Bangkok: Raniere’s Companies Were Pyramid Schemes

Pyramid

By Pious Bangkok

Suneel’s arguments in his post, Who Are You Kidding, Claviger — Prosecution’s False Use of ‘Pyramid’ Was Meant to Dirty up Keith Without Evidence, remind me of the loud, lingering death throes of a T-Rex right after the giant asteroid hit and drove him to extinction shortly thereafter.

Suneel is one of the last of the dinosaurs who still follow Keith Raniere.

He presents a fair question though…

Was the government using the “pyramid” label out of hate? Or were they describing Keith’s real history?

Let’s examine the facts.

Keith Raniere before he started Nxivm.

In the 1990’s, a malfunctioning man (named Keith Alan Raniere) formed a pyramid scheme which scammed millions of dollars out of duped customers. This pyramid scam was eventually shut down by threats from the Attorney General.

A few years later, a pudgy man (named Keith Alan Raniere) formed a 2nd pyramid scheme with the assistance of his immoral girlfriend, who served as the figurehead of the company (due to Keith being legally barred from serving as the head of any pyramid schemes).

This 2nd pyramid scheme eventually collapsed under the weight of its own inadequacy.

Toni Natalie and Keith Raniere

Does Suneel acknowledge that Keith did these things?

If not, it would imply that Suneel is acting as the textbook definition of a ‘gelded’ cult member.

After that, a man with rodent feet (named Keith Alan Raniere) formed the precursor to NXIVM — a company called ESP — which utilized recruitment tactics & management styles similar to those of his previous pyramid schemes.

Rodent’s feet? Keith Raniere’s feet, which are almost perfectly square, leave the impression of paw prints when he walked barefoot in the woods. Hunters in the old days when hunting was still permissible in Knox Woods were sometimes taken aback by his footprints not knowing what type of creature made them.

Among the hardest animals in the forest to track is the gray wolf [said to be the third smartest mammal] despite its distinct paw prints.
Then NXIVM was born, the next evolution of Keith’s history of pyramid schemes.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, that’s probably what it is.

Hint to Suneel…

Suneel Chakravorty on CBS This Morning

Most real CEOs (of legit companies) have their power checked by an independent board of directors, not a group of ‘pretend’ directors who literally worship the CEO as their Vanguard and obey his every word. LOL.

In fact, the government was correct in labeling NXIVM as both a pyramid scheme and a cult.

Executive Board of Nxivm

A few questions for Suneel’s supporters:

1) How many non-cults (real companies) have a BOARD OF DIRECTORS who worship the CEO and call him Vanguard?

2) How many non-cults (real companies) have their most SENIOR EXECUTIVES pledge their lives to the CEO in sexual servitude while branding his name above their pussies?

3) How many non-cults (real companies) have their most senior executives & board members sing and dance on stage for the CEO, making fools of themselves in the process, while simultaneously calling him Vanguard?

4) How many non-cults (real companies) have their CEO instruct his executives to make sure that a woman never leaves her bedroom for over a year?

Does that sound like a real CEO? Or does that sound like a cult leader?

Suneel is choosing to willfully ignore any unflattering facts about Keith’s history.

This is CLASSIC CULT PROGRAMMING that we’re witnessing.

A cult member is not free to criticize his leader. While a non-cult member can say whatever he likes. Which category is Suneel in?

IMO, Suneel should volunteer to have his brain analyzed by experts —– cuz I’m sure it would be fascinating to learn how a Harvard Grad could fall under the sway of a lunatic like Keith Alan Raniere. There’s gotta be some short-circuited wires in Suneel’s brain that need fixing.

Have a nice day.

This image represents what happens to the human brain when it is being washed by a cult leader such as Keith Raniere.

 

About the author

Frank Parlato

53 Comments

Click here to post a comment

Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us! (Email & username are optional)

  • It is important to judge the documented acts accurately. The contemptuous way of speaking of Mr. Ranier is only part of his sensational way.

