Trials and Truths: Parlato Pleads Guilty to Failing to File a Tax Form in 2010

Parlato Pleads Guilty to Failing to File a Tax Form in 2010

In a case that began with a flurry of allegations and headlines, the ending was shockingly subdued.

Frank R. Parlato, the former managing partner of the One Niagara Building in Niagara Falls, NY – and the current Managing Editor of Frank Report, pled guilty today to one count of failing to file IRS Form 8300.

Per the applicable IRS regulations, anyone who receives more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction – or in two or more related transactions – must report the receipt of those funds to the IRS via Form 8300.

As noted in the Plea Agreement that Parlato and the government entered into today, one of the vendors who rented space at the One Niagara building (“Vendor 1”) paid his rent in cash over the course of the 2010 rental season. “Although each individual partial rent payment was in an amount less than $10,000, in aggregate, Vendor 1 paid [Parlato] approximately $19,970 in rent for 2010. The defendant willfully failed to file an IRS Form 8300 with regard to his receipt of cash rent from Vendor 1 for the 2010 season.”

Parlato is scheduled to be sentenced on December 7, 2022.

Per the terms of the Plea Agreement, the government has agreed not to recommend a sentence of more than 24 months.

In addition to whatever prison term, if any, he may serve, Parlato may also be subject to a fine of $10,000 to $25,000 – and a period of supervised release of 1 to 3 years.

********************

History of the Case

The original indictment in the case was unsealed on November 20, 2015.

It contained nineteen counts – including the one that was the entire basis for the investigation into Parlato’s business dealings: i.e., that he had allegedly defrauded Clare and Sara Bronfman, the daughters of Edgar Bronfman, Sr., out of $1 million in conjunction with a real estate development project in California.

That original indictment was replaced by a superseding indictment that was issued on May 23, 2018.

The superseding indictment omitted all references to the Bronfman sisters – and deleted the one charge that was related to Parlato allegedly defrauding them out of $ 1 million.

According to Parlato’s statement at the time, “They had to drop the Bronfman-related charge because evidence emerged to show that Clare Bronfman had committed perjury when she told the Grand Jury in my case that we had executed a signed agreement regarding my work on the California real estate development project. There was, in fact, no signed agreement – which is what Clare admitted in the testimony she gave, under oath, in a civil lawsuit in California concerning the real estate development project.”

Once the Bronfman-related charge was dropped, Parlato was still facing eighteen felony counts. These were as follows:

  • One (1) count of “Conspiracy to Impede, Obstruct and Impair the IRS and to Commit Wire Fraud”;
  • Seven (7) counts of “Wire Fraud”; and
  • Ten (10) counts of “Engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived From Specified Unlawful Activity”.

Throughout the ensuing 4+ years, Parlato insisted that he was not guilty of any of the remaining eighteen charges against him.

He also insisted that he would never plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit – which is why he expected to go to trial next month.

In an exclusive interview with Trials & Truths earlier this month, Parlato said: “Throughout this period of time, I turned down numerous plea deal options because they all required me to plead guilty to something I didn’t do. That is simply never going to happen.”

********************

Why Parlato Agreed to a Plea Deal

In another exclusive interview with Trials & Truths earlier today, Parlato explained that he agreed to the Plea Agreement that he entered into today because it did not require him to plead guilty to any of the outstanding charges against him – and because he had, in fact, failed to file the IRS Form 8300 in question.

“I said I would never plead guilty to any charges that were untrue,” Parlato said, “and I didn’t. I also had no problem pleading guilty to the one charge that I did because I had, in fact, not filed the Form 8300 when I was supposed to do so.”

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As usual, feel free to comment on this post by registering at Register – Trials & Truths (trialsandtruths.us). And feel free to email questions about this post – or any other post – to info@trialandstruths.us.

About the author

J.J. O'Hara

29 Comments

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  • When Mr. Vanguard and the Bronfman sisters were doing their opposition research on Nxivm opponents, did they pay anyone at Eversheds Sutherland to investigate Frank the same way billionaire Olegs Fils paid a former US Attorney to investigate David Bernahl for a divorce case?

    Wikipedia says: “Eversheds Sutherland is a global multinational law practice created by a combination of law firms Eversheds LLP and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, in February 2017, and is one of the 50 largest law practices in the world.“

    According to a March 1, 2023 press release:

    “Eversheds Sutherland alleged to have used the Federal Courts to wrongfully acquire private information of a US-born citizen and provide them to Olegs Fils.

