By Heidi Hutchinson
Pam Cafritz is from a DC society family but didn’t bring much of a “dowry” (so to speak) into the cult.
Pam was more of a repository for Keith Alan Raniere to stash money in her name — money that she was little permitted to access herself while alive. She was also very pretty. I don’t think the money was what caught KAR’s eye with Pam.
When Keith et al’s first Multi-level Marketing (MLM) operation, Consumers’ Buyline, was busted by dozens of state AG’s, the top-tier (including Pam, I believe) agreed with New York State AG never to run an MLM again and pay a fine. That’s when KAR became “a renunciate” and started using the girls to be his front (partner) in business and hide assets in their names.
My firm theory is that KAR intended his human pyramid “partners” like Pam to: shield himself from:
– Shield him from criminal liability including violating the NYS AG agreement.
– Shield him from tax liability (Pam assumed that liability on the $8M, while alive anyway.).
– Help him accumulate escape money.
I don’t know if KAR “inherited” the $ from Pam, per se. Seems Clare Bronfman got tangled up in it as an executor or signer — a shield to thief the $ for Keith’s, their daring escape, and to evade US taxes.
I wondered why Clare never demanded this stashed money if she knew about it, when Keith was repeatedly promising Clare that he would repay her the $65+ million in “loans” all these years. And what excuse Keith had for not letting Clare in on it in partial repayments sooner, before Pam’s untimely death.
Pam might have had more incentive to recruit the minors for sex with Keith as her net worth grew.
Very disturbing that none of that $$ went toward her or Barbara’s Cancer treatments.
There have been rather recent, radical changes in inheritance tax laws.
Starting from about just before the time Pam passed, “inheritances” are not taxed. But I don’t know about prior taxes owed, if that comes out of the deceased’s estate off the top.
I’ve thought a lot about this cryogenic thing where Keith et al wanted to freeze Pam’s corpse or at least her head. The first thing that occurred to me when I heard that, knowing KAR, was that they might try to argue Pam’s somehow revivable, not dead if frozen. And Pam, not Keith, is somehow still liable in her frozen “not dead” condition for the taxes.
Few of these poor girls have any idea what lengths Keith et al would go to to divert the blame on to them, dead or alive!
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Sorry. I should have clarified. I was talking about Suzanne Kemp.
She was a proctor if I remember correctly. Very sweet, kind woman. I hope she didn’t fall for the cancer quackery.
The Pam I knew *was* sweet and kind. Thank you for mentioning that. Few seem to want to hear that in view of her underage recruitment and other nefarious activities but it’s a plain fact in my mind that Pam started out as a mostly compassionate, giving, loving person. I wish she’d had, at least had, one last chance to speak publicly for herself. Please, what year(s) did you know her?
There’s nothing “sweet and kind” in deceitfully manipulating emotionally vulnerable teenage girls into the bed of your lover. What is wrong with people? Just because someone says some nice words and acts nicely sometimes doesn’t diminish the evil they do and make them sweet and kind. The devil doesn’t come to you in his original red form with his cape and horns on display.
This is what I honestly believe based on all that I know:
Keith and Nancy have the ability to manipulate people into acts they may never have undertaken otherwise. NLP/hypnosis was just one of their tricks. They also used seduction, promises, deceit, abuse, dependency, torture, intense social pressure, gaslighting, harassment, love bombing, punishment, reward, etc. They broke Pam down — she was gullible, suggestible to begin with — into something unrecognizable from her former self. I was SHOCKED when I learned about Pam and Rhiannon. I could not believe Pam knew what Keith was up to or intended and there is a chance she didn’t. Rhiannon did not say she was ever raped in front of Pam.
Great commentary as always Heidi. I agree that Keith’s incentive was to shield himself from income due to his Consumer Buy Line case, I would also think that if they follow the money trail they could at a minimum nail his ass for tax evasion. Additionally, he created another pyramid scheme when he was told not to. I just hope he gets a life sentence. But, since taxpayers will have to foot the bill for keeping his rat ass alive, might as well put him to work and fill some pot holes this winter.
Thanks, TK. I enjoy your comments, liberally, as well. 2019 ought to be a very interesting year. May be the last chance for democracy to prove itself.
For the record, I never found monkey-face Cafritz very pretty at all. Rather than picturing her as one of the original flying monkeys, I think the monkey with Raniere as the organ grinder would be more appropriate. However, I’m sure Raniere had a constant boner towards the end of her life, she looked like a Holocaust prisoner.
I would really be interested in what Pam’s relationship was like with her parents and what their thoughts were on their daughter being involved in such things .
I have wondered myself about her family. A lot of families . As socialites I assumed family money but I see that’s not always the case.
Keith keeping Pam’s head for the purpose Heidi mentioned does sound like the Vangaurd we’ve come to know. What a sick son of a bitch, it makes Nxivm sense..
Pam’s parents are probably crazy too, so they got along just fine.
Suzanne Kemp also died of breast cancer while she was in the cult.
So sorry to hear, Lizzy. Since Aggie’s relying on witnesses who’ll say they were not raped or coerced, maybe a list of the dead who were not cured of cancer, etc. as promised is appropriate.
They certainly died rather quickly after diagnosis. Its amazing how long drs can keep you alive these days. Keith treated them long emough to make sure it was to late by the time real help came.
Keep this in mind, Nancy Salzman!
Who was she and what was her role in the cult?
There was an actress called Julie Patzwald who is alleged to have committed suicide due to living with chronic pain. It is very likely she was involved with the NXIVM cult as so many cultists knew her, like Kristin Kreuk, Mark Hildreth, Allison Mack and Brendan Fletcher.
