Nancy Salzman Is in Prison; but Did She Blow It Badly By Seeking Delay?

Nancy Salzman, 67, is in federal prison. She reported on Monday.

She was convicted almost three years ago, in March 2019, the first of five defendants to take a plea deal in the NXIVM prosecution. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years on a single racketeering conspiracy count.

The sixth defendant, Keith Raniere, went to trial, was convicted, and sentenced to 120 years.

According to the US Bureau of Prisons, Salzman is at FCI Hazelton, a medium-security prison for male inmates, and high security facility for females, in Preston County, West Virginia. The prison’s nickname is “Misery Mountain” and houses around 600 females, some of them the most hardened in the federal system.

According to her attorney, Robert Soloway, Salzman had been assigned to FCI Alderson, a prison camp, nicknamed “Camp Cupcake,” [AKA Martha Stewart’s Prison] with a report date of January 19th.

Salzman then chose to seek a one-month delay in reporting in order, she said, to take her 94-year-old mother to a medical appointment, which she claimed no one else in her family could do, and also because of the COVID conditions at Alderson.

The request for the delay may have been the mistake of her life, next to deciding to partner with Raniere.

Salzman went from an assignment at a minimum-security camp at FPC Alderson, where she would reside dormitory style, without walls or prison cells, to FCI Hazelton, where she will be behind gated walls, with stern COs, likely in a cramped prison cell, and surrounded by all manner of women from violent offenders to drug addlepated and mentally ill inmates.

This dramatic change in locations – from one West Virginia facility to another – may have been caused by any number of reasons.

There may have been no open beds in Alderson on February 21st, when she was to report, though there was on January 19th.

It may be for some other bureaucratic reason.

She may have been assigned to Hazelton because of medical reasons.

The assignment to Hazelton may be temporary or permanent.

One thing is certain. She was to report to Alderson in January and the BOP now lists her as being in Hazelton.

The real reason for the change, however – though it may never be a matter of official record – may be because of the contents of the letter her attorney wrote to Judge Nicholas Garaufis seeking the delay in reporting.

He chose to tell the judge about the bad conditions in Alderson because of their “failed” COVID response – and he disputed the BOP’s report on the facility’s safety.

Soloway wrote that Salzman “is very fearful of entering into a facility [such as Alderson] that is in the throes of a failed response to a COVID surge and is reportedly unsafe.”

To complete the picture his client hoped to paint for the judge to consider in deciding whether to request for a delay, Soloway quoted news reports castigating the BOP and a prison consultant who said how bad it was at Alderson during the COVID surge to support Salzman’s delay request.

The judge granted the delay.

In the intervening month before her original “Report Date” and her new “Report Date,” it appears that the BOP changed her assignment from Camp Cupcake to Misery Mountain.

Salzman’s prisoner number is #25533-052.

Viva Executive Success!

Frank Parlato