  • Hi Pious, I appreciate that Frank offers you and me a platform to share our differing opinions. In my opinion, your article here is an opinion piece, not an examiniation of facts as you state. Thank you, Frank for providing this platforrm where many other platforms are using censorship.

  • To uphold data, you must strongly research the conclusion to determine if it properly reveals the conduct was upheld and you are at cause for the data. If not the whole world might be inside of a turtle’s butt. A wise man once said, ” Shabba Dabba Doo”. Or maybe that was the Flintstones? Either way. Free Keith Raniere !!!! As the data proves, hate has occurred. If we live in a world where an old man cannot do as he pleases no matter who he hurts, then where will American people find peace? Can it not be told that this case represents why the lines at Disneyland grow so long? Martin once said, “When you feed bears, they follow you home”. J. C. Chasez said, ” bye, bye, bye”. It concludes then that prosecution biased data to show dirty Keith

  • I was hoping to find evidence that ESP/NXIVM was a pyramid scheme and found nothing. Just the claim.

    It is interesting to note that the prosecution never used the phrase “pyramid scheme” in court. I am guessing that they would have if they could defend it with data.

    Instead, they said the organizations were pyramid in structure, which described almost every single company in the world. It is difficult not to conclude that they couldn’t support the accusation, but decided to try to inspire mistrust, anyhow, by slipping that pyramid word in there. It is difficult not to conclude that the representatives of the people were using school yard tactics to win, while their role in society is to help uphold a high level of conduct. I wonder what happened.

    • You first have to define what you think a pyramid scheme is before you claim you could find no evidence of one.

    • I was with you right up until your conclusion.

      Yes, the prosecution used the term “pyramid organization” to describe NXIVM/ESP.

      And Yes, they probably did that knowing full well that some/all of the twelve jurors would interpret that term — and thus, interpret NXIVM/ESP and Keith Raniere — in a negative light.

      What should have happened next is Keith’s attorneys objecting to the use of the term — an objection that Judge Garaufis likely would have denied.

      And then, when they had an opportunity to put on a witness, Keith’s attorneys could have brought in a well-credentialed business professor from a prestigious NYC university to explain that “pyramid structure” is a benign term — and not a pejorative one.

      At that point, Keith’s attorneys could have told the jury that the prosecutors are treating them like they’re dumb and uninformed — and trying to slip all sorts of non-evidence into the trial because they figured this jury wouldn’t notice.

      Instead, they did absolutely nothing about what is now being described as a major issue in the case.

      • Agree.

        I also think they simply didn’t need to add the word “scheme” and be concerned about proving it.

        The evidence regarding the recruitment of slaves in DOS filled in the rest.

  • Why does Bangkok have to use so many insults towards Suneel to make a point? Like the prosecution, if they have such great evidence that someone committed a crime, why do they need to lower themselves and attack someone’s character?

      • Where did Any attack Bangkok’s character? Besides, that’s my job, as Bangkok is a proven coward for not coming on Scott’s podcast.

    • Bangkok is the antithesis of Frank Report readers. There are two competing theories as to why Bangkok insults people. The first theory holds Bangkok is a typical LA rich kid with parents who ignore him. He craves attention, in any form, hence all of the insults.

      The second theory holds Bangkok was fed breast milk which was tainted by his mother’s excessive Botox injections. The breast milk left Bangkok, a mentally challenged, pissed off, diaper-wearing Forest Gump.

    • Why do you not address the points Bangkok made instead of focusing on his “insults,” which are mainly intended for humor? [redacted]

  • American Mob InJustice vs The Bible

    Kieth Raniere = Jesus
    Frank Parlato = Pontius Pilot
    Lauren Salzman = Judas
    DOJ & FBI = Jews and other assholes
    Bangkok = The Apostle Matthew

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

    QAnon Factoid:

    Interestingly enough, Frank Parlato,
    and Pontius Pilot both hail from Italy home of the Catholic Church. Could the Illuminati have existed in the time of Christ as it does today?

    “Where we go one, we go all!”

    • Your remark is simply autobiographic, telling who you dream that you are. That is all. And hopefully you are able to see this for yourself. Perhaps there’s hope. You decide. You alone.

