New York Times breaks the news: The DOJ/FBI investigating Raniere/NXIVM

Federal Officials Reportedly Investigating Group Where Women Were Branded

By BARRY MEIER and PAULINA VILLEGAS DEC. 21, 2017

As winter arrives, the winter of NXVM may be at hand. The New York Times and its distinguished investigative journalist Barry Meier have offered Expians a wonderful early Christmas present in the form of the news that the FBI and that the US  Department of Justice in the Eastern District of New York have started an investigation into Keith Raniere and NXIVM.

Read the story in the Times

Main points
The Justice Department has started an investigation into NXIVM.

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have contacted or questioned potential witnesses  about Nxivm.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York is expected to soon recommend changes in how state regulators review complaints against doctors because health department officials declined to act on complaints about two doctors affiliated with Nxivm.

Raniere left the Albany area and traveled to Mexico.

Raniere and other Nxivm officials did not respond to requests for interviews.

 A lawyer who represents the group, Robert D. Crockett, did not respond to written questions, including whether federal or state officials had contacted Nxivm.

Nxivm did not respond to requests for the report of its independent investigation or the names of the forensic psychiatrist they claim have evaluated the health and well being of DOS members.

Catherine Oxenberg identified forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Park Dietz, had been hired to evaluate her 26-year-old daughter, India Oxenberg. .

Dr. Dietz said he has examined only one female participant in Nxivm, He said his initial examination of the woman had not found evidence of “brainwashing” and that she appeared “happy,” 

Dr. Dietz said that Nxivm had not hired him to examine matters related to DOS and that DOS “is not a Nxivm entity but a private sorority of women.”

Nxivm has recently attempted to hire lobbyists in Albany to represent it before politicians and regulators.

It has sued or sought to bring criminal charges against former members.

Nxivm sued former member Toni Zarratini. 

Emiliano Salinas reiterated that the sorority was not affiliated with Nxivm and the company sued Mr. Zarattini because he and others had tried to extort Nxivm by asking for money in exchange for not revealing information.

Mr. Zarattini denied the allegations.
Earlier this month, a Mexican judge dismissed the lawsuit against Mr. Zarattini, saying it was based on inadequate evidence.

A lawyer for Nxivm said the group has another legal action pending against him, but lawyers for Mr. Zarattini said they were unaware of it.

The article closes with a quote for Toni Zarattini:

My friends “are in some ways kidnapped; their minds, their emotions have been
taken for ransom,” said Mr. Zarattini, who was kidnapped and brutalized a decade
ago by a drug cartel. “I can’t allow these secrets to keep going because that
contributes in some way to that.”

***

This is a good day for justice.

About the author

Frank Parlato

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  • NXIVM has been very good at bring the best of the best to the table when dealing with experts in the past. They teach their children well how to lie in a court of law so it very possible they could prep a couple of their DOS girls to lie to an expert long enough for him to think she was “fine”.

    If you read the post from “A NXIVM Women” Part 3, Raniere and his leadership has been working hard for years on controlling the mind of set of their follows through diet, sleep and mind-control.

    It’s very possible that Dr Park Dietz did not do his “homework on DOS as he was lie to by Clare Bronfman about what he was coming into and who and what he was evaluating. It what Bronfman, Raniere and there legal team do when entering a legal case. It only takes awhile before before the police and Judges catch on.

    I’m sure the same will happen for Dr. Park Dietz. After reading over his website, he is a very well educated and it won’t be long before he finds out he’s been conned by Bronfman and Raniere. Maybe he should get a some light reading to catch up on who his clients are to level the playing field.

    • The web site is very clearly an advertisement for an expert-witness-for-hire business.

      Probably at very high prices….

  • Albany Times-Union article on NXIVM investigations, stands by statement that there is also NY State investigation says:

    https://www.timesunion.com/7dayarchive/article/Federal-investigators-probe-NXIVM-12448691.php#item-85307-tbla-39

    “In the first clear sign of the investigation, federal officials have interviewed women who were associated with NXIVM’s founder, Keith Raniere, according to several knowledgeable people, including some of those who were questioned by the investigators.”

    “Last month, the Times Union reported that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office had begun examining NXIVM’s dealings, according to two people with knowledge of the matter

  • Interesting that the investigation is being undertaken in the Eastern District of NY, whereas Albany is located in the Northern District.

    Eastern District encompasses Brooklyn and Long Island. Maybe Dr Danielle Roberts will be needing those malpractice attorneys after all, even though their best piece of advice to the good doctor might be to seek a
    criminal attorney.

    • It’s interesting that there is no NY state local or county investigation except medical licensing, but there is Federal investigation. And the Federal investigation is from a different district than Albany.

      It has long been alleged that Raniere has bought off or otherwise compromised law enforcement near the Mother Ship. This news may be further evidence of that.

      Eastern District NY would need to have some local victims to have some jurisdiction. But I’m sure some victims are NYC residents.

  • Two things.

    1) Announcing they are opening an investigation doesn’t mean they are starting, it means they’ve already done enough due diligence to date to warrant an open investigation. Which means there is currently enough evidence to suspected wrong doing.

    2) if Dr. Park Dietz wants to play this like he is independent of NXIVM, how is it he knows what DOS at all? Enough so that he can publicly define DOS to the press. If he wasn’t on their payroll, why is he purposely trying to plant the lack of assocition between the two entities?

    How would he know this?

    People should really understand how this court of public opinion works. What to say and what not to say

    If he really wanted to keep clean in all of this he should have said he knows nothing of a group called DOS.

    Now he just looks like a fool and another one of Raniere’s stooges.

    Idiots.

    • “ Dr. Dietz said that Nxivm had not hired him to examine matters related to the secret sorority, stating it was his understanding that the group “is not a Nxivm entity but rather a private sorority of women.”

      Ok, then. The question is simple. Who hired him?

      • The NY Times article says Catherine Oxenberg says Dietz told her he was hired by NXIVM, but that NXIVM wouldn’t give the name of the “forensic psychiatrist.”

        Dietz told thd Times he examined only one woman, who he (properly) would not name, but was presumably India Oxenberg. He announced she was “happy” and not “brainwashed,” although the criteria for either starement were not specified.

About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi's "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM," which aired January, 2023.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

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