Frank Parlato and the NY Post are reporting that when Nxivm defendant Lauren Salzman entered a guilty plea on March 25, she recited a chilling list of crimes, including keeping a Mexican woman as a slave for two years.
With jury selection slated to begin on Monday, the rapid approach of the Nxivm trial has resulted in a series of stunning developments, including the mother-daughter pair Nancy and Lauren Salzman taking guilty pleas so they will avoid trial. Lauren is scheduled to be sentenced on November 11.
Lauren, 42, also admitted to helping run “DOS,” a bizarre woman-only “sorority” that amounted to a sex slave and starvation operation to benefit Nxivm leader Keith Raniere, the government claims.
At his blog, Frank Parlato posted the entire transcript of Lauren’s statement to the court about her crimes. It’s a doozy.
I am pleading guilty today after a careful and thorough review of the criminal allegations against me. The conclusion of this review was acknowledging that I committed acts which I knew or should have known were absolutely wrong.
AdvertisementOver the years, through my association with Nexium, I formed many relationships with members of this organization. Through these associations, I truly believed that I was helping to empower people to live their left lives.
However, I and others engaged in criminal conduct, which I blindly followed and rationalized as furthering the underlying principles in which Nexium was formed. This rationalization led to my agreement to associate with an enterprise of individuals as alleged in the second superseding indictment.
The common purpose of the enterprise included obtaining financial and personal benefits for its members for members of the enterprise including myself by furthering and promoting the objectives of Keith Raniere and recruiting others into organizations created by Keith Raniere.
Between 1999 and 2017, I was aware of and participated in some of the criminal objectives of the enterprise and I conspired and agreed that others who were also part of our conspiracy would commit at least two acts of racketeering in furtherance of this enterprise.
Between 1999 and 2017, I also knowingly and intentionally conducted and participated directly and indirectly in the conduct of the enterprise through a pattern of racketeering acts which affect interstate and foreign commerce.
Specifically, I committed the following acts.
On or about March 2010 through April 2012, I knowingly and intentionally harbored Jane Doe 4, a woman whose identity is known to me, in a room in the home in the Northern District of New York and threatened to deport Jane Doe 4 back to Mexico if she did not complete labor requested by myself and others.
On or about January 2017 through June 2017, within the Northern District of New York and elsewhere, I was a member of a secret organization developed by Nexium members that has been identified in the indictment as DOS.
Pursuant to my association in DOS, I knowingly and intentionally took and withheld property from Jane Doe 6 and Jane Doe 11, two women who are known to me and who were enrolled as lower-ranking DOS members.
This property was referred to by members in DOS as “collateral” which consisted of material or information that belonged to these lower-ranking DOS members and which such lower-ranking DOS members would not want revealed because it could be personally damaging or ruinous.
I induced Jane Doe 6 and Jane Doe 11 to deliver this collateral to me by instilling them a fear that if the property was not delivered, I could expose this collateral which could have been embarrassing and personally damaging to themselves or others if released.
From January 2017 to June 2017, within the Northern District of New York and elsewhere, I knowingly and intentionally obtained the labor and services in the form of acts of care from Jane Doe 6 and Jane Doe 11 who were lower-ranking DOS members.
Acts of care included having these women perform services for me that would have otherwise been compensable. I obtained these labor and services from Jane Doe 6 and Jane Doe 11 by causing them to believe that if they did not perform requested acts of care, then they could suffer serious harm. The serious harm in this case would be the threat of the release of their collateral.
From January 2017 to June 2017, within the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, I knowingly and intentionally worked with others and devised a scheme to make materially false representations and omissions regarding DOS in order to obtain property from lower-ranking DOS members. Specifically, I concealed Keith Raniere’s role as the head of DOS and characterized DOS as a women’s organization knowing that Keith Raniere was the head of this organization.
The property obtained which was considered collateral included credit card authorizations, sexually explicit photos and videos, and rights to assets and property. Such property was transmitted in interstate and foreign commerce via e-mail, telephone, text messages and telegram.
Your Honor, in light of reviewing all the discovery and having many months to reflect, I came to the conclusion that the most moral and the most just course of action for me was to take full responsibility for my conduct and that is why I am pleading guilty today and I’m very sorry for my poor decision-making and decisions that result in the harm to others and not the just victims in this case but to hundreds of members of our community and their friends and families as well.
Guilty pleas are also expected to come from Smallville actress Allison Mack (who asked for a delay to consider her plea that Judge Nicholas Garaufis rejected), bookkeeper Kathy Russell, and Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman. If that happens, it would leave only Raniere himself to face trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 29.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 2, 2019 at 12:00
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Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects at The Underground Bunker. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)
