Judge Criticizes Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in NXIVM Civil Lawsuit

In the civil NXIVM case, 70 plaintiffs sued Clare and Sara Bronfman, along with Keith Alan Raniere, Allison Mack, Kathy Russell,  Danielle Roberts and Brandon Porter within two categories of alleged misconduct — A: sex trafficking and forced labor, and B: consumer fraud.

The judge faulted the language of the complaint saying that much of the complaint was nothing more than conclusory statements.

He made no secret that he had given the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Kohn Swift of Philadelphia, ample notice that their complaint had all the appearances of a shotgun pleading –  poorly structured, overly broad with multiple claims and causes of action without specifying which facts support each claim.

This was their third amended complaint.

US District Court Judge Eric Komitee wrote, “The second amended complaint, which was more than 200 pages and 830 paragraphs, provided virtually no indication of which facts were proffered in support of which causes of action, and asserted several claims “against All Defendants on behalf of all [seventy-six] Plaintiffs” with no specific allegations as to each defendant’s role.”

During oral argument in February 2023, Judge Komitee invited the plaintiffs to streamline the complaint.

They submitted a third amended complaint, which included 111 pages and 332 numbered paragraphs. Komitee said it was “still sprawling” and only “marginally more manageable than its predecessor.”

Komitee noted that “the new complaint still required the Court to engage in painstaking efforts to identify the facts alleged in support of each claim, often hundreds of paragraphs apart from each other.”

Consequently, Judge Komitee dismissed all claims against Brandon Porter, and several of the causes of action against Clare and Sara Bronfman – the true targets of the lawsuit.

He did not dismiss the RICO, and sex trafficking claims against the greedy sisters who enabled NXIVM to terrorize people who ran afoul of Keith Raniere for almost two decades.

Judge Komitee also kept Danielle Roberts in the lawsuit on the battery claim arising from her branding women with Raniere’s initials.  The other claims against Roberts are gone.

To date, Raniere, Mack, and Russell have failed to appear in the case.

Raniere is currently in USP Tucson serving his well-deserved 120-year prison sentence.

In a subsequent post, we will discuss what remains of the eviscerated lawsuit of 70 former students and employees of NXIVM in quest of Bronfman cash.

We will also seek to learn what happened to Neil Glazer, the attorney who started the lawsuit and now appears missing from the case.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

See Full Bio