Oh boy - I haven't been covering it much lately, but it doesn't look like Los Angeles' NXIVM cult trial, featuring Clare Bronfman (of the Seagram's fortune) is going well. You can click the link and read Clare's latest confused testimony, but here's a brief summary of what "enlightenment" NXIVM's guru, Vanguard (Keith Raniere) has apparently brought to her life:
"An accused con man who runs an upstate 'cult' bankrolled by the Bronfman booze fortune has 'had people killed,' he boasts in an explosive new video.
Keith Raniere, who runs Albany-based NXIVM, makes the chilling claim on tape to female followers who confronted him with their concerns about the group, which has been derided by detractors as a harmful 'cult.'
'Here’s the thing,' Raniere says on the 2009 video, which was sent to The Post and also posted last night on youtube.com. 'I’ve had people killed because of my beliefs -- or because of their beliefs.'"
Yes our old friend, Keith Raniere, is admitting to murder in the midst of numerous lawsuits, multiple accusations of fraud, and and even a recent article in Vanity Fair refering to his enterprise as, specifically, a "cult". And then try this - from the same article quoted above:
"Former NXIVM members told The Post that Raniere’s claim is particularly disturbing in light of the mysterious disappearance of a former NXIVM student several years ago.
In 2003, 35-year-old environmentalist Kristin Snyder vanished from an Alaska hotel after taking NXIVM classes. Her body was never found.
Snyder’s Toyota truck was discovered near a local bay, along with a note that read: 'I was brainwashed and my emotional center of the brain was killed...Please contact my parents [if] you find me or this note.'"
"Pssst…looking for some start-up funding? I may have your angel. The Seagram’s sisters—aka, Clare and Sara Bronfman. Yes, the daughters of mega mogul Edgar Bronfman, Sr. They’ve already plowed millions (we’re talking close to $100M) into an investment scheme of self-made self-help wannabe whiz, Keith Raniere—and lost them. Where was that psychic they were talking to? So maybe they’ll be looking for a new opp—esp. now that word on the street is that daddy Bronfman is a bit pissed.
Clare and Sara apparently got a bit 'taken in' by Raniere and his NXIVM group-awareness seminar company. So much so that their daddy refers to it as a 'cult'."
"Heiresses to the Seagram liquor fortune say their former financial planner revealed their business secrets by, among other things, enlisting a psychic, and asking him questions about their financial positions while he was in a trance. In their Superior Court complaint, Clare and Sara Bronfman say they fired Barbara Bouchey in May 2009, and she retaliated by divulging their personal financial information, investment history and confidential attorney-client communications to other attorneys and the media.
Bouchey consulted psychic Robert Petro and asked him to 'go into a trance whereby Bouchey would pose various questions to Petro' concerning the Bronfmans' financial positions, the complaint states.
'Bouchey contacted two different Los Angeles attorneys who were representing California investment advisers with whom the plaintiffs had had a dispute,' according to the complaint. 'Bouchey provided these Los Angeles attorneys private and personal financial information about the plaintiffs which had nothing to do with the California dispute, but which if exposed to the public would embarrass the plaintiffs. ... Indeed, Bouchey and said Does were successful, as the embarrassing details of the lives of the plaintiffs were published in newspaper and in Internet locations, and these publishers relied upon information Bouchey provided.'
The Albany Times-Union reported that the Bronfman sisters followed an Albany, N.Y.-based organization known as NXIVM (pronounced "nexium"), and that its leader, Keith Raniere, 'exercised complete control over Sara and Clare Bronfman.'
Raniere teaches his 'Rational Inquiry' system through 'Executive Success Programs' that are 'designed to help individuals develop the practical, emotional, and intellectual skills they need to reach their maximum potential,' according to NXIVM's Web site.
Raniere's students are called 'Espians' and they are instructed to address Raniere as 'Vanguard.'
Bouchey is a former girlfriend of Raniere's and was 'also a consultant to NXIVM for many years before breaking up with Raniere and the group last year,' according to the Times-Union.
Bouchey and others have criticized the organization as a cult."
-- Elizabeth Banicki, making me wonder why all this "if exposed to the public would embarrass the plaintiffs" - the Bronfmans don't deny this form of cultism is the life they've engaged in for years - unless they're admitting, as TMR has always contended, that exposure and shame are the true cures for this behavior, y'know, like being seen as a bunch of rich and gullible idiots, while appearing in the Courthouse News.
And, please, don't anyone ask me why our economy has been doing so badly when this is where rich folks have been putting their money - and trying to convince poor folks to do the same. If you ask me, until the Baby boomers are gone, these are the kind of disasters we'll be plagued with for some time to come. Wanna change it sooner? Fine - read the banner below:
Some of its top people have also recently contributed to Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. Eight donations from eight different individuals associated with Nxivm, each at the maximum allowed of $2,300 apiece, were made to the Clinton campaign on March 14, the date of a major Manhattan fundraiser.
Oh boy - I haven't been covering it much lately, but it doesn't look like Los Angeles' NXIVM cult trial, featuring Clare Bronfman (of the Seagram's fortune) is going well. You can click the link and read Clare's latest confused testimony, but here's a brief summary of what "enlightenment" NXIVM's guru, Vanguard (Keith Raniere) has apparently brought to her life:
Spirituality - you gotta love it!
