Some news from the land of Nxivm.
To begin with, Kathy Russell and Nancy Salzman will not be meeting in the near future, at least not without their attorneys present.
Despite Kathy making the request to Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis to spend time socially with Nancy – and the prosecution and Pretrial Supervision consenting to these meetings – the judge denied her request.
He did so without giving a reason. Simply denied. The two can’t meet.
Kathy, who is moving soon to Georgia and who will be sentenced in July by Judge Garaufis, had hoped to spend some time with her former Prefect [Salzman]. Instead, she’ll have to simply move on with her life – and prepare to spend 6-12 months in federal prison.
I don’t know why the judge denied her request. But perhaps, it’s because she’s facing sentencing and the trial is still ongoing – and because he doesn’t know – nor was he told in the request filing – if either Kathy or Nancy [who faces sentencing herself in July for her crimes] will be witnesses.
Even if they are not witnesses, the judge perhaps saw only a downside to the two of them meeting since Nxivm and its associations have not been fruitful for Kathy. On top of that, there is the possibility that the Northern District of NY may have other charges in mind for one or both of them.
We know for certain that the investigation of Nxivm is still ongoing – which means the two of two (and a lot of others) may not be out of the woods yet.
While Kathy was not approved to visit Nancy, Nancy’s request to visit her parents without the judge’s approval [with permission of pretrial services] was approved.
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The judge wants to know if Nxivm has had any more board meetings since December and wants to know who its current officers and directors are.
Considering that Lauren Salzman is testifying right now about how horrible Nxivm and Raniere were – it seems odd that she is still a board member. Both Lauren and Clare Bronfman await sentencing. Both have said, in their respective allocutions, that they were sorry for their roles in the criminal racketeering enterprise that is Nxivm.
If they’re still on the executive board of Nxivm, will this impact their sentencing?
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Finally, the heiress who got off with the light sentence, Clare Bronfman, will be paying her $6 million fine to the DOJ out of her personal trust fund.
The fine was part of a very generous plea agreement entered into between Clare and the DOJ.
Bronfman likely purchased years off her sentence in return for a hefty payment of $6 million to the government -[and $96,000 to Sylvie]. She must make the payment within 60 days of her guilty plea that occurred in April.
After her arrest in July 2018, the Court set a $100 million bail for Bronfman. As part of the conditions of bail, the advisors of her trust [that she hastily formed in 2018 to tuck her money into it in order to avoid seizure by the government] agreed to inform the Court before authorizing any large expenditure from the trust.
Bronfman’s attorney, Kathleen Cassidy has written to get the Court’s authorization “for the trust advisors to approve and direct the payment of $6 million to the government in satisfaction of Ms. Bronfrnan’s forfeiture obligation under the plea agreement.”
Judge Garaufis approved the request.
Her payment of $6 million – about 3 percent of her net worth – satisfies her financial obligations for her many, many crimes.
Clare got herself one of the sweetest plea deals money can buy.