This is the second in a series of reports about Mark Vicente’s testimony in the case of the U.S. v. Raniere (You can access the first report here).
After explaining what each of the different color sashes represented on NXIVM’s so-called Stripe Path, Vicente noted that Lauren Salzman was in charge of this part of the organization – and that she had a significant role in determining who got promoted and who didn’t.
He also tried to explain how people got paid for the work they did in NXIVM but even after spending 12 years in the organization, he had a difficult time doing that (Except for the people who performed EMs and were paid an hourly fee, it appears that most of the other payments were generally 10% of some revenue source).
But one thing Vicente was certain about is that even in his dual role as Field Trainer – and as the co-owner of a NXIVM Center – things were always tight financially.
“We were always running close to red all the time”, he noted.
*****
We also learned from Vicente that the NXIVM company was organized around its five operational divisions: Commerce, Communication, Education, Ethics and Humanities.
Each division was headed up by a Senior Proctor – and the five division directors reported directly to NXIVM’s Executive Board.
Vicente also specified the locations where NXIVM had established Centers – and where it was trying to establish Centers – when he was involved with the company.
Not all of these were considered to be “full Centers” at the time he left the company in 2017:
RE: United States
– Albany, NY
– Los Angeles, CA
– Miami, FL
– New York City, NY
– Orange County, CA
– San Francisco, CA
– Seattle-Tacoma, WA (Closed in 2009)
RE: England
– London
RE: Canada
– Vancouver
RE: Guatemala
– Guatemala City
RE: Mexico
– Guadalajara, MX
– Mexico City, MX
– Monterey, MX
*****
One of the more interesting things that Vicente explained was how the NXIVM community used shunning to punish people who spoke out against the company – or, worse yet, against the Vanguard.
Vicente explained that if someone was being shunned, you could not talk to that person. Nor could you talk to anyone else who spoke to that person.
The decision-makers when it came to who would be shunned were Raniere, Nancy Salzman and Lauren Salzman (Presumably, Nancy and Lauren are now being shunned by Raniere – and anyone foolish enough to still be loyal to him).
One person who was shunned was Barbara Bouchey – who left NXIVM in 2009.
Another was Michael Salzman, Nancy’s former husband – and the father of Lauren Salzman and Michelle Salzman.
*****
Another interesting topic concerned “ethical breaches” – a concept that permeated the NXIVM organization.
Originally, the term was used to describe things that someone did that were against their core values – e.g., a member who believed in non-violence but who slapped someone else.
But eventually, the term evolved to simply mean anyone who disagreed with Raniere or who didn’t show him the proper amount of respect that he believed he deserved.
*****
Shortly after Vicente took his second and third intensives, he was promoted to the rank of Coach – and moved to the Knox Woods development in Clifton Park, where he lived with Omar Boone.
According to Vicente, there were – and maybe still are – 30-40 high-ranking members of NXIVM living in and around Clifton Park.
*****
Vicente also testified that Clare and Sara Bronfman own the two office buildings that housed NXIVM’s executive offices: 455 New Karner Road and 457 New Karner Road (The latter housed NXIVM’s Accounting Department and its IT Department).
And he said it was Clare who bought the former Italian restaurant on Route 9 in Clifton Park – and, together with Raniere, renamed it Apropos.
*****
Another interesting tidbit from Vicente concerned the security cameras that were installed on many of the properties that housed NXIVM’s offices – or that were lived in by high-ranking members of NXIVM.
According to him, another NXIVM-related company – Plugged-In – was responsible for installing those cameras and for monitoring who entered and left those buildings (No such company was found in the database of the New York Secretary of State).
Vicente indicated that Plugged-In was a company Raniere had developed in order “to create a mesh network using cell phones and (other) devices to create a communication system that wasn’t necessarily connected to the rest of the internet”.
Despite the fact that Plugged-In spent “an enormous amount of money”, Vicente was unsure if the company had ever developed any marketable products.
*****
The next topic that Vicente was questioned about concerned how “exchanges” were used in NXIVM.
One type of exchange occurred when a member could not afford to pay for a given training session – in which case they would “go into debt with the company” and then work off that debt by performing some sort of service for the company.
