Relentless reporting by citizen investigator led to NXIVM investigation and arrests (pizzagate)

submitted ago by Vindicator

According the Frank Report -- the blog run by Frank Parlato:

Parlato, who once worked briefly for NXIVM and has been involved in a long-running legal battle with the cult, is being credited in numerous media accounts with spurring the probe by the U. S. Attorneys’ office in Brooklyn, leading to the arrest of cult leader Keith Raniere last month in Mexico on sex trafficking charges and forced labor conspiracy.

A federal complaint alleges Raniere turned his female followers into slaves who were branded with his initials and coerced into having sex, activity that was first brought to light by Parlato’s reporting last June in the Niagara Falls Reporter and on several of his websites.

In a report on March 28, shortly after Raniere’s arrest, the New York Post identified Parlato as the reporter who first broke the story last June of women being forcibly branded as part of the NXIVM “sorority.” Parlato had worked for NXIVM in 2007 and 2008, and for some time has been relentlessly pursuing the shocking activities of the self-help group’s abuse of women once he learned from members and former members the extent of the slave-like branding and forced sexual activity.

In addition to the Post, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and numerous other publications and broadcast media have frequently quoted Parlato’s reporting in their coverage of the Albany group which first gained national attention last October with a New York Times story headlined “Inside a Secretive Group Where Women Are Branded,” the first in a series of stories that followed Parlato’s lead from months earlier.

As for NXIVM, Raniere took Parlato to court, alleging he had been defrauded in a Los Angeles real estate deal. Parlato counter-sued and the civil action is still pending. But Parlato not only fought back in court, he used his dogged reporting skills to ferret out the inner workings of the cult and expose their deeds in story after story until the federal investigation was finally commenced. A lesser effort would not have succeeded.

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argosciv ago

There really is a lot on his website, I have to go through it fully at some point, to see if there's anything else that jumps out at me.

Are_we_sure ago

June 2017 is when the branding story broke.

argosciv ago

Not at all to take away from how early Frank started reporting on NXIVM, but, I'm referring to when Keith Raniere was arrested (~March 25, 2018) 'breaking' the cover of NXIVM and putting them in the broader public light - it finally got the attention it needed and I for one hadn't even heard of them until the arrest was reported.

Things like this usually do start with just one or a few people speaking up - thanks to all involved, we're now seeing how central NXIVM, Scientology and other related/connected cults are, as they're ones which are actually connected up to the politicians(et al) that we've long known/suspected to be corrupt.

Are_we_sure ago

The NY Times did a story in Oct 2017 based on their original reporting that "broke" the NXIVM story wide open. The state and federal investigations started because of that Times story.

The Frank Report is mentioned in the article. I would guess that is where the Times got onto the story and did it's own original reporting and interviews with ex-members.

It's a very good read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html

I mentioned looking at June on the Frank Report, because he put out a lot of stories then.

we're now seeing how central NXIVM, Scientology and other related/connected cults are, as they're ones which are actually connected up to the politicians(et al) that we've long known/suspected to be corrupt.

I think you're pretty off on this. NXIVM is not going to end up being really connected to anything. Most of the members of NXIVM didn't even know this was going on. They learned about this secret society from the Frank Report

A few days later, many of Mr. Raniere’s followers learned of the secret society from a website run by a Buffalo-area businessman, Frank R. Parlato Jr.

Even women who were in that "sorority" didn't know that branding was going on. That was like an even more secret, deeper inner circle.

In early June, Mr. Parlato published the first in a torrent of salacious posts under the headline, “Branded Slaves and Master Raniere.”

A Nxivm follower, Soukaina Mehdaoui, said she reached out to Mr. Raniere after reading the post. Ms. Mehdaoui, 25, was a newcomer to Nxivm, but the two had grown close.

She said Mr. Raniere told her the secret sorority began after three women offered damaging collateral to seal lifetime vows of obedience to him.

While Ms. Mehdaoui had joined the sorority, the women in her circle were not branded. She was appalled.

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“There are things I didn’t know that I didn’t sign up for, and I’m not even hearing about it from you,” she texted Mr. Raniere.

Mr. Raniere texted back about his initials and the brand.

By then, panic was spreading inside Nxivm. Slaves were ordered to delete encrypted messages between them and erase Google documents, two women said. To those considering breaking away, it was not clear whom they could trust and who were Nxivm loyalists.

Late one night, Ms. Mehdaoui met secretly with another Nxivm member. They took out their cellphones to show they were not recording the conversation.

Both decided to leave Nxivm, despite concerns that the group would retaliate by releasing their “collateral” or suing them.

argosciv ago

Oh, I seem to have forgotten who I'm talking to... forgot you're one of the fuckwits who challenges the subjects that deliver the most. Should have blocked you ages ago so I don't have to read your shit or see you in my notifs.

Your routine is stale as fuck. Nobody's taking away from Frank's reporting, yet you're trying to use it as a means to say that NXIVM is a nothing burger and otherwise antagonize me for looking into it after Ranier was arrested.

Like I said to the Scientologist shill who tried to dissuade investigation, you can also go ahead and fuck off. For your sake, I hope you're just a dumb troll and not deliberately shilling with the Scientologists and those who come off the assembly line of other shillfarms, because I'm not even remotely done. Also, again like I said to the Scientologist shill, I'm now going to block you so I don't have to see your shit anymore - take that as rude or a personal victory for yourself, all you like.