Three Slaves/Victims Ask for Leniency for Lauren Salzman – Including Sarah Edmondson and Incredibly Daniela!

Lauren Salzman and Sarah Edmondson master slave and best friends at one time.

In a surprise discovery, Frank Report has learned that three of Lauren Salzman’s six slaves have written statements to Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis asking the judge not to sentence Lauren to prison time.

On top of that, the woman who many believe was Lauren’s biggest victim, Daniela, also wrote that Lauren deserves forgiveness.

Unlike Allison Mack, whose slaves in the DOS sorority sought to see her placed behind bars, three women  – including Sarah Edmondson – asked that she be dealt with leniently and put the blame on Keith Raniere for Lauren’s mistakes and misconduct.

The other two slaves  – Audrey and Amanda  – also asked that their former master be spared.

Amanda is a lawyer.

The DOS brand of Audrey was used as an exhibit at the trial of Keith Raniere

Dozens of photos of Audrey’s brand were used as an exhibit during the trial to show how the brand looked over a period of time when it went from raw to matured scarring.

Edmondson was the original DOS whistleblower who contacted Frank Report to confirm Catherine Oxenberg’s incredible story that Raniere had begun branding women on the groin after taking collateral from them.

She wrote a book about her experiences and appeared on the HBO docuseries The Vow.

“These victims have asked the Court for leniency, recognizing the abusive and complex nature of Keith’s relationship with Lauren, when imposing Lauren’s sentence,” wrote Salzman’s attorneys Hector Diaz and Andrea Tazioli.

Audrey wrote:

Lauren was herself victimized by Keith within and outside of DOS. This should perhaps be given more weight for Lauren given that she was subject to Keith’s manipulations—with her own mother’s endorsement—over a period of 20 years in her very early adulthood… Having been under Keith’s influence since graduating college, I do not believe Lauren has ever experienced true freedom in her entire adult life. It is my sincere wish for her to finally have that.

And “Bringing Keith Raniere to justice may not have happened but for Lauren’s testimony at trial.”

And “I do not believe that Lauren is a continued threat to me or to society more broadly, and I have no reason to believe she would have committed any of these crimes without Keith’s influence. I also believe that even without a carceral sentence, the consequences of Lauren’s actions on her life are already devastating, including the loss of income and career, a majority of her friends, and the permanent reputational damage of being a convicted felon in a case with significant notoriety… Lauren should be shown leniency.

Sarah Edmondson

Sarah Edmonson stated that Lauren “helped show the world that [Keith] is indeed a con man… We have all been betrayed but [her] role was the proverbial nail in the coffin…”

She also stated, in a letter addressing Lauren, “I am not sure that prison is right for you (I trust the judge understands the complicated nature of your involvement and will factor that into your sentence.”

Another former DOS member, Amanda, also does not believe a prison sentence for Lauren is warranted:

She wrote, “The consequences in my life, as I see them today, do not feel well addressed through Lauren serving a prison sentence. I believe she has a heart, a conscience, a soul. I believe that she wanted a meaningful and rich life for herself and others. She was tender and gave to others even when it was inconvenient. She dedicated her life to helping people work through their most challenging life limitations and traumas, including me… I simultaneously recognize the injury, yet arrive at a position of mercy, based on many years of reflection and thoughtful consideration.

Surprisingly, even Daniela, the woman Lauren helped to confine to a room for almost two years, is supportive of forgiveness.

While Daniela does not “provide any input regarding how the Court should sentence Lauren; incredibly, she forgives Lauren for her conduct.

Daniela in her victim letter recognizes that Lauren, like Daniela, also “suffered at the hands of Raniere.”

“These women were all victims of Lauren’s criminal conduct. However, these women also appreciate that Lauren too was a victim of Keith’s manipulation, lies and deceit. These women attribute Lauren’s criminal conduct in large part to Keith’s influence over her. It is these first-hand accounts and realizations that likely contribute to these victims’ beliefs that incarceration would not serve the interests of justice in her case,” Lauren’s lawyers wrote.

 

About the author

Frank Parlato

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  • Sex Wars 044: Inside NXIVM w/ Nicki Clyne

    Nicki Clyne is an actress known for her role on the sci-fi television series Battlestar Galactica where she playe Cally Henderson and also for being involved the infamous Sex Cult known as NXIVM.

    • Ha ha ha!

      Nicki Clyne got flustered and accused one of the hosts of being, “brainwashed” !

      Nicki Clyne, who has made an 8 person propaganda testimonial video saying that brainwashing did not exist.

      Ha ha ha. That was flippin’ hilarious!

      Wow. Nicki couldn’t even handle the softest push back on precious Keith. So funny.

      Alanzo! Nicki DOES believe in brainwashing

      She was absolutely dead serious. Even the commenters saw her trying not to lose it. Oh, my word. Just so funny!

