual Exploration of Meaning [EM] sessions, and reminding them of the blackmail material. The blackmail threat is tricky, because if they make the threat and it fails, that is itself an additional crime.
There will surely be some DOS members who turn on them and go to the authorities.
Arrests on DOS branding could be quick, but nearly-infinite bail money is available through Clare. However, the Bronfman jet and Wakaya Island in Fiji constitute an obvious flight risk, so bail might be denied.
Prosecution on DOS branding would be slow. One expects that DOS members were required to sign release forms before being branded. While the reality is that any such forms were signed under psychological duress, unlimited legal fees are available to argue the opposite. If some of the women who restrained women during the branding (who themselves are criminally liable) could be flipped to testify that some victims did ask for the branding to stop, that would likely prevail over the forms.
If brandings occurred in Allison Mack’s house and her presence as reported, and female restrainers can be flipped, then she is in serious jeopardy. If Dr. Danielle Roberts did the branding as reported, she is in equally serious jeopardy.
It may not be trivial to connect Keith and Clare and Nancy directly to DOS brandings. But such situations are exactly why the RICO Act was written. The normal prosecutorial strategy would be to offer plea bargains to Miss Mack or Dr. Roberts in order to use RICO to get Keith and Clare and Nancy.
If Allison or Danielle flip, it will go badly for Keith, Clare, and Nancy.
A serious RICO prosecution would likely result in the principals flying to Fiji (along with the non-defecting DOS harem members).
There will likely be many peripheral prosecutions for money laundering, tax evasion, illegal immigration, and sundry offenses associated with Rainbow Cultural Garden.
These will be sufficient to poison the existing Raniere-verse business enterprises, but not enough to cause flight to Fiji by itself. And the enterprises, or similar ones, will likely just be re-launched under new “brands” after a year or two, if the flight to Fiji (or jail) doesn’t occur.
It’s not an easy night for the Salzman family.
Their livelihood depends on the Raniere-verse, which seems likely to implode. They may have been complicit, or even participants, in white-collar crime at the multi-million dollar level over nearly 20 years.
They have certainly been participants in duping thousands of psychologically vulnerable victims into the Raniere-verse. This has cost those vicfims many thousands of dollars each, for knowledge available in $4.95 paperback self-help books, wrapped up with indoctrination of the genius and infallibility of Keith Raniere (and Nancy Salzman).
But in all the criticism of the Raniere-verse in the Albany Times-Union, Forbes, Vanity Fair, and Frank Report, the Salzman family seems to be but minor players.
Sarah Edmundson of the Vancouver BC center, and Mark Vicente of the Los Angeles center of Executive Success Program, also have profited from the Raniere-verse, but they are reported to have drawn the line and shut down their centers, no longer willing to be complicit since the DOS revelations of blackmail, slavery, and genital branding.
The Salzmans should follow their example.