Check out the new story on the Bronfman sisters at: [www.nypost.com]

I think I've given this Raniere guy too much credit. He just seems like a guy who wants to use his self-inflated smarts to get between the legs of as many women as he can, support his gambling habit, and further elevate his own narcissistic ego. He was probably hoping to bag a few celebrities too, which makes me sick just thinking about it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2010 06:26AM by pinkunicorn.

Its not over for NXIVM and Keith Raniere yet.
Its very difficult to have adults ruled incompetent, which has to be done by a psychiatist and a judge, is it not?
Of course Keith Raniere and every other LGAT Guru and cult leader know that perfectly well. If they can get their fingers into vulnerable people's minds who have money, they can bankrupt them.
Whether its for 100K-500K, 2 million or 100 million. They can and will clean them out.

There are countless smaller victims of these types of groups, who get cleaned out by the Guru getting them to borrow against their entire house, and give him the money, it happens every week.
There are LGAT seminars where they get them to call their credit card company DURING the seminar and raise their credit liimit to 100K, and then they max that out minutes later right at the LGAT seminar for nonrefundable contracts and other schemes and scams.
Its happening every single day.

The LGAT Guru is going to clean the vulnerable person out of every dollar they have, whether that is 100K or 50 million.
Most victims are so humiliated and devastated, they don't even say anything and just vanish.

Note that every comment at the NY Post blames the victims, and some even praise the swindler Keith Raniere. Its like people praising Bernie Madoff, but its worse.
The average person has no idea how systematic and technical the perusasion and influence processes are, that are used by Gurus like Keith Raniere.
There is not one word of analysis in the media about it...just jump to the word "cult".
Its not about the word "cult", its about the specific processes used by Gurus like Keith Raniere to do this to hundreds and thousands of people. These people just make the media as they have millions.

But not too many news reports about the regular person who gets swindled for 100K-250K.
And there is never an analyses of how specifically the Guru does it to people, step by step.



[www.nypost.com]
Seagram 'cult' sisters' trust fund on the rocks
By EMILY SMITH and JEANE MacINTOSH
March 26, 2010

Two Seagram’s liquor heiresses have blown nearly $100 million on an upstate group headed by a shady svengali — and their furious father now may cut his girls off to keep the group — which he describes as a “cult” — from getting any more of the family fortune, sources said yesterday.

Billionaire mogul Edgar Bronfman Sr. is “considering legal action” to restrict the trust funds of daughters Clare, 30, and Sara, 33, after they lost $65 million in a commodities-trading scheme, according to one insider.

Among Edgar Bronfman’s options, said a source, is to have his girls declared “financially incompetent.”

The failed investment plan and the Bronfman sisters’ staggering financial loss were revealed in court papers filed in Los Angeles and first reported by the Albany Times Union.

The scheme was engineered by Keith Raniere, a Brooklyn-born smooth talker who has been investigated for fraud in several states and is described in legal documents as a “compulsive gambler.”

Raniere, 49, now heads a controversial Albany-based group, NXIVM (pronounced nex-eeum), that conducts “group awareness seminars.”

The Bronfman girls are among his most devoted acolytes. Their dad has called the group a “cult.”

Read more: [www.nypost.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2010 12:38AM by The Anticult.

[wnymedia.net]

Some more information on this whole NXIVM lawsuit mess.

Parlato's response is in the comments.