Another form of exchange occurred when a member wanted to take a Level 2 training session but could not afford it – in which case they would have to mentor a certain number of other people without getting paid for that work and also take three more Level 2 trainings for which they would have to pay full price.
*****
Vicente also provided some testimony that will almost certainly ensure that Vanguard will shun him for all of eternity.
That occurred when Vicente testified that all of the various NXIVM-related companies were controlled by Raniere.
This was true, Vicente testified, even though those companies listed other people as owners.
People like Pam Cafritz, Jim Del Negro, and Nancy Salzman.
Del Negro, as it turns out, had continued to advance in the company even after he couldn’t remember the names of the companies he had founded while he was being cross-examined in Susan Dones’ bankruptcy case.
He advanced to the rank of Proctor on the Stripe Path, became one of the leaders of the Society of Protectors, took over the company’s Legal Department after Kristin Keeffe departed/escaped, and even became one of the co-owners of the NXIVM Center in Albany, NY.
*****
And last – but certainly not the least for this update on Vicente’s testimony – was his recounting of how Raniere described the intense scrutiny that he was under by various governmental entities because of “his IQ and intelligence and problem-solving ability”.
Although Raniere did not specify the names of these governmental entities, we can certainly identify at least a few that were most certainly NOT scrutinizing anything that he did.
Those would include the following:
– The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York
– The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Field Office in Albany, NY
– The Internal Revenue Service
– The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
– The Office of the New York State Attorney General
– The New York State Department of Taxation & Finance
– The New York State Police
– The Office of the Albany County District Attorney
– The Albany County Department of Health
– The Office of the Saratoga County District Attorney
Which, of course, does raise the question as to which “governmental entities” Raniere thought were spying on him.
Maybe we’ll find out if/when Raniere takes the witness stand to explain to the members of the jury why they should acquit him on all charges.
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And if Nancy Salzman finally took the maximum of the minimum 41 months (if I understand correctly but is it really that?)?
It’s too easy to plead guilty to such serious crimes without assuming all the consequences
Mark Vicente liked it when the going was good.
Now he is revealing the evil of the cult to save his ass.
He is a fucking joke. What if one of the Bronfmans or Emiliano Salinas took a plea deal to save their own ass? Fuck them all.
“Now he is revealing the evil of the cult to save his ass.”
That’s what all of the cooperating witnesses are doing.
Courtroom description lite!
Not many details here
Shunning, exclusive behavior, cliques, manipulation, sexual perversion, lies, etc. all positive qualities to sell as self help??!! Sad… I think Tony Robbins would have been a better choice!! And he doesn’t screw his students…
I wouldn’t be so sure about Tony Robbins, though I don’t know about sexual misbehavior specifically. But back in the day when I knew a lot of people who were involved in things like NLP, I was acquainted with two young women who had worked for Robbins as sort of personal assistants, and they told horror stories of working long hours for very low pay, and not being treated well – it all sounded rather, well, culty.
Last I knew he was married to a former assistant who insides said he’d been cheating on his wife with – she was married at the time as well, and her husband initiated some messy legal stuff over her adultery. I’ve since read other accounts similar to what the women I knew told, including that he tends to surround himself with young women of a particular type he apparently finds attractive, with rumors that the newer wife accepted his not being monogamous and having affairs with them – it all starts to sound possibly a bit more like NXIVM’s inner circle, doesn’t it?
It does sound that way, except you haven’t provided a single link to any information to confirm the claims. That makes your comment sound possibly a bit more like Raniere’s lies.
I realized that I should have added that much of what I had to share is anecdotal – though there is enough of it from enough sources to indicate that Robbins is at least something of the hypocritical guru type, somewhere on the same spectrum with Raniere.
There’s a bit about the messiness of his affair and divorce – in spite of the fact that he claims to give people advice on relationships – here:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/testimony-gives-rare-glimpse-of-robbinss-life/article18241507/
Reviews of his company at GlassDoor are very mixed, and seem to confirm some of the sort of things the women I knew reported decades ago, suggesting that the’s not really very successful at managing businesses or people:
“Hypocrites with no integrity”
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Robbins-Research-International-RVW13325000.htm
Sad
Excellent article Krclaviger thank you.