    SAN JOSE, Calif., March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — David Bernahl, a US-born California resident and businessman, has sued the London-based global law firm Eversheds Sutherland for misrepresenting information to the Federal Courts throughout the US in order to wrongfully obtain Bernahl’s private information on behalf of client, millionaire Olegs Fils.

    In the complaint, filed in the Ninth District, Eversheds Sutherland has been sued for executing a scheme launched simultaneously in several districts of the Federal Courts to obtain Bernahl’s private bank account information, video and voice recordings, addresses, and other highly private information without providing notice or chance to object.

    “There is nothing scarier than thinking your personal records, location, private information, and family data can be taken without your knowledge and then shared internationally with an individual,” said Bernhal.”

    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-international-law-firm-of-eversheds-sutherland-sued-for-violating-us-due-process-and-privacy-laws-301759683.html

    ______________

    Just a coincidence?

    In November 2014, Attorney Charles Kruly was “a litigation Associate in Sutherland’s Washington, D.C. office … admitted to practice in New York and practices under the supervision of District of Columbia bar members.”

    How many connections does Eversheds Sutherland have in US Attorney Offices?

    Do billionaires use private law firms? Yes — and private law firms use federal offices to investigate and litigate all the time in D.C. politics.

    “May 28, 2019 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

    NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that Sarah Paul has joined the Litigation Practice Group as a partner in the New York office. Ms. Paul was most recently an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the Criminal Division.“

    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190528005056/en/Eversheds-Sutherland-Adds-Sarah-Paul-Assistant-Attorney

    _____________

    “… UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

    In Re: Application of OLEGS FILS, Petitioner
    Misc. Case No: 1:20-mc-00313

    AMENDED EX PARTE APPLICATION FOR THE ISSUANCE OF SUBPOENAS DUCES TECUM PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § 1782 TO ZIP AVIATION, LLC AND 336 LIQUOR STORE, INC. d/b/a CRUSH WINE & SPIRITS
    MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF AMENDED EX PARTE APPLICATION
    FOR THE ISSUANCE OF SUBPOENAS DUCES TECUM PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § 1782 TO ZIP AVIATION, LLC AND 336 LIQUOR STORE, INC. d/b/a CRUSH WINE & SPIRITS

    EVERSHEDS SUTHERLAND (US) LLP
    Sarah E. Paul
    Attorney-in-Charge
    Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP
    1114 Avenue of the Americas
    New York, NY 10036
    Tel: 212-389-5000
    Fax: 212-389-5099 SarahPaul@eversheds-sutherland.com
    COUNSEL FOR PETITIONER …”

    ________________

    From “November 2014 n Volume 18 n Issue 11 Securities in the Electronic Age …

    BY BRIAN RUBIN & CHARLES KRULY

    Brian Rubin is a Partner and leads the Washington, D.C. office Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP’s Litigation group and is the Administrative Partner in charge of the Securities Enforcement and Litigation Team. Charlie Kruly is a litigation Associate in Sutherland’s Washington, D.C. office. He is admitted to practice in New York and practices under the supervision of District of Columbia bar members. This article was taken in part from the October 2014 issue of “CyberSecurity Insights for Security Firms,”a newsletter published by Sutherland’s Privacy and Data Security Team. …”

    https://us.eversheds-sutherland.com/portalresource/TheGoodtheNot-So-GoodandtheUgly.pdf

    • “… a lawyer for Bronfman challenged the series’ depiction that she knowingly funded DOS, a subgroup within Nxivm that trafficked and abused women.

      “While we hope that this letter will be unnecessary, we are quite alarmed with the misleading and inaccurate promotional materials that have already been issued in connection with the Program and write to strongly caution you to proceed carefully so as not to further defame Ms. Bronfman,” writes attorney Duncan Levin in the note obtained by The Hollywood Reporter …”

      https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/clare-bronfman-legal-threat-to-tnt-over-rich-shameless-documentary-portrayal-1235135899/

      “… Levin is a former federal prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Eastern District of New York and the Chief of Asset Forfeiture at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Levin has been called upon to serve as a consultant to several television legal dramas, including “Billions” on Showtime …”

  • Hello, J. O’Hara (or Jew O’Hebrew. Which ever will me you prefer. Tomato, Tomatoe, right?)