   Maybe not the smartest thing to do for Parlato, to expose such details that may yet be relevant to the case of his former employers in such ‘elegant prose and superb presentation or marshalling of facts’, as one of the commentators quoted. Especially so, if one actually has read the available court document and now can compare the two sides of the story. In my opinion, Plyam never says anything other than that he signed ownership over to Sara and Clare. He only points out that Parlato said he worked for the father and that the father was interested in making sure his daughters and not Raniere were in legal ownership of their investment, something that had worried Plyam for quite some time as well. That last part again is confirmed in Parlato’s comment. And so it goes on, the two accounts hardly at a factual contradiction but rather of divergent interpretations, as far as I can see. (The NXIVM side of things is sealed of course, but here from the Metroland Blog is the Plyam counter-suit and the accompanying article by Chet Hardin.)
*
   For the less masochistically inclined, who don’t want to read through a 1000+ page book that has been described as having ‘a flat storyline, highly overdrawn characters, and trivial style’ and therefore is of ‘little literary merit’ (comment translated from a foreign language), here are a few links that might help avoid the ordeal. From the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy the article on Ayn Alissa Rand (1905 – 1982), from the Wikipedia articles on her, ‘Atlas Shrugged’, Objectivism and ethical egoism to name but a few. This is a link to a student and teacher resources page called Shmoop, containing a literary study guide with analysis, chapter summaries, breakdowns on themes and much more for ‘Atlas Shrugged’.
*
   I have to agree with AntiCult, this is not yet over; but we may be witnessing the beginning of the end; yet we also need to remain at it, keep the pressure up, spread the news and get the appropriate people, organisations and institutions involved. It is difficult to get an adult person declared unfit. But there may be intermediary possibilities, such as freezing the trust on the basis of justified concern pending further investigations; or some other approach. Even if it were only a temporary cut-off, this would already help. It might force Raniere to show his true face; maybe he’ll spend less of an effort on the Bronfman Sisters, in a sense ‘drop’ them, and concentrate on other, more liquid sources of cash.
*
   In the following, I’m referring to Raniere, but this may well extend to the rest of the leadership of the organisation as well, in some cases most certainly.

   First, I have a pertinent question. Where has all the money gone? We know where the roughly $100 Million from Sara and Clare’s trust that are accounted for have gone; but was that all he ‘borrowed’ from them? Has he touched others for their savings? (This may be save to assume…) Yet, above all, what happened to all the garnered fees, the large sums that students had to pay to attend the courses and intensives? This leads to a somewhat hypothetical mental exercise (I’m definitely no accountant, so please correct, verify, or add to it):

   If one considers that there are claims as to Raniere having trained over 400’000 people, there should be quite a lump of money somewhere, a nice nest egg so to speak. Let’s assume for a moment that in reality it was closer to 50’000 spread over the whole twelve years since ESP’s founding and that most of them took the modules only two times rather than the suggested three or more, furthermore that there are still but those modules described in the 1999 ESP Training Materials (as contained within the patent application for Rational Inquiry™ (1999) on public record at WIPO and referenced to in this post unless otherwise mentioned). Even in that document, there might be more modules; if one counts the distinct sections one gets to twenty-four. Also, it isn’t clear whether there are some undisclosed modules containing ‘special information’ for the promoted.

   I don’t know how many modules are actually taught within a five day intensive, so giving the benefit of a doubt, let’s assume half of them are disclosed during that time. This would then make 50’000 * (2 intensives * $5’000) * 2 = $1’000’000’000! That is a Billion dollars! Now, either the claim of 400’000 is not just a little beyond but outright ludicrous, nobody actually takes the modules twice (still $500 Millions then), the modules are all squeezed into a single intensive (still a whopping $250 Million, begging the question though why there is a 16-day intensive; they’d soon run out of things to say), or then there must be some other intangible reason to explain the apparent absence of money; and I’ve only taken the lower figure for the fees!

   Taking the lowest number, $250’000’000, subtracting a reasonable salary for an average of 150 coaches or employees, let’s say $70’000 annually per person (Do they actually get paid or are they volunteers mostly?), some high rent for an average 15 centres (30’000/month), and some miscellaneous costs of $1’000’000 annually, you get this calculation: (150 employees * $70’000) + (15 * $30’000 * 12) + $1’000’000 = $16’900’000 in costs per year. Taking the $250 Million over a span of 12 years, you get an annual average of some $20’000’000 and subtracting $17’000’000, you still end up with a reasonable yearly profit of $3 Million or 15%. By now, it would be some $36 Million to be divided among the leadership of NXIVM.

