Based on the testimony of Richard Guerci, a former IRS agent who now works as a private investigator for an agency that investigates financial crimes for the agency, we now know that Clare Bronfman put a total of $14.3 million into the Defense Trust Fund that has been used to pay for the attorneys representing her five co-defendants in the case of the U.S. v. Raniere Et Al.
Bronfman has already pleaded guilty in the case to concealing and harboring an illegal alien for financial gain – and to the fraudulent use of identification. She is currently awaiting sentencing.
Earlier estimates were that Clare’s contribution was in the $5 million – $10 million range.
It is still unclear exactly when Clare put the funds in – but we now know that they came in via six or seven separate payments.
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Jack Levy To The Rescue
It was also revealed that Clare was not the only person to put money into the Defense Trust Fund.
Which, given how many Nxians adored and revered Keith Raniere, was not exactly surprising.
What was surprising, however, is that there was only one other contributor: Jack Levy.
And Levy, who is currently the public face of NXIVM in Mexico, contributed a paltry $1,030 – which is less than what Raniere’s legal team charges for each 15-minute break during the trial.
Levy lives in Guadalajara, MX – and is the owner of VEQ Real Estate, a company that provides property management services. Questions have been raised about who owns the properties that Levy manages – and why they are guarded by armed personnel.
According to Quien magazine, Levy now has signatory authority for ESP Mexico, the company that operates the remaining NXIVM Centers in Mexico. That apparently happened after Emiliano Salinas removed his name as the company’s signatory.
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Raniere Helps the Late Pam Cafritz Rack Up Points On Her American Express Card
Guerci also testified about some of the charges that Raniere racked up on an American Express card that belonged to Pamela Cafritz, who died on November 7, 2016 (NXIVM withheld any announcement about her death until November 28, 2016 – and the whereabouts of her body is still unknown).
During the 18-months following Cafritz’s death, the card was used to pay for at least $328,305.84 in expenses (For those of you who can’t do the math in your head, that’s almost $18,000 per month).
Included in those charges was $783.61 worth of a supplement called Prosvent – which is sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.
Several of the former DOS members who have testified during Raniere’s trial have indicated that he has severe problems in getting – and maintaining – an erection.
Or as Cami, one of his victims, succinctly put it: “It’s been a long time since you were fully erect.”
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Raniere Signed Checks On Pam’s Bank Account
The American Express charges were apparently paid via checks that were drawn on Pam’s checking account.
Although some of those checks appear to have been “signed” via a signature stamp, others were apparently signed by Raniere himself.
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Raniere Claimed He Had No Assets When Ordered To Pay Legal Fees
Despite having access to the millions of dollars that were apparently in one of Pam’s bank accounts at the time of her death, Raniere claimed that he did not have any assets to pay the more than $440,000 of legal fees he was ordered to pay as a result of his specious lawsuit against AT&T and Microsoft.
Raniere’s lawsuit against AT&T and Microsoft was based on his claim that they had infringed on one of his patents – a patent that, as was proven during the early stages of that case, he actually did not own.
The presiding judge in the case, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, dismissed the case with prejudice – and ordered Raniere to pay the legal fees of AT&T and Microsoft – because, as she stated, “(Raniere) “acted in bad faith and vexatiously multiplied these proceedings”.
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