      As such, I find your offering of your autobiography very pitiable. Superficial, too. How can this be? Who settles for this? Perhaps you’ll get well soon. Hallucinated divisiveness, separateness is more or less lethal. There are no feet on the ground. You are bound to learn this, one way or another. A stranger to the self, blabbing about Jews. You have such mud on your face! This is 2021 and you are what? Living in 1939 with that asshole, Adolf Hitler, and his groupies.

      Congratulations.

      Damn it, where are the barfbags, my dear Maria?

      Never mind. This is old garbage. No need to vomit each time someone shows such ugliness. Detachment! Yes, despite the call of the heart, detach. It is too late now. The heart will keep on, regardless. The heart is listening. Might as well relax and watch the reruns exhaust themselves seeking some lame misidentification of “reality.” Arbeit macht frei, huh. Fuck it. How about fuck it.

      The theoretical prognosis for your recovery is not even lukewarm, from what you have demonstrated so far. You will probably never want to hear any Shoah testimony. Shacked up with your rat wheel, running in circles, as if the wreckage were actually neurological, but most likely it’s a case of a mentality disconnected,or so far unconnected, with your very own heart, the seat of compassion. It that still invisible to you, you, you?

      If only you could see yourself. But it looks as though you are still too frantic to be willing and able to take a look inside of yourself. That is, however, the only “place” to start, the very doors of perception, waiting silently for you to notice. There is NOTHING to fear.

  • In some ways, parts of this article almost sounded like an insult to Keith Raniere and Suneel Chakravorty. Admittedly, the actual events took an unfortunate turn and could be construed in less than positive ways, and certainly life imprisonment was called for.

    But there is no need for fault-finding.

  • I’ve been looking into this case for a couple of months and I don’t have enough information to say this was a pyramid. I think Suneel’s points are really interesting and questioning his intelligence and calling him brainwashed or whatever it’s not a good way to debate. If we keep fighting instead of actually debating, this will not be a valuable way of understanding the case.

  • US Department of Injustice = South Africa
    Keith Raniere = Blacks
    Imprisonment = Apartheid

    Mahatma Ghandi said

    “Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.”

    “It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone.”

    “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”

    “Bullies are always to be found where there are cowards.”

    “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”

    “Where there is love there is life.”

    “Your beliefs become your thoughts,
    Your thoughts become your words,
    Your words become your actions,
    Your actions become your habits,
    Your habits become your values,
    Your values become your destiny.”

    “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”

      • Perhaps it is not a matter of ancestry or skin color, but of attitude and empathy. Keith feels like a black discriminated innocent. Innocently persecuted by an unjust justice system and victimized by the bias of the media and people who abhor alternative lifestyles. Keith must be black.

        Are you aware of the media reports about white people who have impersonated black people and even acted as black activists?

        The Guardian
        White US professor Jessica Krug admits she has pretended to be Black for years
        This article is more than 4 months old
        Jessica Krug, an activist who teaches African American history, writes Medium post apologizing for false identity

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/03/jessica-krug-white-professor-pretended-black

        • Is that what Keith said? That he “feels like a black discriminated innocent”? Because I can make sure that quote is spread far and wide. It’s a great headline “convicted of multiple crimes after a very expensive team of lawyers defended him in a lengthy jury trial white sex cult leader Keith Raniere says he feels like a black discriminated innocent”. Don’t ever again blame the media for bad Nxivm press. You guys are fueling it.

        • — Keith feels like a black discriminated innocent.

          I don’t give a flying fuck what Keith “feels” like.

          Keith garnered the services of a reputable, respected, multimillion dollar legal team, who he didn’t even flip a cent of the bill for. He was raised in a middle class suburban neighborhood, went to respected schools, was the head of a cult that indoctrinated millionaires and others who gave him a grifting, comfortable lifestyle for well over a decade.

          Thousands of black people are born in the ghettos, are raised and live in poverty for decades, have poor education, have no idea who their fathers are, are victims of systemic racism, get stuck with a public defender, etc.