   I don’t know at what point taxes are deducted and how much; I assume from the profit and not turnover; but that is in this case irrelevant, since I took the most generous assumptions and it is highly doubtful, given the money philosophies of ESP, that they run such a tight ship. If the original claim of 400’000 satisfied customers were true (and those were reported back in 2003, but let’s assume it were over the whole twelve years), the average annual profit would be more like some $150 Million, again with the generous assumptions. Of course, there are many factors missing or unknown, but the question still remains, ‘Where has all that money gone?’ If it all was spent on salaries, rent, taxes, etc. then they are most certainly paying too much and not the best business people after all, not very successful and thus rather unsuited to teach that subject matter. So, it stands to reason that somewhere well hidden, there is still a substantial amount lying in wait; unless he’s frittered that away on some hair-raising scheme as well!

   In any case, if the flow of additional funds from Sara and Clare Bronfman is indeed petering out, Raniere will start asking others for their money. They’ll set up more collections like the ‘honor dollar’, stipulate more involvement in ideas like the ‘ESP buying coalition’ (‘Mission’ module, page 209, ‘Supporting Ethical business practice: …’; whether that ever came to pass …?), or find some other way to get at the espians’ spare change. The richer will probably be wooed specifically and with great charm, just as the Bronfman sisters have been over the years.

   However, there are some arguments these espians might want to consider before ‘lending’ Raniere the money asked for; if they want to stay true to the ESP system, its ethics and teachings, then they should consider objectively and rationally these factual and evidentiary points in light of said principles. (These are not necessarily my opinions but rationally derived from the espians’ well-trained views):

- Whom do these lawsuits, trading experiments and other non-mission-related sources of additional costs serve? ‘World ethics’? NXIVM and its mission? The espians? In essence, are they toward values, forward moving and advancing the human team (‘Work and Value’, pg 118 & pg 121, ‘Objective value – …’)? Do they produce measurable results (ditto, pg 121, ‘Work is …’)? Not really! Actually, they seem to make a lot of money disappear, tarnish the organisation’s reputation, make it harder for the espians to fulfil their mission, tie up many people in courts for years at a time, and generally just follow the same litigious lines that have made civilisation practically stagnant over the past 30 plus years. These non-mission-related activities therefore not only hamper the effectiveness of the espians and the ESP/NXIVM mission to establish a ‘world ethic’, but they ‘destroy value’ outright and are thus backward moving at least. The only persons whom they could ever possibly serve is Raniere and the rest of the NXIVM leadership!

- He will probably not ask outright for money, let alone to pay for his lawsuits and other endeavours. But even if, it was he who actually chose to go to court whenever he felt slighted, he who wanted to trade in commodities, etc. (‘Communications and Being at Cause’ module, pg 66, ‘At Cause …’). It is also a question of honesty to say what you need the ‘loan’ for, not to pretend to be learning for the betterment of humanity, but to admit that you have a gambling problem (‘Honesty and Disclosure’ module, pg 74), e.g. ‘Honesty: …’). In a certain sense, he implies a ‘liability’, suggesting that the espians should finance his actions because they can. One might respond to such a request (fully disclosed or not) with, ‘Why don’t you make some more money yourself? You teach us success, so show us how. Lead by example!’ (‘Parasite/Producer - Strategies’ module, pg 150, a., Key: ‘Do not help unless directly asked’). Or the espian might answer in response to the obligation Raniere tries to conjure up, ‘Why do you go to court all the time? Why risk value on dangerous trading experiments? Why endanger the mission with your personal adventures?’ (ditto, pg 150, b., Key: ‘People create and cause their emotions/behaviors.’).

