Monday April 11 2011 mid-day update in Bronfman – Plyam case
This morning Crockett rapped up the Bronfman case with DelNegro. Next the defense started with guess who? Barb Bouchey and all eyes were on her as she glanced at Clare Bronfman on the way to the stand. Pyram’s attorney finished with her as Crockett started his cross. He quickly ripped into her in a brutal and condescending style that has become his trademark. He is a shysters, shyster.Now readers of this blog know I’ve been hard on Bouchey in the past and I will be hard on her in the future but the human side of me could feel compassion for the frail looking almost shrunken features of Barbara. Crockett you really are a piece of shit and I hope one day you will get to cross-examine me. I won’t be a little tiny women shaking in a witness stand.
Further update Now that I have some time I can catch my breath
Jimmy D looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the courtroom today as the Plyams attorney nailed him repeatedly about some of the lies he had told while being questioned by CrockO’Shit last week. Time after time, he was handed a piece of evidence that directly contradicted his prior testimony – and time after time, he had to admit that his prior testimony was incorrect.
One of the best examples was Jimmy’s prior testimony that Raniere’s previous Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scheme, Consumers Buyline, had only been investigated and never shut down. When handed a copy of the “Consent Order and Judgment” that Raniere had signed back in 1996, Jimmy got real red faced and admitted that his prior testimony was inaccurate. INACCURATE?? YOU MEAN LIKE A BIG FAT LIE, JIMMY?
Jimmy’s next departure from reality had to do with his role within NXIVM and whether it’s an MLM scheme. His first explanation was that he did not receive any percentage of the fees generated by people that he had recruited and that he just got paid for setting up meetings. HOLY FUCK, JIMMY, DIDN’T THEY WARN YOU THAT BOUCHEY WAS GOING TO SHOW UP TODAY AND TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH ABOUT NXIVM’S OPERATIONS?
When Jimmy stepped (actually slinked) down from the witness stand, Bouchey was called as the Plyams first witness. And right out of the box, she testified to the following:
- All of the top earners in NXIVM are paid according to their “lineage.” That’s MLM-speak for “you get a piece of the action for all of the fees generated by everyone you bring in and everyone they bring in.”
- Raniere and Vanguard control everything that goes on in NXIVM.
- She was called to task by Clare for her various “ethical breaches” against Raniere and Salzman. These included her not being “respectful” towards the two of them – and (I SWEAR THIS IS TRUE) her “speaking out of turn” when she was with them.
- She met Frank Parlato when he was meeting with Kristin Keefe and overheard her telling him that Raniere had nothing to do with the Precision Development project. (They always lie to the people they hire).
Crockett started cross-examining Bouchey just before the lunch break and will be continuing later this afternoon.
The following article was written by Lou Avino. I have no way of verifying his account of the events in the Bronfman – Plyam case but I believe the man has something important to say and I’m going to let him say it. For the tenth time if anyone would like to have their viewpoint published contact us here at this e-mail
kaisersoze1914@mail.ru
Include name and phone number for me to contact you. And now without future ado Lou Avino unedited.
JIM DEL NEGRO, A PERJURER?
By Lou Avino
Documentation for the following story here
I’ve been following the Bronfman – Plyam case. And I have reason to believe that Jim Del Negro has lied to the court. I was brought to Los Angeles in January, 2008, by Frank Parlato to investigate the Precision Development project. I have 35 years experience in the construction business. While there, I spent every day with Jim Del Negro and lived in the same hotels and then later in the same house with him on Winnetka Dr in Woodland Hills during January -February 2008.
As to the statement by Del Negro that Frank Parlato tried to steal a truck, Jim knows this is not true. When Frank, Ken Thomas, Paul Grenga, Jim and I first helped the Bronfman sisters gain control of their properties, there was a lot of equipment on various properties and we tried to secure these from theft. We took possession of a red and a white, small Ford pickup trucks. As I recall, these were registered in the name of Castle Asset Management – which was a company formerly controlled by Yuri but now, after Frank secured for the Bronfmans majority interest, was a company under the control of the Bronfmans.