    It is I, The great Patriot God speaking to you! 💪🏻 As you may already know, I am a very famous celebrity around here and loved by most and hated those who are jealous of me just because of my radiant and glorious white Anglo-Saxon skin and great American heritage as well as my calling by God himself and the founding fathers.

    Though you rightfully tremble before me and feel rather intimidated thinking to yourself, “Oh my God! The Great Patriot God! How can I stand before him and all of his infinite glory?! For I am like an ant before him! What can I, who belongs to an inferior sub-species that is doomed to be damned in Nigger Hell forever, possibly do to help a creature of his greatness!”

    You are right to feel this way. But I have good news despite your abysmal levels of inferiority, your worthless can be taken into and turned into good by me and my white glory!

    You see, I am an renowned anthropologist that contributed many discoveries about your subspecies You oust yourself as a Jew by my observations of your interactions with another poor fellow on here in your previous article who was unfortunate enough to interact with you! Your greed for money, and anti-American as well as your apathy of his words demonstrates the kike in your soul. Your biological appearances such as your big nose, curly jew-fro hair, and goblin ears also make me aware of what you are!

    With that being said, I am working on another project on Jews and I would like an interview with you about your greed and subspecies! There will be a nice shiny shekel involved if you agree! 😉 I know you LOVE that, don’t ya boy?! 😉

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    ✊🏻 THERE’S A BETTER WAY!!!!!!! ✊🏻
    🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

      • He has to have a kike in him! I smell it a mile away!

        But don’t worry! We will find it in his lineage somehow! I’m on the move! 💪🏻✊🏻

        🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
        ✊🏻 IF WE BELIEVE!!!!!! ✊🏻
        🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

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        ✊🏻 THERE’S A BETTER WAY!!!!!!! ✊🏻
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    • You must be so miserable about being a failure in life, so jealous of sucessful Jews that you can’t stop ranting about them. A successful man with money in the bank is not going to have the time or interest to waste his time ranting about Jews on internet forums. If you had any success or wealth of your own, seeing others have it wouldn’t bother you so as much as it does.

      Your envy and jealousy of Jewish people is so intense that you don’t even realize how every time you make a childish, jealous remark about the Jews, you’re just advertising to the world what a failure you are.

      Just what is it do you think you’re accomplishing by making derogatory remarks about the Jews? All you are doing is showing how immature, petty and jealous you are. Hating the Jews for getting an education and becoming successful in their careers is so pathetic. It’s not their fault that you didn’t succeed and they did. All you’re accomplishing with your childish remarks is advertising to the world how jealous you are of them and their success. If you were a successful man yourself, you wouldn’t be bothered one bit by their success. But you sure are. Your rants about the Jews are plentiful. But what those rants tell the people who read them? That you’re a complete failure who’s deep green with envy and jealousy.

  • 7 years indicted on 18 criminal charges and in the end, Frank violated a regulatory law.

    And they insist, after 67 years of an unblemished record, that he be labeled a felon. Because he didn’t bother to complete a form. One time.

    This is what our judicial system does. Power, control and abuse.

  • Happy for you Frank. Sad for our federal system. 19 counts and still pressed home a failure to file a cash reporting form over a debt/rent paid in cash, which is a valid payment method, as it says on all bills. “For all debts both public and private” and apparently you claimed the income as that would have been another charge of failure to declare and pay tax on income or revenue.

    Sad DOJ chose to press home a meaning less bureaucratic administrative code when they realized they (the DOJ) had been pawns for a CHOMO and sex cult leader.

    DOJ Bad Form! And the people and Victims (wrongly accused) suffer to cover the DOJ’s career attorneys. Morals & Ethics must not be apart of their oath or BAR requirements.

    While the people under criminal penalty have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

    A form 8300 does not justify tying up the court system for 10yrs. But that is half way to retirement. Maybe after retirement those attorneys can become employed in traffic and code enforcement.

    Glad its over for you Frank

  • I hope Frank doesn’t see any jail time
    He forgot to file a simple tax form but he paid taxes in the money. Really, that’s worth time in prison?

    Someone on Twitter who will remain nameless but Frank knows who it is, can’t wait to put his prison number on their Twitter page

    Tasteless

    This person has broken more laws & gotten away with it than Frank can count on his hands & feet.

    Enough of us know about those broken laws unnamed Grifter, you got lucky

    • She’ll be waiting a long time. A willful violation of form 8300 – once, does not equate to jail time. The range is there but in reality, cases order financial penalties – often steep (as is Franks) but no jail.

