By Angela
Frank, congrats on seeing your brave and tireless work rewarded. That said, a “congrats” is not nearly enough. As relieved as I am about the KAR guilty verdict, I’m greedy for more tangible justice for you and the many others who have been harmed by these people.
While many women clearly suffered emotional and physical torture for which there is no true remedy, the torture that the NXIVM litigation machine subjected so many to is equally despicable.
The American civil litigation system is flawed in the sense that anyone can file a civil suit against anyone. In most cases, there is no way for the accused party to recover their attorney’s fees unless they can prove that the lawsuit was “frivolous.” While we know that most of the lawsuits these Nxivm people filed were frivolous, the legal standard to prove “frivolous” is often very difficult.
I don’t think any of us can imagine the financial strain and emotional stress that many people were put through in connection with all of the baseless and abusive lawsuits that were filed by these vicious and vindictive people. It seems to me that there has to be some justice for all of those individuals who spent thousands and thousands of dollars to defend these baseless lawsuits.
In terms of what would constitute “justice” for these victims, I would like to think that civil and criminal penalties are warranted. In terms of the civil penalties, I’m glad that the government seized money and property from these goons. But that money doesn’t go to compensate the victims – it goes into the government’s coffers.
The litigation victims should have some remedy to recover the money they spent defending these harassing lawsuits.
Likewise, with regard to criminal penalties, I hope that some justice will be served at sentencing for Clare et al. Many of you have commented that the Bronfman Money will keep Clare from a long prison sentence. If that turns out to be true, it will be a travesty (Note: Fingers crossed that the EDNY has not been bribed or otherwise become beholden to Bronfman et al).
As for who bears primary responsibility for terrorizing people like Frank and Joe O’Hara, I don’t know the answer to that, but we do know that the Bronfman money financed it. I’m sure there were others at the helm who aggressively participated. I hope that the culprits will be punished both with fines to compensate the victims AND with substantial jail sentences.
The people you cited (Frank and Joe, for example) aren’t concerned by this trial…only the crimes in this trial are appliable for restitution.
That means that except the victims cited, no one outside can get restitution.
It was not Nxivm trial (unfortunately) but Raniere’s criminal enterprise. And even if it happened in Nxivm with Nxians, it was not directly related to It.
If it was, many more people would have been called as defendants (especially since many were heavily implicated).
Asking for restitution will only be a waste of public fund as nothing will be given and the demand most likely rejected.
I repeat: Only the current recognized victims will receive restitution.
I have no sympathy for most of the people involved in this case, the exceptions being the underaged victims.
Raniere was a manipulative piece of s**t who took advantage of the gullibility of a bunch of empty-headed women who were (and still are) living mostly meaningless lives.
I’m not saying they deserved to be mistreated, just that they were “ripe for the picking”, as is anybody who seeks to find their own strength by following others.
Society needs to stop protecting the stupid, and functioning in a way that mitigates any need to accept personal responsibility for our actions. Good or bad, choices have consequences.
Great points.
It’s also a reminder that victims need to submit claims for restitution if they might be eligible, and ask to appear at sentencing or else send in victim statements if not – perhaps best including a calculation of monetary damages as well, so the that the judge can appreciate the harm Raniere did. I hope someone involved will actively organize such an effort – now there’s something useful that Bouchey’s energy could be put towards.
From the viewpoint of the victim (believe me, not a pleasant view) I must say that any money recovered should be utilized first for excellent counseling, even recovery stay in a specialized facility where the person could focus solely on recovery. In NC we have a victim-of-crime fund ( https://www.ncdoj.gov/Help-for-Victims/Crime-Victims.aspx) to help with counseling, whether or not there is a conviction. It helped me so much. Insurance was great, but didn’t cover all the expense. Each state is probably different.
Sorry Angela, but your comment is as dumb as some of Heidi’s most delusional comments.
Firstly, you can’t use a criminal trial to reimburse expenses incurred for civil lawsuits that were not found to be frivolous by any court of law.
Secondly, the racketeering case against Keith did NOT have any predicate acts which involved “filing frivolous lawsuits”. Therefore, you cannot use this case to claim that a legal remedy should exist for said civil lawsuits.
Thirdly, what Clare Bear did to harass NXIMV critics (i.e. filing lawsuits) has been done by thousands of wealthy people and companies in the past 100 years.
Thus, if the court allowed civil reimbursements for THESE particular lawsuits then every other court in the country would have to reimburse every person who’s ever been fucken sued by a rich person or company.
Yeah, it’s unfair that people can be harassed with civil lawsuits.
However, that can only be addressed by legislation, not by an ‘ad hoc posse’ of idiots (like yourself and Frank) looking to ignore the law and just impose their own sense of civil virtue.
Your whole argument is fucken retarded. It has no hope of coming to fruition. Why not just argue that people should be able to fly like birds?
Oh, forgot to mention…
If you’re truly serious about wishing to improve the world in some way, please at least consider the option of OFF’ing yourself, preferably via Seppuku.
I submit that the world might be improved with one less idiot residing in it. 🙂
I bid you a nice day.
Hi Frank any chance of getting some sort of update on Nicki Clyne? On your list of DOS women, you wrote that Clyne, “Has done more to recruit slaves than any women in the harem other than Allison Mack. Said to be very angry about the secrets of DOS becoming public.” After Mack was arrested you wrote that she was running the slave pods.
Have any of Clyne’s slaves defected? Was she smarter than Mack about who she picked as slaves and is that why she wasn’t arrested or did she manage to get a pass on her crimes like Unterreiner and Keefe by working with the Feds? Did her name even come up during the trial?
Perhaps not much can be done in the NXIVM case, but the best solution in general is check your state’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law. Some are currently weak (New York), some are very strong (Texas), and some states don’t have this law at all (Idaho). There is no federal anti-SLAPP law. Get involved if your state doesn’t have an anti-SLAPP law or it is graded less than excellent. Here’s a good reference website: https://anti-slapp.org/what-is-a-slapp
This could be a great project for the Frank Report to help people organize around, just don’t expect Frank to do all of the work, he already did far more than his fair share with NXIVM.
Frank, I am a civil attorney and, although I have no expertise in this area, I would be glad to do some research and report back. Feel free to reach out. I will send you an email so you’ll have my contact info.
Excellent commentary! Thank you Angela.
Great job frank you deaerve award for covering this and giving us the info
Just posted in last post. ABSOLUTELY!
Class action suit for every penny remaining in Claire Bronfman’s cash stash and award all proceeds to Vanguard victims to help rebuild shattered lives.
“You want fries with that?” — CB
Justice served.
Frank- have your researched the Clinton-Podesta-NXIVM connection?
Here is something https://dcdirtylaundry.com/the-nxivm-clinton-connection/