    • That was a really good interview. I agree with Nicki on certain points about media distortion and all of that. But it sounds like there are many personal accounts from people who have left NXIVM for really good reasons that she doesn’t believe.

      Her reaction to LP’s question about the NXIVM 9 was just that they aren’t credible. Well, that’s what Keith said about them…but, of course, he would. I would really love to see a video that had Nicki and Susan Dones or Barbara Bouchey having a discussion. I think that would be really amazing. Maybe if Nicki could speak face-to-face with people who have real evidence of Keith’s ill intent and dangerousness, she would see things differently.

  • People blood thirsty here.

    It continues to amaze how people take NXIVM personally as if a member and victim of the cult when they were not. If victims of the person being sentenced demand a judge be lenient, that should be heard, it should be given weight, and it should be factored into sentencing.

    They, more than any of you, have literal (in this case) skin in the game and for you all to be so dismissive says more about you than them.

    • Wow, Clyne was looking really good in that vid. Only gave it a glance so no idea on topics covered. 1.5 hours long so if remember will circle back after Olympics. Seems a normal diet can be a healthy thing. Who would have thought? Not Keith.

    • “They made a commitment with full knowledge of what they would and wouldn’t know.” — Nicki Clyne

  • Frank, you deleted the name of her business but so many people already know. Shame on you. You do not care about anyone’s safety here.

  • Not a day more or less plus the gratuitous probation afterwards (not that probation serves any purpose, it is unfortunately one of the necessary evils to feed the injustice machine)

  • Come on, Nancy, step up to the plate and help your daughter like her father did! Take the fall as the queen of the chessboard. The next move is tick-tocking…

  • One expert quoted here said that people normally grow and evolve by dealing with others in several different environments — family, friends, co-workers, outsiders…etc. But for Nxians like Lauren, all those were the same people. She could never evolve and grow because she lived in a tightly confined world populated only by like-thinkers. In a silo, in the shape of Keith’s penis.
    repost

    • Boohoo. I thought I was doing the right thing – treating people like shit for a cult, wasting their time and being a smug little shit for an overcompensating little man but making it seem all good for “ethics”. Boohoo.

      Forgive me because now I’m facing the consequences of my horrible behavior.

      Boohoo. I don’t want to go to prison.

  • Gosh, why did you publish the name of her business? We all know the internet trolls will destroy any good things that would allow her to have a quiet life.

  • Sarah Edmondson is full of shit.

    She should be punished for her NXIVM role like the rest of them, instead of pretending to be the good guy.
    They are all immoral people.

    A lot of ̶[redacted] in NXIVM.

  • It’s appropriate for victims to forgive the perpetrator. Hate is a weighty burden. However, forgiveness does not erase guilt, and she is certainly guilty of years of criminal behavior. When we don’t punish criminals, we encourage the behavior.

    Lauren spent her adult life ignoring the signs that were all around her, signs that the Times Union, the NXIVM 9, Bonnie, and the whistleblowers struggled to warn anyone who would listen.

    Her sentence should be comparable to that of Allie Mack. She can start her new life after that.

  • To Everyone:

    This is the most heartfelt article on the Frank Report, I’ve ever read. I believe we have turned a page or started a new chapter. In the words of our immortal Vanguard, “a broken path is not the same as a new path unless it’s a path less traveled.”

    Here is a simple song dedicated to Frank and the spirit of love.

    https://youtu.be/1jjcxFGEysE

  • While trying to get her life together and creating her own next path, it seems that publishing the name of her dog grooming business probably hurt her more than helped her…..I wish you hadn’t published it now, Frank. Her Facebook page for the business is no longer available and the Instagram page is set to private…. which is sad because social media is a powerful tool for advertising.

    I hope she faces zero jail time. She is there for her mother now — perhaps she is trying to hold on to the final days with her mother (pending Nancy’s sentencing), or perhaps she is trying to help her mother now. If Lauren is truly tring to put NXIVM behind her (which I imagine is very difficult considering it was 20 years of her life), then perhaps she can help her mother do the same. If Nancy doesn’t want the help, then I hope Lauren can move on and live free of the past.

    • If she doesn’t get jail time, then social ridicule should be considered as a penalty. Otherwise she learned nothing and history will repeat itself. Maybe public condemnation will prevent her from ever hurting people again in the future. Scarlet letter. Otherwise more cults will get stronger and more powerful.

      • OK. How do I ridicule you Jack? Give me your email and social media ids so I can start ridiculing you, so redacted]

    • If the act of publishing her dog grooming business’ name here destroys the work she’s built up, that would be pretty appalling on Frank’s part.

      • Why should Lauren’s business be a secret? It’s nonsense. No one wants a secret business – she may want a secret owner.

