Here's some info, but not tied to Epstein that I've found.
Damon Lawner writes:
At the end of this particular path I step away with more than I could have dreamed when I started, more in experience....more in financial gain than I thought possible. Remember tickets to my first Sanctum events were $100, when the idea of selling a $425,000 membership was so far beyond anyone’s radar including mine it would have sounded completely absurd, but no longer. Snctm evolved into one of the world’s true luxury brands within its own genre, and still nothing comes close. Take a trip to Moscow for the Masquerade one day and you will understand the heights to which Snctm has ascended.
We would like to announce that SNCTM is entering a new, most indulgent stage. We, the participants in The Circle, are honored and humbled to follow in Damon Lawner’s footsteps and steward SNCTM onward. Some of you may know us. Many more we look forward to meeting...
Note that the article about Lawners bio, the club beginnings, as well as decriptions which are potentially advertisements for erotic parties, in the end it's all highly vetted adults talked about. The Epstein types would likely feel out of place. Doesn't mean that SNCTM wouldn't be a good venue to interconnect with opportunities made available via the club contacts or locations of parties.
Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, was Lawner's initial inspiration for the sex club with it's religious connotations, his "spiritual and erotic utopia"
At the moment, Lawner is using a custom phone app to screen applications for the Masquerade. There are still a few more slots open for women, who can apply to attend for free. Sitting beside him, in a matching wicker chair, a dark beauty sips Champagne. Call her Caroline. Tall and impossibly thin, with huge brown eyes, she has recently earned a degree from a college in Texas. She's visiting Lawner for a couple of weeks, seeing agencies, hoping to get into modeling.
Read article for potential MKULTRA circles in his childhood.
At age 19 Lawner was "approached by a scout for the photographer Bruce Weber. Soon he was signed by the Look Model Agency in San Francisco. He was featured in a Versace campaign, and in a Calvin Klein jeans-and-coats campaign with supermodel Christy Turlington and the actor and heir Balthazar Getty."
2017 EXCLUSIVE - Civil war at Hollywood’s most elite sex club: Infamous $75K-a-year member 'Bunnyman' is booted out for his 'disgusting' behavior towards the founder's 12-year-old daughter
Nice research @kestrel9 ! I can't quite figure out if the incident with the daughter was an indicator or not either. Fear for the life or wellbeing of his own child seems like a great reason for Damon to have a change of heart enough to give up his "utopia" SNCTM. I seem to remember reading Bunnyman claiming that Damon wasn't respecting privacy or running the operation to the standard as it should. Do you think Phuong Tran organized a hostile takeover with The Circle?
Regarding the privacy complaints, the fact that Damon exposed Phuong's membership and publicly announced he was banned for life may have been the reason for that complaint. Or the fact that the club was having a TV series made about it and I think outsiders with cameras set up some shots etc., whatever it was, Mr. Tran didn't care for that either I don't think (standards). Since it's a ban for life I would not be inclined to think there was a hostile take over and he claims he had left on his own, to start his own club. However, I just found an article that tells Trans side about what the feud was and if true, it puts the whole thing in a different light I think. Damon mentions an attempt at a hostile takeover.
Tran... told The Post he already left Snctm in November to start his own, more expensive sex club because standards had slipped so badly.
“I’ve been working on my exit for at least a year out of boredom,” he said.
Tran claims his feud with club founder Damon Lawner was over Snctm hiring an underage performer and one with a sexually transmitted disease — accusations Lawner strenuously denies.
“The allegations that Phuong are making are so ridiculous that defending them is beneath me,” Lawner told The Post.
Lawner says he was quietly trying to shoo Tran out because he’d become a “tyrant” who was trying to take over the business. But when the fetishist contacted his daughter, he decided to go with a public shaming instead.
“He’s been an insane tyrant for months. When he direct messaged my 12 year old daughter trying to hurt me because he wasn’t able to, that was the final straw,” he said.
Tran says his new club is more “elite” and more expensive than Snctm.
“It’s what Snctm should’ve been,” he said. “Ninety percent of Snctm guests won’t make it, even if they applied.”
Snctm has an inner circle of 3 people btw (I forget their special title), who pay a million dollars or something like that. Maybe they are part of the new ownership. Also the club involves erotic theater, with paid performers and elaborate SM themed performances. On the Yelp page for Beverly Hills location there are some reviews and pics. Maybe that's part of the standards going down in Phuong Tran's mind.
So if the accusation is true and Damon Lawner denies it, Tran, in retaliation and to make a point, contacts Lawner's daughter (as in, "how would you like if your daughter..." type of thing). Tran gets publicly shamed and a lifetime ban from the club. Unfortunately, what he actually said or posted to Lawner's daughter is unknown. Also, was it the idea of a minor getting in a bigger issue for him than the idea of a minor with an STD? How would he know she had an STD if she was just a performer? (I read some of the performers 'simulate sex').
If Lawner's side of the story is correct (the accusation is not true). Perhaps Tran was instead intending to sabotage for the purposes of starting his own business, the hostile takeover would be takeover of the market for such a club. By making accusations it would hurt the business and make people nervous about staying on as members if an investigation ever ensued.