- When confronted with his track record on the commodities trading or the lawsuits, he might insist that he only needs another go and he’ll have his cases won, his trading system perfected, that so far there has been a Bronfman-lead conspiracy operating against him. (After 65’000’000 experience points, one would surely hope either that he’d finally get it right; or reaches the rather overdue realisation that the system simply doesn’t work and never will!) A possible response to address the wasted time and efforts would be, ‘You’ve already had many second, third and umpteenth chances and simply don’t deserve another, for this is hurting our mission. Concentrate your energy on something else, something that is actually forward moving and mission-related!’ (‘Parasite/Producer - Strategies’ module, pg 150, ii., Key: ‘Anytime something is given without merit …’). Another point on his particular record of accomplishment is the fact that his excuse for destroying all that value (loosing $65 Million dollars) runs along the lines of it being a learning experience nonetheless. To this the most obvious response would be, ‘Just because you might with a lot of generous imagination one day be learning something out of this doesn’t justify loosing even more money until you maybe do.’ (ditto, pg 152, iv., Key: ‘Just because a certain part of a situation can have a good result …’).

- And finally, he might get desperate and remind the espian of how much wisdom he has freely and out of the goodness of his heart given them already with his teachings and how they were ‘acquired at great time and expense’ (‘Rules and Rituals’ module, pg 61, ‘Confidentiality and Materials: …’), with a lot of effort, and with his heart, soul and mind, his blood invested to invent them. ‘We’re all grateful that the development of these teachings has given you a sense of value and the satisfaction of passing your knowledge on to us. And we’ve paid you handsomely for it. Yet, we haven’t asked of you to suffer for us!’ could be an appropriate answer to these points (‘Parasite/Producer - Strategies’ module, pg 151, b. bottom of the page and top of next, Keys: ‘Favors end with the favor.’ and a., ‘I never asked you to sacrifice for me.’). Should he call the espian selfish and non-integrated after that: Well, he taught them to behave thus in the first place! And a proper response would be, ‘Why am I selfish, if I don’t blindly give you what you want for yourself, for your personal non-mission-related actions?’ (ditto, pg 152, v., bottom of the page and top of next, Key: ‘Calling you selfish …’).

- Some people create problems (unnecessary lawsuits, commodities trading, etc.), so that they may extort money from unsuspecting others to solve them, or so that they may ‘earn’ money from the issues themselves and the resolution of them as well (hypothetically actually winning a case for once; he demands for enough damages each time). Sometimes they create such problems to obligate others or simply to get more attention. (How much money is actually needed for all the lawsuits, the trading experiment, etc.? Where do the leftovers disappear to? A question of open accountability!) Certain people take good-natured persons and attach themselves to them, sucking them dry until there is no more to gain, after which they jump ship and onto the next gullible victim. And the more gifted at these strategies actually manage to build a whole system gathering willingly giving producers about them, gaining all the more by the number of people under their fingertips, the ultimate ‘unlimited form of dishonesty’. Mostly they pretend to be selfless, serving but a greater good, yet in the end all they serve are themselves, often having created the problem that needs addressing (lawsuits, losses in trading experiments, etc.) in the first place. (‘Shifter’ module)

- The product of Raniere’s work is ESP/NXIVM and the courses that are provided by it; he has a right to ask for fees for this labour. The question of course is, has he earned the privilege to spend the espians’ money on his personal vendettas (lawsuits) and self-indulgent adventures (commodities trading) or other such actions of which he is the ‘causing agent’? (‘Work and Value’ module, pg 120, definitions of ‘A right’ and ‘A privilege’) Has his endangering the mission of NXIVM/ESP earned him this privilege? Has his squandering of other’s money, this ‘destruction of value’ merited this licence? Or does he see it as his ultimate right to dispense with the espians’ funds as he wishes?

