Running out of money? Allison Mack adds two more attorneys to her defense team; one is high powered trial lawyer, the other speaks Spanish

Trust fund nearly depleted?

You wouldn’t know it by Allison Mack – who just added two more attorneys to her defense team, bringing her total number of lawyers to five.

The two new attorneys come from Kobre & Kim, the same firm as that of the three lawyers who have represented her since her indictment in April 2018.

Her two new lawyers are:

Matthew I. Menchel of Kobre & Kim LLP,  Menchel practices in Miami, Florida. He is admitted to practice in Federal Court in New York State.

Mack’s other new lawyer is Gabriela M. Ruiz, also of Kobre and Kim, and also practices in Miami.

Ruiz is not admitted to practice in New York State and made a motion for an Order for admission to practice Pro Hac Vice.

Gabriela M. Ruiz photo

Gabiela RuizRuiz, a litigator for individual and corporate clients in “high-stakes disputes, investigations and government enforcement actions”, is a native Spanish speaker. That may come in handy for Mack’s trial for some of her DOS slaves are Mexican.

Ruiz serves clients throughout Mexico and Latin America in investigations arising from allegations of fraud, bribery, accounting irregularities, and violations of securities laws.

Matthew I. Menchel photo
Matthew Menchel

Menchel is a “highly regarded’ trial lawyer, who focuses on government enforcement defense and complex civil litigation.  He often serves as lead counsel.

Recognized as “an absolutely first-class trial practitioner” by Chambers USA, he is described as “truly gifted at cross-examinations and at communicating with a jury.”

The Daily Business Review twice chose him as the “Most Effective Lawyer” in the criminal law category.

The presiding judge on a highly publicized, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act trial commented about Mr. Menchel’s trial skills: “…his cross-examination was about as text-book an example of a vigorous cross examination as I’ve ever seen.”

Prior to joining Kobre & Kim,  Menchel was a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice (as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida), where he was chief of the Criminal Division.

According to Chambers, Menchel is a “fearless and relentless trial lawyer who can walk into a courtroom on any matter in any jurisdiction and command the issues.”

As a prosecutor, Menchel has similar experience to the newly added prosecution lawyer Mark Lesko.

I can envision a riveting trial with Lesko leading the prosecution and Menchel and Agnifilo leading the defense.

In any event, the addition of two new lawyers brings the total number of defense attorneys for the six Nxivm defendants to 26.

Keith Raniere has five:
Marc A. Agnifilo
Jacob Kaplan
Teny Rose Geragos
-Brafman & Associates
Paul DerOhannesian , II
Danielle Renee Smith
-DerOhannesian & DerOhannesian
Clare Bronfman has nine:
Susan R. Necheles
Gedalia Moshe Stern
Kathleen Elizabeth Cassidy
-Hafetz & Neches LLP
William Savino
-Woods Oviat
Dennis Burke
John Sandweg
Alexandra A.E. Shapiro
Fabien Manohar Thayamballi
-Shapiro Arato LLP
Kathy Russell has two:
Justine A. Harris
Amanda Ravich
-Sher Tremonte LLP
Lauren Salzman has two:
Hector Diaz
Andrea S. Tazioli
-Quarles & Brady LLP
Nancy Salzman has two:
David Stern
Robert Soloway
-Rothman, Schneider, Soloway & Stern, P.C.
Nxivm has one:
Michael Sullivan.
Allison Mack has five:
Steven Kobre
William F. McGovern
Sean S. Buckley
Matthew Menchel
Gabiela Ruiz
– Kobre & Kim LLC
The prosecution has five lawyers
Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Kim Penza
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin K. Orenstein
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin M. Trowel
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Lesko
With the addition of two more lawyers – it seems almost certain that someone – has promised to pay them after the Bronfman-paid trust fund is depleted.
It’s hard to imagine that the lawyers are all going to work pro bono.
Perhaps Judge Garaufis will want to find out which, if any, of the defense attorneys are still getting paid – and which, if any, of them are now working pro bono. Such a disparity could certainly represent yet another conflict-of-interest among the horde of attorneys that make up the defense team.

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Frank Parlato

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[…] declared that Clare won’t fund the attorneys outside the existing trust. Last week, two more attorneys filed notices of appearance in the case – to represent Allison Mack. One of those attorneys is Matthew Menchel, a […]

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[…] declared that Clare won’t fund the attorneys outside the existing trust. Last week, two more attorneys filed notices of appearance in the case – to represent Allison Mack. One of those attorneys is Matthew Menchel, a […]

niceguy
niceguy
5 years ago

I am no expert on comic book conventions and actor appearance quotes. The following link to an article that appeared in the Hollywood Reporter gives some idea how much Allison Mack is actually worth.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/stars-getting-rich-fan-conventions-933062

niceguy
niceguy
5 years ago

Hi everyone including Shadowstate…..
It’s that time again….Please allow me to point out and explain the obvious…. Pimp Cankles was on network television for 9 years.
Pimp Cankles did appearances on the Comic Con circuit for almost 18 years. Pimp Cankles probably made 5 times as much money or even more from comic cons than she actually was paid by the tv show’s producers. Actors get paid millions from attending Sci-fi Expositions and comic cons.
Not to mention all of the royalties pimp Cankles made from merchandising that used her image and the residuals paychecks from Smallville being in syndication.

