Part 3: Moira Penza Paints Not Too Pretty Picture of Lauren Salzman

This is Part 3, Moira Penza on Raniere. In this post she speaks about Lauren Salzman.

Part 1: Moira Penza on Raniere: Knox Woods

Part 2: Moira Penza on Raniere: ‘He Was a Conman, a Predator, a Crime Boss’.

On June 17, Assistant US Attorney Moira Kim Penza made the closing arguments in the trial of Kieth Alan Raniere. She spoke of a variety of matters, most of them concerning the man who is known to his followers as Vanguard.  In her closing, which lasted about four hours, she refers to Raniere as ‘the defendant”.

During her closing, Penza also mentioned Lauren Salzman’s name dozens of times.

Lauren seemed to be a curious mixture of victim and victimizer. On the witness stand she really made Keith Raniere look like a monster and showed herself as a sympathetic figure.

Penza did not portray Salzman as a victim in her closing.  While there is little doubt that Penza will support a downward departure from sentencing guidelines in Lauren’s case because she cooperated and testified,

But it is also clear that Penza, from her remarks to the jury, did not think Lauren was a pure victim.

She spoke of Lauren Salzman this way:

Moira Penza said during her closing: 

Lauren Salzman …  was part of the defendant’s criminal enterprise, part of his inner circle. She admitted … [to] crimes she committed on …. the defendant’s behalf.

Her imprisonment of Daniela. Her fraud and her extortion of the DOS victims. And she told you the benefits she received from the enterprise. A job making over $100,000 a year that allowed her to own two homes and travel all over the world. As well as her personal sexual relationship with the defendant and her dream of having his child.

All of which she would have lost if she stopped doing his bidding….

Lauren Salzman was abused for years by the defendant before she made the choice to commit the crimes she pled guilty to.

She testified, if she had ever spoken up or said no to the defendant, she would have been ostracized, lost her career, and lost her relationship.

…. Lauren Salzman, she’s a cooperator. She’s accepted responsibility for her crimes and she’s agreed to testify. But she is hoping for leniency at sentencing. You can consider her testimony with that in mind. But when you analyze her testimony, you should also consider what we call corroborating evidence that indicates she’s been truthful.

Helped Imprison Daniella

…. Lauren Salzman…  would become [Daniela’s] captor at the defendant’s direction.

The defendant also made clear to Lauren Salzman that this was to be kept a secret. He didn’t even want her to discuss it on the phone.

Naked Photos

The first folder, 4L122505, naked photographs of Lauren Salzman, which the defendant titled the folder after his nickname for her Forelorn….

Lauren Salzman and Daniela both testified that the defendant took naked photographs of them in 2005….

Lauren Salzman and Daniela described the defendant taking pictures of them…

Lauren Knew Keith’s Slimy Underbelly

…. Lauren Salzman testified about the defendant’s young virgin successor; that Daniela Padilla, Loreta Garza, and Rosa Laura Junco, were trying to bring in sisters or cousins from Mexico to come to Albany for this purpose. Rosa Laura was even willing to give up her own daughter….

Lauren Salzman…  testified that Pam Cafritz facilitated all of Keith’s objectives, whatever Keith wanted especially in terms of getting sex partners for the defendant….

Lauren Salzman testified that Pam’s illness and death meant that no one was going to fill  that role, to be able to do that for him. That was until DOS.

Lauren Played Big Role in DOS

Lauren Salzman testified about the sexual aspects of DOS. She told you that the defendant was having sex with his first line DOS slaves including herself. She told you about the naked photographs, the up-close vagina pictures that were sexual in nature.

She told you about the dungeon with the BDSM equipment that Daniela Padilla bought. She told you about seduction assignments and the sexual relationships between the defendant and the DOS slaves….

And this is the testimony about the dungeon. 9 Milltowne Drive, the sorority house the defendant told his slaves to purchase. And you can see here the warranty deed dated October 25, 2018, with Stinka, LLC signed by Nicole Clyne. She is one of the first line DOS slaves. And they quote from Lauren Salzman about the dungeon ….

And the items that they told the first line DOS slaves to buy for him. The ones Salzman described as a BDSM sex torture place like the cage.

Lauren Salzman testified that Cici, [Cecilia Salinas, daughter of Carlos Salinas the former Mexican president] whose name we’re not using, is somebody who was a woman who did have very powerful connections in Mexico. And the idea of changing a vote shows that the defendant has envisioned, I submit, that all of these women will be collateralized vows…

Lauren Salzman testified about the structure of DOS and she told you, making it abundantly clear throughout the trial, that the defendant was at the top of it. He was the grandmaster, he was the supreme master….

Lauren Salzman testified that she was instructed to conceal the defendant’s identity from her slaves, and that she followed that instruction…

Flubbing Collateral

Lauren Salzman testified the initial collateral she proposed, which described the true story of her, her mom, and the defendant’s role in corrupting a woman who was having a mental breakdown following a NXIVM class was rejected because the defendant might have been uninclined to release it since it implicated himself.

… Lauren Salzman said – [the collateral was rejected because it] “would be a conflict of interest for Keith to release the collateral because he would be implicated in the collateral. So if I were to ever violate the vow, he wouldn’t be able to use it because it would hurt him so she didn’t accept it”…

Lauren Used Her Power at ESP

For those willing to make a career of it, success in EPS was explicitly tied to — success in DOS was explicitly tied to their success in ESP, an additional tactic of coercion.

For example, in one of the text messages we discovered … between Audrey and Lauren Salzman, Lauren said, “I’m telling you this not just as your M, a master, but as a green in ESP, very high rank.”

…the Government has proved that the defendant agreed with his first line slaves including Lauren Salzman and Allison Mack to obtain the labor of lower-ranking slaves…

Lauren Salzman…  testified that the defendant had said that the first-line DOS members should be getting approximately 40 hours of labor per week from their slaves….

And you also saw the text message…  that Lauren Salzman texted one of her slaves where — that she was conveying that her slave needed to provide her with work and she told the slave, who was a professional, that the type of work Audrey should be doing should be commensurate with Audrey’s skill set. So, for example, I submit that if Audrey were a lawyer, Lauren expected an hour of legal work from her.

Notably as mentioned before, Lauren also threw around her power of a high ranking member of NXIVM with Audrey who herself was looking to be promoted within NXIVM.

Lauren Knew Keith Was ‘Working With’ Allison’s Slaves

… Lauren Salzman testified that she asked Allison if the defendant was having sex with her slaves.

Allison said, “just Nicole and Suzy, but we’re going to start working with India and Jay.”

Lauren then asked, “when you say working, do you mean fucking?”

And Allison said yes.

Brave Raniere

In November 2016 the defendant fled to Mexico leaving Lauren Salzman and others holding down Clifton Park.

A short time after that he dropped his phones and stopped using his e-mail. He went into hiding.

On the day the defendant was arrested in Mexico he was with several of the first line slaves, including Lauren Salzman, with the intention that they could recommit themselves to the defendant and DOS through group sex. But his fantasy never happened. The Federalies came to his villa and the defendant hid behind another door, in fact two doors but the defendant can’t hide anymore.

***

Moira Penza did not say it, but she might as well have said it, for it is proven again and again — Viva Executive Success! 

Frank Parlato