          To compare the “misfortune” of his situation brought about by his own choices to the plight of the black man and systemic racism is just as insulting to the intelligence as likening him to a Jew suffering from Nazi persecution.

    • ‘US Department of Injustice = South Africa
      Keith Raniere = Blacks
      Imprisonment = Apartheid’

      Strongly suggest you have this as the banner on all your nx.5 comms. it’s by far and away the strongest piece of reasoning from the remainders, I’ve read to date. It’s just so identifiably, so elementally you guys. You should merch it. Bags and T-shirts. Don’t be shy now.

    • More pure PR gold from The World’s Smartest Child Rapist™.

      Some MBA student should write a case study on NXIVM’s brand management strategy.

      The Descartes quote person hasn’t posted in a while… this must be their new assignment.

      • Nicki also loves quotes from philosophers:

        Nicki Clyne
        @nickiclyne
        ·
        Jan 15
        Not sure who needs to hear this today, but I can’t be the only one: “The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.” ― Voltaire

    • I have tried to be polite. Tried to explain that the holocaust resulted in the death, torture, medical experimentation and more than 6 million women, children and men. Just in case you did not know how gross your Keith Raniere convicted criminal sitting in prison after a hugely expensive jury trial vs. Holocaust comparisons are, you have now added apartheid. Which I know that you are aware of, due to Mark Vicente. So I have now decided that Nxivm is an anti-Semitic and racist hate group. You seek to diminish the deaths of people of color. You mock the violence against them. You choose to discredit the holocaust. I will be reporting you to hate group watchdogs. I, like many, knew of the misogyny. But not the hate towards blacks and Jewish people. If you don’t like the negative publicity now – you will really not like it when leaders in both communities speak out about your ignorant claims. You are bringing this on yourselves. It is beyond hyperbolic. It is irresponsible. I bet Trevor Noah, who survived apartheid, would love to do a segment on Nxivm cult members comparing Raniere, a convicted scum bag, to Trevor and his family’s life in apartheid South Africa.

  • It is funny that the dude who spent his life designing and tweaking pyramid companies, is upset that this fact was presented at trial.

    Has it been confirmed yet that Bangcock is the freak who was demanding feet pictures from Shivani?

    • Dear Mr. Nutz sir,

      My out-of-wedlock child has a treasure trove of pics of my feet. He needn’t any other pics. Bangkok loves Corns and Bunions. He uses my callouses for his arts and crafts projects. My child’s Billfolds sell on Etsy.

      Sincerely,

      Anna L. Gayee

  • I think Suneel is exposing data vs opinion and that is very valuable. I think all this trial has been based on feelings, on media, on things that become salacious. I am sorry to see that the justice system is not willing to put the time or the effort to seek the truth behind it all.

  • Frank-

    The animal tracks is comedic genius! Still LMAO!!! Thanks!

    ******
    Bangkok-

    —remind me of the loud, lingering death throes of a T-Rex right after the giant asteroid hit and drove him to extinction shortly thereafter.

    Thank you Carl Sagan for the awesome analogy.

    Your mom probably felt like a T-Rex whenever she did it with daddy. Now, divorced, she is like an early, shrew-like, mammal, mating with anyone. I’d like to tame her shrew.

  • Suneel’s points actually were logical and structured. This article makes many illogical leaps. If any of NXIVM’s companies were actual pyramids schemes, they would have been ended long ago, and certainly that would have been one of the federal charges. However, after studying the transcripts of the trial, it’s clear to me why it wasn’t a charge… there weren’t any pyramid schemes based on the definition of pyramid scheme. Your article was vitriol, not a rational argument.

    • Amway has been around for about 62 years, and is an illegal pyramid scam, so when is it going to end? Do you even know the definition of an illegal pyramid? I doubt it.

  • You don’t know the definition of an illegal pyramid scheme/scam.

    Cults aren’t illegal.

    Other than that, great story.

  • “a pudgy man (named Keith Alan Raniere) formed a 2nd pyramid scheme with the assistance of his immoral girlfriend, ” Bangkok

    I thought all of Raniere’s girlfriends were immoral or at least amoral.