Pimp Cankles had her parents help her with bail so that she would have available funds to pay for her legal defense.

Unless she gave it all to Vanguard…. Pimp Cankles probably has access to millions. How much exactly I have no idea.

Comic Cons are no joke the dweebs that attend will pay upwards of $500 to $1000 cash to have their picture taken with their favorite star. I wonder if Pimp Cankles reported all of her income?

niceguy
niceguy
5 years ago
Reply to  niceguy

The $500 to $1000 dollars the dweebs spend also buys a few minutes of face time. No doubt Sultan of six has probably attended a few comic cons. How about it Sultan of six you attend any of Kristen’s comic cons? I bet you did.

niceguy
niceguy
5 years ago
Reply to  niceguy

Allison Macks quote for appearing at comic conventions was probably 5 figures after Smallville was canceled and probably the low six figures when the show was still on the air.

Somebody
Somebody
5 years ago

It seems Mack has not come to her senses and admits no guilt. Which is contrary to her IG and website posts where she admitted to being “found out”. Get the popcorn ready. It’s going to be a blood bath.

shadowstate1958
5 years ago

With the addition of two more lawyers – it seems almost certain that someone – has promised to pay them after the Bronfman-paid trust fund is depleted.
It is hard to imagine that the lawyers are all going to work pro bono.

Now who might that be?
Who has Mucho Dinero to hire a Spanish speaking lawyer from Miami for Allison Mack?
How do you say Superman in Spanish?
Superhombre

Spelled S-A-L-I-N-A-S

Could we see Emiliano Sali;nas and Alex Betancourt indicted?

About a month ago the Frank Report published a list of the top tier DOS slave masters who might testify on behalf of Mack and Raniere.
With the exceptions of Allison Mack, Lauren Salzman and Nicki Clyne all of the top tier DOS slave masters are Mexican.
And according to Marc Agnifilo these women all wanted letters of safe conduct from the US Department of Justice that they would not be arrested because many of them are criminal slave masters as guilty as Mack and Raniere in operating a sex slave cult.
Many of these Mexican top tier DOS slave masters are as guilty of slavery and human rights abuses as Allison Mack and Raniere.

If the US DOJ has evidence of criminal conduct by these women there is no way in Hades that they will get letters of safe conduct from the US government.
Many of these upper class Mexican women are potential defendants themselves.

Will this case also involve the eleven or so teen age girls from Chihuahua who were imported to serve as domestic and sex slaves?

The First Line Slaves, I believe, are:

Allison Mack
Rosa Laura Junco
Loreta Garza
Camila Fernandez
Mariana Fernandez
Nicki Clyne
Dani Padilla
Lauren Salzman

Can Mexico save Raniere? Agnifilo plans to call Mexican ‘First Line’ DOS slaves to defend Raniere and impeach DOJ’s American/Canadian ‘victims’
https://frankreport.com/2018/11/27/can-mexico-save-raniere-agnifilo-plans-to-call-mexican-first-line-dos-slaves-to-defend-raniere-and-impeach-dojs-american-canadian-victims/

Note that Rose Laura Junco was housing the eleven young girls (slaves) from Chihuahua in 2017;
Rose Laura Junco was also the employer of Nicki Clyne, Allison Mack’s wife, at the Knife Media.
Loretta Garza was with Mack, Salzman and Clyne when Raniere was arrested by the Federales in Puerto Vallarta.

And to top it off the Fernandez sisters are complicit in the unlawful confinement of a young Mexican woman in a house owned by Clare Bronfman and Nancy Salzman.

Harem Member: [Jane Doe #3 was] living imprisoned in the room while illegal alien, Cami Fernandez is downstairs teaching the children [Rainbow Cultural Garden] in the same … house … And, Clare and Nancy own the house…. Cami Fernandez was the head …. teacher. [She was] Nancy’s maid, who came into the country illegally, lived there illegally, and had no education except a GED that she got around 18 years old here in the U.S. when she wasn’t even supposed to be here. And, she’s the head teacher and they’re running classes in the house with her … sister locked … upstairs.

Inside story on the woman Raniere imprisoned – and her two sisters in the harem
https://frankreport.com/2018/06/09/daniela-fernandez-the-woman-raniere-imprisoned-grounded-and-her-two-sisters-mariana-and-camila/

NoisyMouse
NoisyMouse
5 years ago

The additional attorneys are just there to bill and once the money runs out, they will leave the Defendants high and dry.

No doubt AgniSTEALO brought in his buddies to join the feast and get a kickback under the table.

For the Defendants, it’s their last supper. For the attorneys, just another day at the office.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

The probability of defendant innocence is inversely proportional to the number of lawyers purchased.

The Spectator
The Spectator
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

That’s a pretty sharp twist of the deeply implanted dagger there, Anonymous! :-)))

g
g
5 years ago

If they are all innocent and everyone was a willing participant….why all the lawyers?

Scott Johnson (@ScottTexJohnson)

That someone is likely paying in Pesos.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Within the twenty-six defense attorneys and other nxivm lawyers, are sandweg, burke and the mexican lawyers the only known names to be under fbi investigation? Or are there more attorney names whom have shown up in prosecution document filings?

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

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