Roberta Glass did a great job on her podcast, describing Vicente’s testimony:
https://youtu.be/JfLcrqKYpOc
Thanks for that, Dianne – and Roberta Glass, too.
Message to Frank:
Frank, I just wanted to take this moment to say how UNDERWHELMED I was when reading your 2 articles regarding Mark Vicente’s testimony.
You simply told us the same OLD crap that you always say.
The below things are what a GOOD journalist would have told us:
1) What was the JURY’S likely reaction to his testimony?
2) Was Mark’s ’emotionalism’ well received by people watching in the audience? Yourself? Toni?
3) Did he sound sincere? Did he sound fake?
4) Are his intelligent (wordy) responses going above the jury’s head?
5) Is he making easily understandable points for the jury?
6) Is the prosecutor asking the right questions to make the case against Keith?
7) Is the prosecutor getting weighed-down by covering too many bland topics and losing focus?
8) If you were a juror, how would you rate both Sylvie and Mark’s testimony so far?
Don’t sugar coat it, YOU ASSHOLE. 🙂
You are welcome to STFU and get your own website if you don’t like Frank’s website. Show us how much better YOU can do it, A$$HOLE. When Frank starts publishing the transcripts, that information will be FAR superior to any of the points you made above. LOL
‘things were always tight financially’ I’m curious: where’d all the money go? The suckers were being bled dry, paying thousands for courses. Money kept pouring in, so where did it go? Rainiere wasn’t living a luxurious lifestyle, there was no corporate jet or fleets of luxury cars, no mansions. Was it all frittered away on bad investments? Rainiere seems to have had a genius for losing money.
Other cult leaders at least lived it up while the good times lasted, driving Lambourghinis and partying on Carribbean islands. Any self-respecting megachurch pastor has a McMansion and a BMW or two. He seems to have lived in tacky upstate NY duplexes and got driven around in other people’s Toyotas. What a tool.
Don’t you know that some people call Raniere “The Albany Jesus”?
No gold plated toilets for Raniere.
Just a hot tub for the women he planned to mentor.
KAR read The Art of the Deal
Trump had a ghost writer for the Art of the Deal.
Tony Schwartz
Here is a video of that ghostwriter speaking at Oxford University.
LOL!
KAR had quite the similar knack for losing large amounts of other people’s money in gambling-related dealings, while proclaiming himself an investment genius. I’ve had an inside source on DJT’s and his family’s (where the money really comes from) business dealings for decades, and have long been aware of what is only finally really starting to be aired, though as with Raniere, Forbes actually reported on the basic outlines of what was going on in the early 2000s.
It was one of Hubbard’s tricks in Scientology, and remains so under the current leadership, that local organizations are bled dry by various commissions and royalties that they have to send “uplines” (a term also used in MLMs, I believe). Hubbard also wasn’t into living in luxury, just having all his material needs met similar to the way that nice things “appeared” for Raniere, while hoarding cash – which reminds me, it’s interesting to consider that Nancy Salzman had more NXIVM cash stashed in her house, than the relatively modest place itself was worth, and none of Raniere’s pads were any more posh.
I don’t think we have a good idea yet where the money went. It’s possible that with everything NXIVM was spending on harassing and suing perceived enemies, particularly Raniere’s various exes, that the corporation itself wasn’t really profitable, hence the Bronfmans even having to support it in various ways. And besides the Bronfman’s money that Raniere is know to have squandered in real estate and commodities, I’ve seen reports he was a gambler, which would fit, and he may have lost surprising amounts of money to his own bad habits and poor investments. Hopefully that will be one of the things that the trial will shed more light on, and if not, I’m pretty sure that afterwards the IRS and ICE (with jurisdiction over foreign money transfers) are going to be making claims based on their calculations of all the underhanded dealings.
“According to Vicente, there were – and maybe still are – 30-40 high-ranking members of NXIVM living in and around Clifton Park.”
These 30 to 40 members along with a small contingent in Brooklyn and the members of NXIVM Mexico will serve as the nucleus of the New NXIVM.
After a period of lying low, the cult will reappear with a new name and new leadership.
Raniere will be considered the Lucifer, the Fallen Angel, responsible for all of the sins of the Old NXIVM.
Raniere’s co-defendants will be regarded as Martyrs for the Mission.