      Government needed cause to justify a colossal waste of funds and resources for a decade. 17 percent of a man’s life he’s spent being scrutinized by the government.

      And this is the best they can do- They don’t care if Frank goes to jail- they needed it to justify keeping the million.

      Another innocent truth teller targeted by the government.

  • Congrats! It’s been a lot of years, stress, $$ and hits to your credibility and it’s time to put that chapter to bed.

    Frank – I don’t know about your past or the business you run outside of Frank Report, the work you’ve done to bring down KAR and all the hours you’ve spent to clear your name. What I do know is that you’ve done something truly noble in supporting and providing the means to get deep NXians a way out. You were able to turn the deep personal betrayal that KAR and Clare inflicted into something so much bigger and more important than yourself. You saved humans.

    You could be an overall douchebag Frank – (I don’t know) – but you took care of vulnerable people and you hung in there like a territory.

    Huge respect. Thank you for your reporting.

  • Indicted on 19 charges, and outcome is all 19 charges are dismissed.

    They found a regulatory violation from 2010. Looked up form 8300. It requires one to notify IRS of cash receipt within 15 days.

    And this… one time in 2010 for 19,000 – is what a ten year manhunt has resulted in?

    Much Ado About Nothing

  • A 19 count indictment – and the result if failure to file a form that he received 19,000 in cash payments.

    The grand jury process needs to change- lives are destroyed when indicted for a crime. Innocent until proven guilty is not reality.

    Attorneys say- you can indict a ham sandwich. It seems that’s what happened here.

  • A man asked a child once, do you know why there are nail holes in Jesus’s hands? The child said, “it was to hold him up”.

  • I’ve been watching this and wondering what would happen. I know there are many who would rather have Frank silenced. Good for you, Frank, for not allowing yourself to be pressured or intimidated into a plea deal involving a guilty plea for something you did not do. I hope this outcome means you will be able to put all of this behind you sooner rather than later.

    I’ve said it before and will say it again — the country needs more journalists like you.

  • I honestly hope Frank will not be sentenced to go to prison for his failure to file a tax-form for a ridiculous small amount of money. That’s not how the NXIVM saga should end for him.

    There must be much, much more to this story. Why was he indicted in the first place? Who made that decision and why? It’s obviously based on a complaint by Clare.

    Frank was initially hired to do PR for NXIVM, for an hourly rate I presume. So how did he end up in a “deal” with Clare that involved a million dollars? The feeling I have is that Frank, like many before him, realized his big chance to make serious money had come and acted upon it, not necessarily in good faith.

    Of course, when Clare was indicted for this massive well publicized NXIVM case, it blew the credibility of Clare to pieces and they had to drop the original indictment related to Clare.

    What remained was a non compliance to submit a tax form related to a grand total of 19.000 dollars. A very minor offense in my view. I would be surprised if they have ever charged a person for a similar offense. Ever.

    So why are they so determined to go after Frank? Revenge? When the NXIVM case hit the front pages they knew they had to drop the original indictment. And they did.Perhaps it pissed them off that Frank put the spotlight on their dealings with the by now convicted criminal Clare.

      • So, you believed in Frank on this, BUT you think he’s completely wrong and lying out of his azzzzz on the Ambrose articles???

        I have so many doubts in WTF and am annoyed I’m giving her/his agenda (or incompetence if I’m wrong) the time of day.

        • I agree with Frank on most things except for the Family Court stuff. I don’t think I ever said I think Frank is lying. However, I think the mother(s) in most of these cases are just grinding axes with their exes and it’s got nothing to do with custody, otherwise they would just do what the court tells them to do to see the kids.

          I also think Frank chooses to exclude information that goes against the mother’s narrative of the dad being evil incarnate, but mom is an angel on earth. Probably because he is friends with the mother. So, yeah, I try to balance out what I see as bias by presenting the other side Because I do feel bad for these fathers when I don’t see any evidence that they’ve done anything wrong but they are being maliciously trashed online.

          Also how do you think the kids feel? it’s been said that they read this blog… Even if they’d rather live with their mother, their dad is still their dad, and it’s gotta mess with their heads to see him written about in such a horribly negative way.

          Anyway, I think mature people can disagree with someone on some points but that doesn’t mean they dislike that person. Personally, I wish Frank all the best.

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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