        • Frank, you think it’s coincidental she didn’t name her business Lauren Salzman’s Dog Grooming R Us? Maybe she wanted to build her new fledgling business outside all the toxic publicity surrounding NXIVM. Maybe she wanted her job to be the first place in her life where she didn’t have to think about or talk about NXIVM at all. By my observation, all she’s trying to do is restart her life and you’ve just called open season for trolls on it. That’s a severely dick move on your part. Sorry.

  • These are the most influential submissions on behalf of Lauren Salzman so far, since those who could most begrudge her are hoping to mitigate her circumstances, instead of seeking a long sentence for her.

    The testimony provided by Lauren, along with her work with federal prosecutors, etc., was of great value for obtaining Raniere’s convictions. She has been making a new life for herself and under very tough conditions, as well. What ELSE can she do? Hide forever?

    However, Lauren Salzman also has agreed to some serious misdoings, by pleading guilty to two Class B felonies, which were racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, if I recall the correct terminology.

    It is not common to receive probation with these circumstances in a federal case. So it’s not easy to envision that Judge Garaufis will give her no time, probation. At the least, perhaps he’ll sentence her to two years or so and perhaps will minimize her sentence as much as he might see as fitting to do.

    Like it or not, Lauren Salzman is responsible for her actions, regardless of whether she “knew” that her behavior was right or wrong. She is supposedly not a simpleton. Twenty years of Nxivm and then DOS involvement (and profits) cannot be simply cast aside, ignored, because Lauren Salzman feels vulnerable, now that she realizes, to some extent, that her actions for most of her entire adult life were going to get her arrested.

    It would be great if Judge Garaufis looks at Lauren’s rehabilitative efforts and her willingness, finally, to take a stand in court against Raniere’s entire setup, when this had to have been so devastating to Lauren, after going along with Keith Raniere’s, and with her own mother’s criminal enterprises for so long. After all, this was what Lauren Salzman decided to do with her life.

    Even a two year old toddler knows how to say “no” and can take a stand, has free will and is willing to take chances, letting that free will come out and show its splendid little face, using vocals, using feet to stomp, getting some experience, rightly or wrongly, to take a stand alone.

    To me, the main jailkeeper for Lauren Salzman has really always been Nancy Salzman, her mother from the “executive” pits of hell.

    There is no other sentencing in this case, as yet undealt, which concerns me more than that of Nancy Salzman, whom I regard as at least Raniere’s EQUAL in criminal culpability.

    • When people stop being interested in the story.

      When the story stops being a source of income for the author.

    • The story is far from over. There will be some new developments very soon — and a huge story — coming soon. Sorry can’t stop now,

  • While their compassion for Lauren Salzman is striking and surprising, it does not erase the brutal reality of the crimes she committed over a period of twenty years.

    And it is a contrast to the reactions of Allison Mack’s “slaves” who view Mack as a predator and monster.

  • All of them are con artists. Sarah et al are just protecting themselves. Mark Vicente was recording everything and all calls to make a documentary one day…which he did…..for himself. Sarah is totally in with Keith…she’s just doing a major CYA for herself and keeping herself out of prison with all these documentaries she’s doing claiming she’s a victim. Backing up a cult leader (#3) like Lauren proves it. Sarah is a master manipulator like the rest of them. All an illusion for self-promotion and self-prophecy. They are all trying to avoid prosecution and will say whatever is necessary to stay out of trouble. Nxivm and its members have been in trouble for 20 years and have learned how to get out of trouble quite well. They always come out on the other side. If Lauren doesn’t go to jail….Nxivm will resurrect itself bigger stronger and more twisted. Mark my words.

    • Keith wanted everything recorded. Including when Mark Vicente wasn’t involved at all.

      For example, the infamous branding recording with just Keith and Allison Mack. It’s arguably the most famous cult recording ever. And Mark was not even aware of its existence.

      Keith Raniere sought Mark Vicente out to hire him as a documentary maker for Keith Raniere.

    • Edmondson is just protecting herself, her income and her role as a professional victim. She is shameless. She ignored reality for many years: the news of Raniere’s misdeeds was made public in 2012 by James Odato in the Times Union. She continued on for many years defrauding Vancouver. She showed up at every session of the pre-trial proceedings all decked out and ready to sell her soul. Now, she wants another self-congratulatory medal for herself and by extension, a medal for Lauren.

      Edmondson, Vincente, Nippy and crew need to stop their victim crusades. Frank Report needs to stop supporting them.

  • Now, Judge Garaufis is being asked by several slaves to commit his next significant stupidity. In the case of Allison Mack, none of the slaves asked him to be lenient – to the contrary, the slaves wanted a harsh punishment – but were snubbed by Judge Garaufis. What will Judge Garaufis do now? Of course, he commits the next stupid thing. He has the support of several slaves.

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.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.

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 premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi's "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM," which aired January, 2023.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

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

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