And the New NXIVM will focus more on self-help programs, owning businesses like the Knife Media,
laundering money, tax fraud, funneling foreign money into US political campaigns, immigration fraud and other small-time grifts and scams.
No more branding, blackmail, week-long sex orgies, or child porn.
As for where NXIVM had its greatest strength in these American cities:
RE: United States
– Albany, NY
– Los Angeles, CA
– Miami, FL
– New York City, NY
– Orange County, CA
– San Francisco, CA
– Seattle-Tacoma, WA (Closed in 2009)
Every one of these cities is in an area or county dominated by Liberal Democrats.
Even Orange County California, which used to be Republican, is now Democratic.
America’s Heartland cities, even the liberal ones like Denver and Minneapolis, are too hard-headed and practical for a crackpot cult-like NXIVM.
RE: Canada
– Vancouver
Vancouver, where Nicki Clyne and Kristen Kreuk came from, is one of the most liberal cities in Canada as opposed to the conservative city of Calgary.
RE: Mexico
– Guadalajara, MX
– Mexico City, MX
– Monterey, MX
Monterey is a major industrial city in Northern Mexico and the other cities are in Central Mexico which is a long time stronghold of the PRI party of Carlos Salinas.
Mexico City is the governmental, financial and media capitol of Mexico.
NXIVM does best in cities with a big media and arts presence like Vancouver. Los Angeles, Brooklyn (NYC) and Mexico City.
NXIVM is dead.
Long Live NXIVM!
The American heartland too practical and hardheaded for a crackpot cult?
Waco, TX David Koresh’s Branch Davidians.
Salt Lake City, UT The Mormons
The Mormons were founded in Upstate New York near Rochester, just about two hundred miles West of NXIVM Village in Clifton Park.
Like Raniere. the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith pulled scams telling New York farmers that he could find buried gold on their land with magic seeing stones and diving rods.
Joseph Smith was tried for fraud at least once.
Like Raniere. Joseph Smith had a fascination with Mexico telling his followers that the Mayans and Aztecs were some of the Twelve Lost Tribes of Israel.
When the Mormon Prophet tried to set up his Mormon Paradise in Nauvoo, Illinois an angry posse of Illinoisans stormed the jail and shot him.
Fawn Brodie’s “No Man Knows My Story” is a fascinating biography of the Mormon fraud/Prophet.
As for me. my parents never took me to church.
The last time I was in church was 1995 for my uncle’s funeral.
At best. I am vaguely Protestant.
I have some cousins who are Catholic but since I made an issue about Priest pedophilia some thirty years ago I don’t speak with them very much.
“Vancouver, where Nicki Clyne and Kristen Kreuk came from, is one of the most liberal cities in Canada”
No wonder they ended up in a cult. Liberals are pretentious, degenerate, weak, low self esteem retards.
Geezus, how much are you going to bitch and whine about liberals here?
Are you he spank goblin?
The sheer irony of it is special, no?
Vancouver is the San Francisco of Canada.
Canada has two major left wing parties, the Liberals and the New Democrats, and only one right wing party the Progressive Conservatives.
Vancouver is full of soy boy dickheads and San Francisco is full of shit stabbers. Even third world shitholes don’t have that.
Tony Bennett sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
Many of San Francisco’s denizens today sing, “I Left My Feces in San Francisco.”
The problem with San Francisco poop maps
https://sf.curbed.com/2019/4/23/18511865/sf-poop-human-waste-map-forbes-dpw-dog
That inaccurate generalization is disproven by the example of Scientology, which has slowly drifted into being rather conservative socially and politically – currently, they’re trying to use their remaining hot minor celebrity Joy Villa to access the Trump White House and gain influence in the MAGA movement, and anti-abortion politics. Scientology’s main headquarters in LA where many of their staff live dominates the only voting district in the region that went for Trump, and their other main location in Clearwater, Florida is in a county that Trump carried. And yet Scientology is very weak in the heartland, as it it seems that the people in the region are more practical-minded and not so susceptible to the lure of groups or cults at either extreme of the ideological spectrum.
