Judge Garaufis Sets Dates For Curcio Hearings – And Appoints Attorneys For Clare Bronfman’s Co-Defendants

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, the sentencing judge for Keith Raniere

U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, the presiding judge in the case of U.S. v. Raniere Et Al, has now scheduled the Curcio hearings for each of Clare Bronfman’s co-defendants: Keith Raniere, Allison Mack, Lauren Salzman, Nancy Salzman, and Kathy Russell.

The purpose of the hearings is to ensure that each of Bronfman’s co-defendants is aware of all the potential conflicts-of-interest concerning the attorneys that are currently representing them.

Those potential conflicts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
– All those attorneys are being paid for out of a Defense Trust Fund that Bronfman established shortly before she was indicted in July 2018;

– More than 75% of the Trust has already been depleted – and that was before Allison Mack added two new attorneys to her defense team;-

– Only one of the attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, was paid an upfront retainer fee (All of the other attorneys have been billing by the hour);

– All of the other attorneys may be subservient to Agnifilo (He is usually the only one who speaks during case-related hearings – and he’s been known to speak on behalf of all the attorneys involved in the case);

– With the exception of Raniere, none of the other defendants may have had any say in selecting the attorneys who are currently representing them (It is quite possible that Agnifilo was the one who selected all the other attorneys – which would explain why they are so deferential to him).

To ensure that Raniere, Mack, the Salzmans and Russell receive sound, objective legal advice – which may be the first time that’s happened in this case – Judge Garaufis has appointed a separate attorney to represent each of them at the Curcio hearings.

Those appointed attorneys – and the dates and times for each of the hearings – are as follows (All of the hearings will be held in Courtroom 4D-South):
– RE: Keith Raniere: Avraham C. Moskowitz – February 19, 2019, at 2:30 PM;

– RE: Allison Mack: Susan G. Kellman – February 20, 2019, at 2:30 PM;

– RE: Kathy Russell: Margaret M. Shalley – February 21, 2019, at 2:30 PM;

– RE: Nancy Salzman: Deborah A. Colson – February 22, 2019, at 3:00 PM; and

– RE: Lauren Salzman: Lisa Scolari – February 22, 2019, at 4:00 PM.

Each of the appointed attorneys will receive a copy of the letter that their client’s current attorneys submitted to Judge Garaufis in response to his question as to what they would do when the Trust ran out of money. In addition, they will also receive an unredacted copy of the Trust’s indenture and the January 14, 2019 declaration by the attorney for the Trust’s trustee concerning how the Trust is being administered.

It is expected that at the conclusion of their Curcio hearing, each of Bronfman’s co-defendants will opt to retain their current attorneys rather than have Judge Garaufis appoint – and pay for – independent attorneys to represent them going forward.

In the case of Mack, the Salzmans and Russell, that decision may be based on (a) their loyalty to Raniere and Bronfman; (b) their inability to disobey Raniere’s commands; or (c) their sheer stupidity.

But all that Judge Garaufis cares about is that Bronfman’s co-defendants, after having been fully informed about all the potential conflicts-of-interest, will have decided on their own to stay with their current attorneys.

With that box having been checked off, one more possible basis for an appeal will have been removed from the table.

Viva Executive Success!

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K.R. Claviger

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  • Thank you again for spelling that out, Claviger. I also see these hearings as an act of some mercy on the part of this court. The defendants are being given a second chance to recognize the defense strategy Keith and possibly Clare’s counsel have adopted is not at all in all their interests. In fact, I believe they’re all going to have to perjury themselves or remain silent to pull it off and will fail, regardless.

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.

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