One benefit of cryogenics that might have suited nxivm is the possible limit of autopsy procedures on to-be-frozen corpses, Im thinking these must exist in some part or be something that industry would lobby for. It’s an expensive (as well as an absurd)business that must have death- proven, certified death, in order to make a profit though, so they probably decided against cryogenics because most of Cafritz’s money including any life insurance would be needed to fund it.
…Unless KAR convinced Clare to fund the procedure through her “Ethical Science Foundation.” That way, Keith might get to use “Pam’s” $$, as apportioned by Clare, while Clare gets a fresh corpse for their science projects in exchange for her “investment” in the cryogenic experiment.
I think Pam’s family put the kabosh on it and reclaimed Pam’s corpse.
I think there was an autopsy done or ordered. And agree that perhaps Nx wanted to prevent that autopsy from happening.
This is all wildly speculative, of course, but I’m only half-joking.
Got it. And of course, I’m only half laughing.. speculation; but it’s clear they dabbled in medicine and health (Wellness) in a new-age-y entrepreneurial way, they had recourse to two practitioners, a cure for tourette’s, cancer, why not death itself? Cryogenics is the sort of industry raniere could appreciate, no? Reaping all those life insurances as well as bequests for the ‘Ethical Science Foundation’ one could imagine how this might have looked like the very essence of executive success to him. Do you know Gogol’s Dead Souls? This reminds me of that. Also, a bit of a tangent, have you seen Martha Marcy May Marlene? I watched it yesterday, about a young girl running from a cult, to her older sister, I recommend it, but cautiously.
EXACTAMENTE, One. Harnessing the power to defeat (and possibly cause, without culpabilty) death was an obsession with KAR. As was, I’m sure, the potential of financial scammery thereto.
Not to revert to the human trait Gina would call “self-referential madness” but I discussed a script I was writing about cryogenics back in the late 80’s with KAR and co — the cryogenicists were the villains not heroes in my story. And I remember when that sheep, Dolly, was first cloned over in England, Keith had a cow!
Hope you’re writing now, and are looking for or have found a supportive agent. I find your take on this situation particularly poignant and compelling. Do you know Ubik, by Phil K Dick? Very interesting story set around a cryogenic facility, dealing with the philosophical implications of death in his inimical way.
In regards to the following comment-
(The first thing that occurred to me when I heard that, knowing KAR, was that they might try to argue Pam’s somehow revivable, not dead if frozen. And Pam, not Keith, is somehow still liable in her frozen “not dead” condition for the taxes.)….try to argue with who? Do you really think that the IRS would believe she’s not really dead? They certainly are not that dumb that they would believe that a frozen body is still alive.
Well, the IRS did claim scientology was a “religion” …… something I am sure they regret to this day !
Keith’s delusions of grandeur make it perfectly reasonable for him to believe he could put one over on the IRS, Flowers.
And/or with Clare funding the litigation, he could get away tax fraud, whatever fraud or other criminal acts suited his fancy.
Are you aware Nx, Keith, sued AT&T and Microsoft claiming KAR “invented” the technology they use?
https://frankreport.com/2017/10/16/raniere-litigation-history-shows-he-abuses-legal-system-with-impunity/
Yes, I’m aware of all his ridiculous lawsuits, but even he must have had enough common sense to know that you can’t trick the IRS into believing a frozen body is a living person.
Python, I’m sure the IRS does regret the Scientology decision, but it’s easy to see why they made that decision. If they had declared Scientology was not a religion, they would been accused of discrimination .
The whole idea of freezing someone is to revive them later. However, they have to die before being frozen. From a legal perspective, they are dead, so one would presume all inheritance laws would be in place. If you knew how Scientology works, it’s not easy to see how it was determined to be a religion.
I know how they work, Scott….they are nothing but an organized crime syndicate masquerading as a religion. What I meant by the previous comment is that they claim to be a religion, (and they probably met whatever criteria the IRS required for them to be considered a religion) so the IRS probably felt they had little choice….Of course a thorough investigation into Scientologies inner workings would have shown the truth, but perhaps the IRS was afraid to do so.
Heres what wikipedia had to say about this topic:
The tax status of the Church of Scientology in the United States has been the subject of decades of controversy and litigation. Although the Church was initially partially exempted by the Internal Revenue Service(IRS) from paying federal income tax, its two principal entities in the US lost this exemption in 1957 and 1968. This was due to concerns that church funds were being used for the private gain of its founder L. Ron Hubbard(according to the IRS) or due to an international psychiatric conspiracy against Scientology (according to Scientology).
In the course of a 37-year dispute with the IRS, the church was reported to have used or planned to employ blackmail, burglary, criminal conspiracy, eavesdropping, espionage, falsification of records, fraud, front groups, harassment, money smuggling, obstruction of audits, political and media campaigns, tax evasion, theft, investigations of individual IRS officials and the instigation of more than 2,500 lawsuits in its efforts to get its tax exemption reinstated. A number of the church’s most senior officials, including Hubbard’s wife, were eventually jailed for crimes against the United States government related to the anti-IRS campaign. The IRS, for its part, carried out criminal investigations of the church and its leaders for suspected tax fraud and targeted the church as a “dissident group” during the Nixon administration.
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Looks as though the battle has gone on for a very long time…makes me wonder who is really behind Scientology, as it seems to have more power than it should, if it were really only Miscavige in charge.
And why can’t the FBI force them to produce Shelley Miscavige?
Hopefully the pressure being put on the cult of Scientology will force the IRS among others to revisit the exemption status. XENU does not qualify by our current standards.
Because individuals have rights in this country.