And this: if it's true that an underage performer was simulating sex (setting aside the STD issue for the moment), but not engaging in sex, that would be telling of certain members who would want to see that. Maybe that's some of the more private and more expensive shows for the inner crowd. What a creepfest. (thinking of the pictures on yelp with the guy in rubber boots with the rubber apron with a moloch style headdress). Clubs like this explain the sudden appearance of gratuitous fetish BS on otherwise good TV shows. Grooming the general public for potential business of some sort or another.
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kestrel9 ago
Here's some info, but not tied to Epstein that I've found.
The Circle Ascends https://snctm.com/manifesto/
2016 article about Damon Lawner https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/sex/a49636/snctm-sex-club-founder/
Note that the article about Lawners bio, the club beginnings, as well as decriptions which are potentially advertisements for erotic parties, in the end it's all highly vetted adults talked about. The Epstein types would likely feel out of place. Doesn't mean that SNCTM wouldn't be a good venue to interconnect with opportunities made available via the club contacts or locations of parties.
Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, was Lawner's initial inspiration for the sex club with it's religious connotations, his "spiritual and erotic utopia"
Read article for potential MKULTRA circles in his childhood.
At age 19 Lawner was "approached by a scout for the photographer Bruce Weber. Soon he was signed by the Look Model Agency in San Francisco. He was featured in a Versace campaign, and in a Calvin Klein jeans-and-coats campaign with supermodel Christy Turlington and the actor and heir Balthazar Getty."
https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/everything-we-know-about-a-secret-and-scandalous-hollywood-club-that-charges-75000-to-join.html/
2017 EXCLUSIVE - Civil war at Hollywood’s most elite sex club: Infamous $75K-a-year member 'Bunnyman' is booted out for his 'disgusting' behavior towards the founder's 12-year-old daughter
Phuong Tran aka Bunnyman, perhaps might be a person to look into regarding his being kicked out of the club for meanspirited behavior towards Lawner's daughter. https://popularcrime.com/2018/01/23/exclusive-civil-war-at-hollywoods-most-elite-sex-club-infamous-75k-a-year-member-bunnyman-is-booted-out-for-his-disgusting-behavior-towards-the-founders-12-year-old-daughter/
ORDOTEMPLIINTERNETIS ago
Nice research @kestrel9 ! I can't quite figure out if the incident with the daughter was an indicator or not either. Fear for the life or wellbeing of his own child seems like a great reason for Damon to have a change of heart enough to give up his "utopia" SNCTM. I seem to remember reading Bunnyman claiming that Damon wasn't respecting privacy or running the operation to the standard as it should. Do you think Phuong Tran organized a hostile takeover with The Circle?
Is it this LA resident Phuong Tran? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Tran
kestrel9 ago
Regarding the privacy complaints, the fact that Damon exposed Phuong's membership and publicly announced he was banned for life may have been the reason for that complaint. Or the fact that the club was having a TV series made about it and I think outsiders with cameras set up some shots etc., whatever it was, Mr. Tran didn't care for that either I don't think (standards). Since it's a ban for life I would not be inclined to think there was a hostile take over and he claims he had left on his own, to start his own club. However, I just found an article that tells Trans side about what the feud was and if true, it puts the whole thing in a different light I think. Damon mentions an attempt at a hostile takeover.
http://archive.is/aFtfx#selection-1457.0-1477.112
It's a he said, he said.
Snctm has an inner circle of 3 people btw (I forget their special title), who pay a million dollars or something like that. Maybe they are part of the new ownership. Also the club involves erotic theater, with paid performers and elaborate SM themed performances. On the Yelp page for Beverly Hills location there are some reviews and pics. Maybe that's part of the standards going down in Phuong Tran's mind.
ORDOTEMPLIINTERNETIS ago
Well done. This is what I remember.
What a huge accusation- a minor allegedly involved with a sex club, so open about what goes on inside:
kestrel9 ago
These are the thoughts that came to me.
So if the accusation is true and Damon Lawner denies it, Tran, in retaliation and to make a point, contacts Lawner's daughter (as in, "how would you like if your daughter..." type of thing). Tran gets publicly shamed and a lifetime ban from the club. Unfortunately, what he actually said or posted to Lawner's daughter is unknown. Also, was it the idea of a minor getting in a bigger issue for him than the idea of a minor with an STD? How would he know she had an STD if she was just a performer? (I read some of the performers 'simulate sex').
If Lawner's side of the story is correct (the accusation is not true). Perhaps Tran was instead intending to sabotage for the purposes of starting his own business, the hostile takeover would be takeover of the market for such a club. By making accusations it would hurt the business and make people nervous about staying on as members if an investigation ever ensued.
And this: if it's true that an underage performer was simulating sex (setting aside the STD issue for the moment), but not engaging in sex, that would be telling of certain members who would want to see that. Maybe that's some of the more private and more expensive shows for the inner crowd. What a creepfest. (thinking of the pictures on yelp with the guy in rubber boots with the rubber apron with a moloch style headdress). Clubs like this explain the sudden appearance of gratuitous fetish BS on otherwise good TV shows. Grooming the general public for potential business of some sort or another.