Clare Bronfman certainly doesn’t have much luck when it comes to men…
First, she got herself deeply involved in Keith Raniere’s NXIVM/ESP cult – and committed all sorts of crimes to help further the cult’s objectives.
Then, just two months before her trial was to begin on various NXIVM/ESP-related charges, she decided to hire Mark Geragos as her lead attorney.
Earlier today, Geragos was identified by several news outlets as “CC-1”[Co-conspirator #1], the other attorney who, along with Michael Avenatti, allegedly tried to extort more than $20 million from Nike, Inc.
Although Geragos has not yet been indicted, that is certainly a possibility – and per one legal source, “almost inevitable”.
According to the complaint filed against Avenatti, he and CC-1 [Geragos] met with attorneys representing Nike on March 19th – and threatened to disclose damaging information about the company’s involvement with “a major high school/college basketball scandal” unless it agreed to pay the attorneys between $15 million and $25 million to conduct an “internal investigation” into the company.
Alternatively, Avenatti and Geragos supposedly agreed to accept a one-time payment of $22.5 million from Nike to keep them from going public with their charges.
Either way, $1.5 million of the Nike payments to Avenatti and Geragos was slated to go to an unnamed client who had allegedly been harmed by the company.
Assuming that Avenatti and Geragos were going to retain 30% of the amount collected by the client – an amount that may be least 10% too low – this means that the two attorneys would have collected at least $15.5 -$25.5 million while their client netted about $1 million.
That sounds pretty fair… at least when you’re dealing with really, really sleazy attorneys.
Seriously, did both of these clowns skip the mandatory classes on “Legal Ethics” when they were in law school?
Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated that the scheme involving Avenatti and Geragos “…was an old-fashioned shake-down”.
That sounds about right…
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Aside from what’s going to happen to Avenatti and Geragos themselves, the question arises as to what’s going to happen to their other clients who are currently depending upon them for legal representation.
People like Clare Bronfman…
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Will Clare seek to postpone her trial – which is currently scheduled to start on April 8th with the selection of the jury that will determine whether she goes free or spends a significant amount of time in federal prison?
Or will she use Geragos’ legal problems as an additional argument for severing her trial from that of Keith Raniere, Allison Mack and Lauren Salzman?
Or will she crawl back to her former lead attorney, Susan Necheles, and beg her to take back over the case that she was removed from on March 1st?
Or will she accept a plea deal that will likely see her spending 6-10 years in federal prison?
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It seems unlikely that Nicholas G. Garaufis, the presiding judge in the case of the U.S. v. Raniere Et Al, will allow Geragos to remain as Bronfman’s lead attorney in the case because doing so would set up an almost perfect appeal issue should Bronfman be convicted.
At a minimum, Judge Garaufis will have to conduct another Curcio hearing to force Clare to state, under oath, that she still wants to be represented by the ethically-challenged and obviously-distracted Geragos.
Other legal issues now abound in this case – which could easily find its way into future textbooks concerning several law school subjects.
• Will some/all of Clare’s co-defendants claim that the presence of Geragos on the defense team unfairly biases the jury against them?
• Will Geragos’ own legal problems give Clare a slam-dunk claim of “ineffective counsel” if/when she gets convicted?
• Will some/all of Clare’s co-defendants – including Raniere – now seek to have separate trials from Clare?
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Another complicating factor concerns the question of who is going to represent Mark Geragos with respect to his current legal problems. This far, he is being represented by Benjamin Brafman.
That would be the same Benjamin Brafman who is the founder of Brafman & Associates PC.
And that would be the same Brafman & Associates PC that is the law firm where Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, two of Keith Raniere’s attorneys, happen to work.
And that would be the same Teny Geragos who is Mark Geragos’ daughter.
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What a clusterfuck!
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
Krclaviger,
F. Lee Bailey let greed and is ego get the better of him.
I know Geragos did not text or email anything. He is to smart to make that kind of mistake.
The other attorney has no evidence as to Geragos’s guilt.
Time will tell if I am right.
I’ve thought Geragos was a clown for years, he doesn’t even need the makeup and props.
