Kathleen Cassidy and Clare Bronfman visit Clifton Park & a little about Cassidy

It is said her dad wept on his deathbed for his foolish daughter caught in a vicious cult. For her part, she came with a camera and tried to force a confession from him that he was wrong about cult leader Keith Raniere.

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.

Photo by Meredith Davenport: Kathleen and Ian.

 

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.

 

Clare Bronfman. She had all the wealth anyone would ever need. She did not need to do any of the comparatively petty financial crimes she is charged with or participate in stupid racketeering schemes that the psychopath Keith Raniere inspired her to do. What did she get out of it?  Maybe just the sadistic pleasure of hurting others, while pretending to be noble and good. Anybody who ever spent more than 15 minutes with her could readily believe that is true.

 

Clare with her new best friend, traveling companion, and attorney, Kathleen Cassidy. 

 

About the author

Frank Parlato

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

16 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
A Nony Mouse
A Nony Mouse
5 years ago

I’m sure that Kathy Russell was more than happy to see Clare.

shadowstate1958
5 years ago

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.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Frank, it’s not mentioned often enough that your writing style is very witty. Keep typing. A big anonymous cheer for Frank.

Linseed
Linseed
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Here, here.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

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.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

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.

Standards
Standards
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

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.

Snorlax
Snorlax
5 years ago

Someone skilled in finance should have explained the miracle of compound interest and she would hopefully avoided all this nonsense.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Snorlax

It doesn’t even take that much skill to explain compound interest.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

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.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Being in prison levels out the destitute status.

I'll Get You My Pretty

And your little dog too !

shadowstate1958
5 years ago

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?

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Pea doesn’t know these people

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

How do you know that?

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Simple some here know who it is that is putting some of you idiots on

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: frankreport76@gmail.com

Archives

16
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x