http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/201803/30/01-5159308-un-gourou-finance-par-une-heritiere-bronfman.phpCanaprobe, a small private detective agency in Mascouche, has become the backbone of Sara and Clare Bronfman in their campaign to obtain confidential information about US judges, elected officials and journalists considered enemies of NXIVM.
The company is owned by Richard Marier, a private detective who has been working in Montreal for decades.
A lawsuit against him – launched because the Bronfman sisters were finally dissatisfied with the services rendered – unveils his role as a bloodfinder for NXIVM.
2008-2009
The two sisters are “worried about the possibility that some people” may “cause significant harm to their interests,” they say five years later in a court record. They therefore ask Canaprobe to “investigate individuals and obtain financial documents”.
On the advice of an American acquaintance, Richard Marier, of Canaprobe, and Clare Bronfman enter into an agreement: the heiress will provide names, and the investigator will send him information on the bank accounts of the targeted individual and on the balance of these. The first two targets, according to Mr. Marier: Rick A. Ross, American specialist cults, and Joe O'Hara, former consultant NXIVM who had left the group.
Canaprobe said it had sources that could obtain such information. To protect their exchanges, Clare Bronfman and Richard Marier place a lawyer as an intermediary to take advantage of his privilege: it is Me Reevin Pearl, paid “$ 1000 per hour” for all work done at his office and $ 10,000 for any “out of the office” work day, as per the contract signed by Ms. Bronfman. Me Pearl did not respond to an email that La Presse sent her.
2010
Inquiries by Clare Bronfman – directly or through a collaborator – are multiplying. “My sweet, I would say maybe a hundred” for the entire mandate, assessed Richard Marier in court documents. In a 2010 email from Clare Bronfman, the heiress asked for bank account verifications from seven US journalists, including three from the Times-Union who were investigating NXIVM. Politicians from New York State were also targeted, as was Roger Stone, a troubled figure in American politics known as Donald Trump.
At other times in the business relationship, Canaprobe will also search the finances of US judges who have heard NXIVM lawsuits. The accounts of his father, Edgar Bronfman, and the World Jewish Congress interest him as well. The same year, she will have the accounts of the guru himself, Keith Raniere.
2011
This is the last year in which Canaprobe services will be retained. In all, the two Bronfman sisters will have donated more than 1 million CAN to Canaprobe. The only problem is that the “sources” Canaprobe used – a former Ontario policeman and his wife – had made it a specialty to counterfeit bank statements that falsely attributed millions of dollars to the individuals targeted by their investigations.
In the spring of 2011, the two Bronfman sisters are in US court in a civil case involving one of the people Canaprobe investigated. They want to use a report. The firm objects, arguing that these were documents to be used for information purposes only. The firm claims to have informed the Bronfmans since 2009 of the accuracy problems in the reports produced by the Ontario couple. The two sisters deny this statement. That same year, the Toronto Star published an investigation into their actions.
2014
The former Ontario police officer and his wife – Cullen Johnson and Elaine White – are sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison in the United States for embezzlement. The Bronfman sisters are suing Canaprobe for money paid over the years for bank checks.
Clare Bronfman's Quebec lawyer, Me Romy Proulx, of Stikeman Elliott, told La Presse that neither she nor her client was commenting on the case.
Private detective Richard Marier did not want to comment on the case.
“It's too delicate and I was warned not to talk about all this. “
A sketch of Keith Raniere in federal court in Texas. Raniere faces charges of sex trafficking.
