If all went according to plan, Clare Bronfman, accompanied by her lawyer, Kathleen Elizabeth Cassidy, went to Clifton Park yesterday, spent the night there (possibly at her sister’s mansion at 7 Traymore Trail), and is returning to NYC tonight.
Clare is under home arrest, confined to her luxury Manhattan apartment – and must return home tonight. The purpose of the trip was to work on her defense – which might mean seeing witnesses and gathering evidence.
Clare owns several homes in the Albany area, including one she used to live in on Button Road in Half Moon, NY.
She gave possession of the Button Road property to one of her employees – the notorious human fright doctor, Brandon Porter, who is currently facing disciplinary charges by the New York State Office of Professional Conduct and may lose his medical license based on the severity of misconduct charges against him.
Clare is normally allowed out of her apartment some 5 hours per week in Manhattan and must wear an ankle monitor 24 hours per day. To make this trip, she had to get special permission from the judge – but she still had to wear that ankle bracelet 24/7.
The litigious heiress, who would sue the hell out of anyone who looked cross-eyed at Raniere [by the way, she and Raniere are both cross eyed], is now caught up in the same legal system she loves to use to abuse others.
She actually enjoyed being able to use her enormous wealth to sue people, hiring batteries of attorney – many of them shysters, just in it for the money – using the courts to literally rule and ruin the lives of many others – such as Barbara Bouchey, Toni Natalie, Joe O’Hara, and others. Now, she is now being ruled by the courts.
Perjury was her favorite tool of destruction. And the presumption always seemed to be that as an heiress, she had no need to perjure herself over small amounts of money – so it must be she was pursuing justice.
Based on the present charges against her, Clare faces about three years in prison. But a superseding indictment may charge her with more crimes and extend her potential sentence to more than a decade.
Today was a homecoming for the 39 year old lady born with a platinum spoon in her mouth. She returned to the scene of her crimes – Clifton Park, a suburb of Albany, where the foolish heiress relocated to about 15 years ago to be in propinquity to her Vanguard.
The man who would run her life, strip her of her fortune, and, if-and-when absolutely necessary, her clothing.
Vanguard blew through more than $150 million of her and her sister’s money on bogus commodity deals, real estate deals run amok, funding the NXIVM company, and funding an estimated $50 million in legal fees to destroy, or try to destroy, people that he perceived as his enemies – in their quest to create a more noble society.
And that was before Vanguard and Clare were charged criminally. Before this case is over, Clare may wind up paying another $20 – $40 million to defend herself, her Vanguard, and the other defendants she is hoping will stick with her and Raniere and not flip.
The newest recipient of Clare’s largess with attorneys, the lady who traveled with her to Clifton Park – Kathleen Elizabeth Cassidy, 38, is a daughter of Harry T. Cassidy and Cheryl L. Cassidy of Tabernacle, N.J. Her father worked or still works as the assistant director of the family practice division of the New Jersey State Courts, in Trenton. Her mother teaches or taught preschool children with disabilities at Richard L. Rice Elementary School in Marlton, N.J.
In 2011, she married attorney Ian Ross Shapiro, then 41. Judge Jonathan Lippman, the chief judge of the State of New York, officiated.
A week before she married Ian – she joined, as an associate, the law firm of Hafetz Necheles & Rocco, the New York City firm that represents Clare. Her senior partner, Susan Necheles, is lead attorney for Clare.
Kathleen graduated from Yale and received a law degree from Columbia. Her husband also graduated from Yale and received a law degree from Harvard.
What Clare’s recollections and feelings were about what may be her last visit for years to her old stomping [on victims’] grounds is not known.
It is strongly suspected that many ex-NXIVM, and current members, felt a tinge of fear that the lady – nicknamed Cruella Bronfman – was again in their midst and might seek to see some of them. Because she is known for her cheapness, meanness, vindictiveness and indifference to anyone’s suffering other than her Vanguard, my guess is that no one likely sought her out.
She recently petitioned the court to be allowed to see NXIVM members – hundreds of them – maybe a thousand, she said, who she claimed were her only friends and her true family. The court has not ruled on that request. But she is always allowed to see any NXIVM member as long as her attorney is present. I will hazard a guess that, even with her attorney present, no one was eager to see the sinister, punishing and brutally cheap heiress.
Perhaps it is good that Clare is cheap. Chances are this case – the fines, fees, restitution and forfeiture – will bankrupt her and that she may – once she gets out of prison – be destitute – or close enough to need to be frugal.
In the event she qualifies for food stamps, she should be able to make do. It shouldn’t be too hard on her 800 calorie per day diet.
Poor fool.
I’m sure that Kathy Russell was more than happy to see Clare.
If Cruella Bronfman had been smart, a big if, she could have lived off the trust income and spent all her time at Bloomingdale’s shopping for decent clothes and receiving facials and attractive hair styles.
Cruella would have been the most popular “woman: in Provincetown, Massachusetts during the summer season.
Frank, it’s not mentioned often enough that your writing style is very witty. Keep typing. A big anonymous cheer for Frank.
Here, here.
It seems clear there is no love lost amongst Clare and her half siblings. She’s not only brought shame on the family name for 15 years but she treated their father horribly. But even the strangest families pull together in times of need, where are they here I have seen no evidence of them acknowledging Clare or her circumstances at all. I say good for them. She not only got herself in this mess but she damaged her father into an early grave with her sick obsession over Nxivm. Spying on her father and affecting his work with the world Jewish Council must have crushed him. Did it never occur to her the help she could have carried on in her families name for survivors and descendants of the holocaust. Instead she took the word of an anti Semite like creepy Keith over her father.
It certainly didn’t seem equal that she didn’t do one night in jail while her bail was being raised, where those with less available funds did. Even the good judges give the wealthy unfair breaks.
She may be a Jew who is an anti-Semite, but at least she didn’t (couldn’t) find a Muslim who would marry her, as her sister Sara did. Talk about rolling over in the grave. I never understood why he didn’t put restrictions how they could use their inheritance to fund NXIVM. I hope you’re not accusing Nick of being a good judge. He ain’t.
Some people still have standards. Just because your father breeds with the help, doesn’t mean you have to acknowledge the issues of the travesty.
Someone skilled in finance should have explained the miracle of compound interest and she would hopefully avoided all this nonsense.
It doesn’t even take that much skill to explain compound interest.
Other articles Frank Report post, state Clare has trusts set up that would ensure her well being. I do not foresee anyone in that family ever being destitute.
Being in prison levels out the destitute status.
And your little dog too !
Pea said in an earlier comment that she was looking forward to meeting with Clare and her attorney.
I wonder if the Big Event came off.
Pea?
Pea doesn’t know these people
How do you know that?
Simple some here know who it is that is putting some of you idiots on