- Having to pay for something that is of no benefit to the espians, in fact is ‘destrcutive’ to their values, their reputation and hence their intentions to further and uphold the values of civilisation, constitutes a ‘social obligation’ to the NXIVM community! Raniere’s work has been duly paid with the fees; they’re the product of his labour. The espians’ money on the other hand is the product of their labour, hence in a sense a part of them. So, to ask for parts (or eventually all) of it, maybe even influence, coerce, or shame them to compliance, essentially is like obligating them to do unreciprocated work, in other terms, to enslave them! (e.g. ‘Mission’ module, pg 207, ‘Our society…’ and ‘Obligation is…’)

- Money, as the product of the espian’s labour, represents that work value and thus the person’s underlying skills. To give it away for free undermines the concept of ‘fair market value’. It is after all best to sell it to the highest bidder. The question is, what does Raniere offer in return? Does he further the mission with his expenditures in ‘destructive’ lawsuits? Does he hasten the advent of ‘world ethics’ with absurdly wasteful experiments in trading? Do his teachings gain more value, the organisation more weight and a better reputation with the kind of behaviour he chose to pursue? No, and since it is for these points and their successful completion that espians want to sell or invest their skills having already paid for the teachings, in light of his damaging actions it’s reasonable to conclude, at least in these matters he is not the highest bidder after all. (‘Personal Inventory and Value Trading’ module, pg 218, ‘Working Concept: …’)

- His experiment in commodities trading has so far resulted in nothing but losses. There have been no measurable results proving that the system actually works. In fact, it’ probably not be workable after all. The experiment on this system therefore is ‘non-existent work, it produces no result or value.’; or in other words, it is ‘virtual work’. (‘Work and Value’, pg 121, ‘Work is …’ and ‘Virtual work …’)

- Raniere seems to have a penchant to engage in mostly pointless, doomed and often ruinous endeavours. If he would (or rather could) ever win, they might potentially be a measurable result of his ideas. This way however, they are but detractions and as they are based on highly praised systems of his, by extension these are failures too. (‘Honesty and Disclosure’ module, pg 75, ‘Failure: … In the thought realm: …’)

   Should an espian conclude that these points do not apply in this case, then they may be putting the whole concept of a uniformly applicable standard in a consistent reality as provided by the ESP matrix in question. Where then and to whom do such exceptions apply? Who is exempt from these arguments? The espians? The NXIVM leadership? Or only Raniere as the conceptual founder? How can such selective exemptions ever lead to a fair and ethical system of communications, understanding and civilisation’s advance, to a ‘world ethics’ for all of humanity?

   Raniere and the NXIVM leadership will naturally come up with a spade of counter-arguments, evasions, blatant lies, and ostensibly logical excuses for the demand for more money and the underlying needs and reasons, the lawsuits, trading losses and other such matters. They will maintain that such arguments as listed above are merely intended to sow doubts in the minds of the espians, despite them being factually based on Raniere’s own teachings as written by him and published with his patent application for his Rational Inquiry™ technology.

   But one has to consider this: Has he ever before explained, excused, or interpreted anything like this in such a manner as his current counter-arguments? Or are these just the newest in a long line of never-ending justifications? If so, isn’t this behaviour ‘totally reactive’ and indicative of a lack of possibilities, hence proof of low ‘self-esteem’ on his part? (‘Self-esteem’ module, pg 128, ‘Self-esteem is the range …’) A rational deduction therefore would be that the system is not quite as perfect as advertised to the espians. If amendments, excuses and vague evasions need to be made, then perfection cannot be reached yet; thus, it follows logically that the system is incomplete and therefore probably inconsistent.

   And as to Raniere changing the tenor of his arguments whenever he is confronted with a new facet of an old problem: Is not the ultimate virtue of a producer to be consistent in whatever circumstances life throws at them, consistent not just in their values and the resulting actions, what truths they tell, what principles they follow, but above all in the way they treat others, the espians in this case? (‘Parasite/Producer – Strategies’ module, pg 149, ‘A Producer is …’)

   Some espians however may be more devoted to Raniere and an elusive mental construct of NXIVM than (the truth of) his teachings, which after all are at the core of the organisation and its ‘world ethics’. These persons in their blinding devotion will probably still indulge his whims, ‘loan’ him the money so that he may continue with his inconsistent experiments and the ‘destructive’ detractions of his lawsuits and other such ‘devaluing’ activities.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2010 12:03PM by Macumazahn.