    • These sexual partners of Chunkie were somehow convinced that he had the only good salami in all areas surrounding Clifford Pork. How miserably, damned insane is that? So for years there were festering jealousies and resentments disrupting everyone’s supposed good manners, spiritual understandings and frigging human “growth” potential. Supposedly these foolhardy disciples were advised by their Head Master-bater (and by his wing-women”) to overcome resentments and competitiveness, to evolve blah blah blah, to “wake up,” ram a lamb a ding dong.

      So the enshrined Manwhore could torment more people upon more individualized, personal grounds, he had to trick them into blaming themselves for any adaptation problems engendered by coping with his dictatorship, as well as with Nancy Salzman’s Mother Teresa meets Mae West act. The dick, Raniere’s sad, weeping sausage, was supposed to be so Supreme, but even Diana Ross could’ve seen through Raniere’s bullshit.

      Probably many whom Raniere has harmed continue to be in denial about this aspect of how Raniere consciously, deliberately got off on having himself be fought over, struggled over, suffered over and that this behavior is part and parcel of his very own, private set of mental, emotional and sexual disabilities. He shows such desperation to have a false sense of dominance, to feel that he could control others.

      Who wants a fuck-around boy or girl for a partner or pretends that this is true love or spiritual expansiveness, some type of advancement? Even a jelly bean might say no thanks to this disgusting, stinky 5’8″ Casanova in his damned sneakers and pullover sweaters. But Raniere and Nancy Salzman reeled them in, shades of masochistic tendencies jamming up against a grifter, a soft-spoken and essentially cowardly sadist who lied through every orifice that he had, all of his equipment.

      Raniere set his group up to accept and to endorse his very own “psychoses.” Blindsided. What he did was to engage his “victims” in blaming themselves for not being “advanced” enough to see that his choices and concepts were the answers to living, according to his purportedly advanced intelligence and his assholian , fake “spirituality.” Raniere got away with it, too, for a long time, until his criminality escalated beyond concealment. He had to be number one, and he had to deceive others and feel that he was getting away with it.

      In my observation, Raniere began to feel this way when he was around six or seven years old and was unable to overcome these tendencies towards destructiveness. But also, I see evil as the ultimate manufestation of ignorance, a tremendous unconsciousness which can subsume people. Very much, we can and will find cures for this, but these cures aren’t pharmaceutical. The work is far deeper, to realign a mind, heart and spirit. This takes concentration, experience and receptivity. Even silence is needed, and not many have developed such aspects, even while studying for advanced degrees. The school of hard knocks is a more immediate and intense instructor, for those who are able to move through these decetivities intact. No final chapter is ever written, as life goes on, perhaps with much seemingly unsought pain, yeast life does go on, uninterrupted.

      It interests me considerably, this unwillingness to delve into Raniere’s use of his sexuality to numb and to confuse the ones closest to him. A lot of his learned behavior appears to mirror his childhood experiences, I feel, with his mother, after Raniere’s father left them, to a large extent, on their own. The father couldn’t have been unaware of Keith’s mother’s own difficulties or dysfunctionalities, but possibly, he had had enough and wanted to move on, for his own sake.

      • Shivani,

        I long ago recognized what I believe are signs that Raniere was sexually abused by his mother after his parents divorced. Think about all his sexual preferences — ultra-thin (like a dancer), bushy pussies (like his Mom probably had), small breasts, etc. — and his ultra-hatred of women, and I think you’ll see how well they match-up with that diagnosis. Although I am a retired clinical caseworker, I don’t think those signs have changed in the last 5-years.

      • Shivani,

        “These sexual partners of Chunkie were somehow convinced that he had the only good salami in all areas surrounding Clifford Pork. How miserably, damned insane is that?”

        I asked my wife the same question. She said, “At some point, he had to be somewhat good in bed.”

        Raniere did have a shit-load of practice.

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.” In addition, he was credited in the Starz docuseries 'Seduced' for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

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 premieres on May 22, 2022.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Parlato,_Jr.

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

Archives