Scott,
Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.
To be fair Scott, you look much goofier than Gregragos and you are a much bigger clown.
And you’re a scared little twirp who lied about coming on my radio show. LOL
Yes I am 6’1 twerp…..
Scott why do you so badly want me on the radio show that you are a part time sidekick on?
What will appearing on the podcast “radio” show that you guest cohost do for me?
Presently Scott,
I have about as much interest appearing on your show as I do watching Frank Parlato, Roger Stone and Ben Zimikas Eiffel tower Stormy Daniels.
I’m not the one who said you would come on the show, you were. Now you’ve been exposed as the scared liar I already knew you were. Great job! LOL
I’m almost 6’6″, but you could be 10′ tall and still be a twerp. It has NOTHING to do with your standing height.
Someone should tell the clown that Senor Duran wants his shoes back.
I’m from Poland and I am writing my MA dissertation using, i.a. the article about the concerned women branding by The New York Times 🙂 I hope you will succeed in what you’re aiming for now!
It would be fitting if Clare Bear’s attorneys showed up to the next hearing in clown clothing and one of those really small cars.
Big shoes and horns that went Wonka Wonka Wonka when the Judge asked them questions.
Clare Bear could wear a princess dress and ride in on a unicorn. The girl needs some beef and some sleep.
There is something else. How many Black or African American Nexians were there?
Like 1 out of 10,000?
Was there any particular reason for that, Barb?
Black people have a tendency to stay away from Comic Cons, Star Trek conventions, and dorky white men.
Black people like to eat garlic. It keeps vampires and Raniere away.
I always say like attracts like.
Figures Clare would hire a scummy lawyer, as scummy as she is.
Just gets better all the time.
Folks, we have a ring side seat to the destruction of the Bronfman name, forever.
All her money cannot buy a decent reputation.
Her bootlegger grandfather did actually succeed in buying a decent reputation. But while she seems to have learned the part about using mob-type lawyers for protection and for settling scores, she didn’t learn to keep herself at legally-defensible arm’s length from the real dirty dealings.
I do expect that eventually, we’ll see an effort by her to cast herself as truly magnanimous – the extent of which will depend on whether or not she gets out of all this with much ready cash left. Looking at the Wikipedia page for her sister, the supposed “humanitarian and human rights activist”, for instance, it’s obvious that Sara has paid for some PR work,
Lord have mercy THIS JUST KEEPS GOING.
I just skimmed through the complaint, as noted in a reply on the earlier piece about this. Even if Geragos does remain unindicted, I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t at least be in trouble with the Bar, unless he really got involved at some early point when it seemed like a more or less legitimate if aggressive negotiation, and then started cooperating with authorities before it crossed the line into extortion.
Would his being in a situation of at least likely facing sanctions that could potentially be as severe as disbarment, force him to step down as Bronfman’s attorney? It certainly wouldn’t look good, if he ended up seriously censured, suspended or even disbarred, for actions he took while serving as Clare’s attorney – plus there’d even be some risk that, if the trial dragged on for some reason, he could then even be disbarred while it was still going on.
But I do think Clare might like a postponement, as I suspect she will lavishly fund most any legal ploy that could keep her out on bail longer. The only problem with that strategy that occurs to me, and the reason that I think Raniere and she have pushed for a quick trial, is the danger that the prosecutors will come up with additional evidence or witnesses.
krclaviger, thanks for the piece!
What a tangled web they weave…
Great article! That could be quite a conflict if Marc Agnifilos law firm is now representing Geragos, who is now representing Clare Bronfman after Clarebear replaced AgniSTEALo with Geragos. The potential conflicts and grounds for appeal make my head spin.
Plus now, the optics and taint are bad bc who wants a felon as their lead attorney? If anything, it makes Clare look even MORE guilty.
I say Judge disqualifies Geragos. Clare could also finally see the writing on the wall and take a plea.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Keith just decided to plea out? He always wanted to be a martyr, messiah, and Nelson Mandela-like figure.
Well, he might finally get his Wish.
That’s what happens when Clare Bronfman hired a Clown Car full of attorneys for herself and her co-defendants.