Parlato also failed to disclose a few other facts such as:
- He was paid $1 million by the Bronfman sisters to get the Plyams to name them as part owners of Precision Development, LLC.
- The original ownership of Precision Development. LLC was 50%-Plyams and 50%-Nancy Salzman a/k/a Prefect
- Parlato adopted a fake name and distributed information to several news organizations on behalf of the Bronfman sisters.

Whatever his intention were, Mr. Parlato is now part of the ongoing story and will, hopefully, receive the full amount of attention that he deserves from the state and federal agencies that are supposedly on the trail of Raniere and Salzman.

I love it.

The coaches are not paid. They do have employees, but for the most part, they are not the coaches. I believe there are administrative people who are paid salary or hourly. Many things get done on a system of exchange also. But if you want to exchange your time (i.e. become a slave) for their services or classes, your time is largely devalued relative to what you are getting in return. If I were making $75 an hour, I could not simply divide the cost of an intensive by $75 and have that serve as the number of hours of service I would have to give to satisfy the exchange and then call it a day. You pretty much sign your life away in exchange if you don't have the money to pay. They decide what the value should be to you, in terms of your time. I did not see that it was at all equivalent to what your time may actually be worth in terms of $$ per hour in "our civilization".

And what are they really giving up ... I know one woman who managed to extricate herself from their clutches owing them over $80,000, and another "coach" who told me she had spent about $75,000 the previous year in taking intensives. I don't even know how you can do that unless that's all you do is take them over and over, and many do because you are told that you "go deeper" each time you retake an intensive or do a module over again. That you learn something new about yourself each and every time.

I don't even know what "going deeper" means ... but they use the analogy of a peeled onion. You are peeling off layers and layers of your emotional defenses and limiting beliefs and assumptions and whatever other terminology they used, I can't remember anymore. And maybe someday you will become as pure and fully integrated as Vanguard, and "earn"/get to wear the long white sash. Who can actually call someone Vanguard, or worse yet Prefect, to their face without laughing - yet most did). If you are at all handy with a sewing machine you can make yourself a long white/green/yellow/blue, etc. sash, for a lot less money than it costs to get one there.

The upper level coaches make money from their downline, hence, the pressure to recruit. If you could sell this well, you could, for example, be making $5000 a month, just from getting a percentage everytime one of your recruits, or their recruits take a class or intensive.

I'm procrastinating, I have to get to work.

   Talking about selling your skills to the highest bidder and thus establishing a fair market value (‘Personal Inventory and Value Trading’ module, pg 218, ‘Working Concept: …’)!

   That leads to an additional point an espian should consider. If an espian exchanges time and effort to NXIVM in a ‘low-level activity’ (volunteering), then they are ‘in effect steeling from’ from the organisation and devaluing themselves, for their skills, time and effort would be better spent earning money in a real, paid job and rather donating the money instead if you have to (‘Work and Value’ module, pg 120, ‘Contribution: …’). So, in essence, in the teachings of Raniere and NXIVM, voluntarism is an activity that is ‘destroying value’; and since any ‘destruction of value’ hurts everybody (‘Mission’ module, pg 207, ‘All human achievements …’), is by definition bad (‘Good and Bad’ module, pg 136, ‘Bad is …’), and in any case the ‘ultimate crime against civilization’ (ditto, pg 137, ‘Working conclusion: …’) one should never indulge in such a counter-survivalist behaviour! Yet at the same time, it seems that, as so often, if it is to the benefit of NXIVM (and it's not even a charity) or rather its leadership and their gains, then suddenly this behaviour is acceptable and good, pro-survival and ‘building value’? This is by all standards, as well as logical, rational thinking, and even all the teachings of Raniere, ESP and NXIVM ‘inconsistent’! Therefore by extension, the integrated ESP matrix of ‘consistent’ reality has to be put in question. How can such inconsistencies occur in a perfect system? Furthermore, how can that system with its paradoxes be the measure by which ‘disintegrations’ can be detected in our ‘human internal existence’?