As Acteon rightly points out, there are different types of cults, mostly nominally Christian based, that are found in “conservative” bastions. Besides the Mormons and their polygamous-pedophile offshoot the FLDS that has long found cover to operate in places like Utah and Arizona, and more recently rural Texas, there are all sorts of religious-based groups across the Bible Belt that perpetrate largely the same sort of abuses as NXIVM, while managing to co-opt ideologically conservative local authorities and stay largely under the radar.
It’s still koolaid whether the flavor is at one end of the ideological rainbow or the other. Cultish notions of us-against-them and ideological superiority are a typical characteristic of the extremes, spread by adherents ranging from cynical operatives like those who will do things from running false flag operations on social media to outright illegal activity such as manipulating absentee ballots (note who was recently bused for that), to simple dupes.
Very informed, informative comment. Thanks, Anony.
A Christian cult is a Christian cult. Their religion drives them, not their so-called “conservatism”.
Muslims don’t like to put their halal piss worms up the pooper, nor do they believe in “transgender”. Their cult is Islam. Nothing to do with “conservative”.
Yes. Conservatism and liberalism are just philosophies. The definition of cult is independent of the philosophies upon which they are based. Destructive cults such as NXIVM further restrict the definition.
You can have liberal cults and conservative ones. The current cult of Trump and its Trumpians who can see no wrong in what its leader does are typically classified as the latter.
Excellent point! I imagine a truckload of that cash was funneled to many of those Democrats. They needed walking around money.
When NXIVM was getting going in the early 2000s, it was actually the Republicans in control in Albany – with Gov. George Pataki allowing some rather culty Christian influence into government and public administration. And it was Albany-based Republicans to whom the Bronfmans gave far and away their largest political donations.
But that doesn’t fit a certain ideological narrative, and so we’re seeing some cult-like “thought stopping,” in which true believers ignore ignore inconvenient truths. The Bronfmans actually spread their money around between both parties, which fits more with the uncomfortable reality that both sides are too susceptible to being bought, and selling out the public interest.
It’s also worth noting that NXIVM’s corporate attorneys are still politically-connected Republicans, though the Bronfmans and other insiders have at times employed those with deep ties to the Albany party machines of both the Republicans (D’Amato, for instance) and Democrats (DerOhannesian, and another I can’t think of right now whose father was a real old-time party boss).
Nexium the antacid company needs to step up and sue the shit out of NX and anyone who ever utters the word again except in the context of being a purple pill for tummy aches after this is over.
Happy Mother’s Day!
“That occurred when Vicente testified that all of the various NXIVM-related companies were controlled by Raniere.”
Girls By Design, One Asian…
No.
Yes.
No.
Yes “sultan”, yes. You empty soulless little freak.
Girls By Design was Kristin Kreuk’s NXIVM company for teaching NXIVM garbage to little girls and One Asian was literally named in a list of NXIVM shell companies by the authorities.
You are obviously the vile creature “spanky”. Nobody else would arrogantly just say “no” about these two NXIVM whores, one of which, he masturbates excessively to, huh 3.70 pounds of goo boy…
Your last few paragraphs = 🤣😂😆😅😃😏😳. Magnificent court coverage, Clav!
Do we ever get a more detailed juror description? Professions? Looks? Dress? Or is that not Kosher?
“Do we ever get a more detailed juror description? Professions? Looks? Dress? Or is that not Kosher?”
Heidi, you should ask if that is not Halal?
Apparently, there are Muslims on the jury (more than one Muslim) and Muslim men may have up to four wives at the same time.
And Muslim men may marry girls as young as six years old just like their Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him.
Allah Akbar!
Muslims are gross.
Muslims make Keith Raniere look like a Feminist.
Strangely, feminists are obsessed with shielding Muslims from criticism and want them to flood western lands, while they shit all over the dreaded “straight white male” who has no desire to defend himself. Muslims are everything the left claim to hate.
Sad.
Blech! Another cult where.the man takes advantage of women, forces them to be sex.slaves, and constantly lies.about how smart and wonderful he is.
Those women are cunts too.
Actually, only the women are c*nts. The men are d!cks.
Heidi,
Where are the Juries descriptions?
Thanks
That’s what I wanna know. I hope maybe one of the ladies with an eye for detail who aren’t preoccupied with witness testimony will oblige us but I desperately don’t want to see this site shut down before I get to the trial myself if describing the jurors is against the rules, reveals too much about their identities, etc.
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