Housing units normally have four telephones for inmate use. Inmates are allowed a maximum of 300 minutes per month from January thru October – and 400 minutes in November and December. Calls are limited to 15 minutes per call. The regular cost of an inmate call is 21 cents per minute with a 15-minute call costing $3.15.
At a maximum of 300 minutes, Raniere can spend a maximum of $63 per month on phone calls except in November and December when he can spend $84.
At one time, not so very long ago, this penniless man had an heiress to buy up all justice for him he wanted and destroy lives at a million dollars a throw. Now, he has to conserve his commissary money and not exceed it. And because all his calls may be monitored, he has to be careful talking to his soon-to-be-indicted heiress, Clare Bronfman, who abetted him in most of his criminality.
Moira Penza said of Clare Bronfman last week at a hearing for Raniere’s bail, that Clare “has acted as a co-conspirator of the defendant over many years,” and again, “this is a person who the government does believe has acted as a co-conspirator in criminal activity with the defendant.”
Penza also said, Clare “on one occasion… provided a 65 million-dollar loan to the defendant for the commodities market, which then all of that money was lost and has never been repaid. So this is the type of amounts of money. It is really unimaginable wealth and limitless wealth that we’re talking about here. So the idea that any amount of money would not be worth it to this person [Clare] to allow the defendant to flee [if he made bail], should we end up in that situation, is unimaginable.
“And she — this person [Clare], is also somebody who, Your Honor, is equally capable along with the defendant of trying to live off the grid. We’re talking about people with private islands, talking about people with access to private air travel, which the defendant has participated in. People who have also been using encrypted email. People who have also been dropping their phones so that the government is unable to track them.”
Just think, Raniere allegedly dropped his phone so that government was unable to track him and now the government is providing him with a phone — at 21 cents a minute.
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The money Clare gave VanSmartyPants to “invest” in gambling, oops my bad, in his scam of I have a mathematical formula to get your money back +++ more in the commodities market will be spun in a way as it was never a loan, it was ClareBear’s investment.
He’s most likely did it out of the goodness of his heart (big lie, he doesn’t have one) and he was just doing them a favor.
My bet is VanSamrtyPants bet against their own investments and put the money off shores.
If he’s making phone calls from a jail phone, they’re almost certainly being recorded, just the same as “in person” visits via mini phone booths are recorded.
I’m sure there’s a ‘sign’ (located near the phones) which makes them aware of this possibility……and I’m sure they agree to sign a waiver (giving up their right of privacy) before they’re granted phone privileges.
‘Recordings’ (from prisoner phone calls) is how prosecutors often get evidence of guilt regarding witness tampering or other things, from prisoners too dumb to realize they’re being recorded.
Recorded phone calls to attorneys, which are protected under privilege, would obviously not be made available to prosecutors or anybody else outside the prison. But everything else is fair game.
Also… If he’s accessing the Internet from jail, then his activity is also likely recorded.
If he’s sending emails via an “encrypted” online service (to hide his messages after typing them)…..then his original ‘unencrypted’ keystrokes can still be recorded by the prison computer via a simple keystroke logger. I seriously doubt they give prisoners access to a live computer without a keystroke logger.
If he’s using a “cut and paste” technique to defeat a keystroke logger then that can be logged too.
e.g. If he’s “cutting and pasting” words/letters from other google pages into his own message — “one by one” using a non-linear fashion (out of order so his message can’t be guessed) — then I’m sure the computer is also logging that activity via a screenshot recorder which records all screen activity that he sees inside a video file.
So I doubt he can give orders to obstruct justice to his slaves from a prison phone or computer, at least not without the government knowing and using that evidence against him at trial.
*just expanding upon what tex2 already said. 🙂
Not relating to Raniere, but the amount that inmates are charged for telephone calls is so wrong. It is a policy that takes advantage of (usually) indigent people. Inmates who have a support system on the outside do better when they are released, and charging so much for phone calls may affect their ability to maintain this support system.
Here is an article:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/jails-pocket-up-to-60-percent-of-what-inmates-pay-for-phone-calls/
I never knew before this that they paid for calls. Any time I ever knew about anybody calling people from jail or prison they just called collect.
Do not know when the $65 million loan was made to Vanguard, but at a certain point when no effort is made by the parties to collect or repay the loan, doesn’t the $65 million become “income” as defined by the IRS? Do not know what the statute of limitations might be, but would imagine the tax (plus interest and penalties) on $65 million would be rather significant?
Exactly! Providing an interest-free loan is money laundering.
http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-launder-money
And if you receive a gift over $14,000, you must file a gift tax return. If the $65 M payment (or a portion thereof) was income for consulting services, that is taxable also and must be reported.
I am not entirely sure how anyone will ever sort out the web of tax implications these guys have been weaving for the last however many years.
I somehow doubt either of the Bronfmans accounted for everything they ever bought for Raniere.
NXIVM’s handy little corporate veil is likely completely in tatters, along with every other corporation and trust all of them use.
This is either some forensic accountant’s nightmare or dream challenge.
All of that is closely monitored… Depending on how he uses it, it can only help them in his prosecution.
Shhhhh… don’t say anything…
That inmate who got their commissary max fill by one of the DOS slaves on Clare Bronfman’s order told him he took care of it, and nothing will be monitored anymore. 😉
You know the really problem with people being anti-social in jail is that there is no cell mate to testify against them later.
His loneliness will overcome his self-righteous superiority soon enough. Especially once he thinks they are on the NXIVM payroll.
Is he really capable of feeling lonely? He cannot feel true affection for anyone. Maybe what he feels is self pity in the face of deprivation. Much like a spoiled, sulking child. Maybe I seem harsh but that is tempered by the utter lack of concern he’s shown for others and their suffering.
Hit the nail on the head – that’s it exactly. He might feel sorry, but it is only for himself.
I don’t disagree self-pity.
Absolutely, I think he can and does feel very lonely.
He is using to having people hanging off his every word, and now he has absolutely nobody to talk to.
So, yes. Lonely.
He’s now watching other inmates, he will make a friend and that friend will be his access to Clare.
This is not a maybe.
That’s okay, because ALL calls are recorded.
This is not a maybe.