   Getting out and still owing them is bad; keeps you under the leadership’s indirect influence for even longer thereafter. I would have thought they only accepted payment in advance.

   Coaches still take intensives? That implies that even the coaches haven’t understood what they are supposed to be teaching in the first place! Not the best advertisement for their qualifications. One has to wonder then, how they got the IACET certification! A teacher/coach always needs to be ahead of his students. Sure, they may need further courses, refreshers, but on the subjects they teach their education has to be completed, or they are simply unfit to perform their job and their results are questionable at best if not downright destructive. Some authority should probably look into this a little closer; something along the lines of endangering those under your care with dilettante personal training, especially since this particular subject matter involves a lot of psychology that can go awfully wrong and is easily misused.

   The going deeper concept is part of every student self report sheet, not always in these words. ESP wants to teach them how to ‘perfect their skills’ and not only make them ‘acquainted with them!’

   If only the upper level coaches are making some money off their recruits and recruits’ recruits (=pyramid scheme for the prosecutors among us…!), then I’ll have to revise the calculation somewhat. Let’s assume that out of the average 150 coaches over the twelve years about a third are upper level, they earn an average of $2500/month, and there are an additional 10 full time employees on average at 70’000 (still trying to be generous):

(50 coaches * $2’500 * 12) + (10 employees * 70’000) + (15 centres * 30’000 * 12) + $1’000’000 = $7’600’000 in costs

   Taking the old $20’000’000 turnover annually, subtracting the costs of $8’000’000 you get $12’000’000 profit or 60%! And over the twelve years, this again would be some $144 Million dollars. Still a nice windfall for the leadership to share… And if it had been 400’000 students, then that would be a whopping profit of some $1.8 Billion over twelve years!

   So, the question of accountability remains the same as ever: Where has all the money gone?


   (As always, references to the ESP Training Materials are to the patent application for Rational Inquiry (1999) wherein they are contained on public record at WIPO.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2010 04:16AM by Macumazahn.

Macumazahn - I'm amazed at the amount of time you have put into understanding this group. How did you come upon this group in particular? Just wondering what your interest was that you are devoting so much time and effort.

In addition to the various amounts that NXIVM/ESP has "borrowed" from the Bronfman sisters to pay for the company's day-to-day operations and its vast real estate holdings, NXIVM/ESP does generate a significant amount of income from the people who attend their training programs. Supposedly, most of this training-related revenue comes from the company's operations in Mexico and Vancouver.

During the course of his ongoing analysis, Macumazahn has raised several critical questions about NXIVM/ESP. These include the following:
- Is NXIVM/ESP a Ponzi scheme? Well, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's usually a duck!
- What's happened to all of the company's revenue? Well, in the typical Ponzi scheme, the people at the top of the pyramid end up with most of the
money. So why should NXIVM/ESP be any different? This means that Raniere and Salzman - and all of the members of the "inner circle" - are raking
in big bucks. The next question, of course, is are any of them paying taxes on that income?
- What will it take to stop the NXIVM/ESP circus? Given how well Raniere has been able to use the legal system as a weapon - and given how much
political support NXIVM/ESP has been able to garner as a result of the political contributions that its upper echelon members have made - the answer
to this question is very simple: i.e., it will take an Attorney General or a high level staff member at the IRS to implement the type of legal action (and
attendant freezing of assets) to stop NXIVM/ESP.