Frank was appointed as President of that company. We got the keys to these vehicles from a Castle employee named Norman Lewis. I, along with Ken Thomas, used the white truck and Jim Del Negro used the red one - in order to drive to various sites and assess what work had to be done. Yuri knew of course we were using the trucks. That was no secret. But there was plenty of conflict at that time and Yuri was scrambling around trying to hide what he had been doing on Roxbury and other properties he owned, but possibly purchased and constructed with Bronfman money.
As we prepared to fix the properties, Ken Thomas needed a larger vehicle than the two-seat white pick up and he went to a car dealership to have the truck appraised in contemplation of trading it for a larger vehicle.
At this time we thought we were going to stay in Los Angeles and complete the Precision project. The car was left at the dealership overnight for appraisal and the dealership learned the vehicle had been reported stolen and turned the truck over to the police. No charges were filed. Of course, if we had intended to steal this vehicle we would not have gone to a car dealership to trade it. The red Ford pickup, to the best of my knowledge, was also reported stolen and Jim Del Negro kept the red one and continued to drive it – even after he learned it was reported stolen. I do not know what Kristin Keefe had to do with any of this. She had no standing to report the truck stolen. It was not her truck.
According to an email written by Robert Crockett, dated February 26, 2008, we were within our rights to use the vehicles. Crockett wrote to Plyam’s then-attorney David Pillimer “there is the matter of the two ford trucks. Mr. Lewis told Yuri Plyam that the two Ford trucks registered to Castle Asset were given to Castle employees under Mr. Parlato’s direction.
Knowing however that the Ford trucks registered to Castle Asset were in the possession of Castle, the Plyams reported the theft of those vehicles and obtained an insurance payoff. I have advised my client to report this fraud to the insurance company.” In other words, Castle owned them, not Yuri, and Frank was the president of Castle so he had the right to allow Jim and I to use the trucks. How is that stealing? Yuri collected the insurance money. Del Negro lied and said Frank tried to steal the trucks when their attorney, his attorney Crockett, clearly indicated that it was appropriate to use the vehicles. Del Negro was using one of the “stolen” trucks the whole time.
One day, Jim Del Negro suddenly left the house where Ken, his girlfriend, Jean, myself and he were staying -- on Winnetka Dr.
Jim claimed he was moving in with a friend but later we suspected the real reason was he was afraid Ken would find out what he did with Ken’s girlfriend and mother of his child, a young woman from the Philippines named Jean. Jim would tell Jean he would teach her “ethics” and other techniques of NXIVM and it impressed the simple, immigrant girl to hear him talk about his “rational inquiry” “ethics” and becoming wealthy.
I am pretty sure he got her alone one night and either seduced or raped her.
He used to get pretty drunk.
As I thought about it later, he may have used what he thought was Keith Raniere’s mind-control methods to manipulate this girl into trusting him. Was it rape? Was it intimidation? Mutual, consensual sex? Jim was supposedly Ken’s friend. Jim would often send Ken on errands and Ken would leave Jean alone with the baby and Jim at home.
After what we went through with Plyam, we bonded. Jim was part of our team, part of the family. When Ken found out what Jim had done, he was hurt. He went looking for Jim, but Jim ran off and hid. That’s when Jim turned against Frank and tried to get him fired. To cover his coward self, I suspect he lied to the NXIVM people who he worked for.
While he appears book smart, Jim, at other times, appears to have some attention deficit disorder that makes him forget everything or anything at any time. He seemed to be broke, living paycheck to paycheck. And drank an awful lot of liquor. I heard he claimed he put money into the Bronfman project. That cannot be true. Unless he stole from the project after we left. He used to show the monthly records of income and expenses for the project. He was the bookkeeper and handled the money wired from the Bronfmans. He earned, as I recall, $7,500 per month. There is no way he had $750,000 as I heard, to invest.
Frank and his team, including myself, were the real reason the Bronfmans discovered the fraud and recovered their assets. Jim wanted to stay out in Los Angeles and not go back to Albany and was afraid Frank might send him home. That may have caused him to lie.
I personally think there is something the matter with Jim and I am inclined to think that maybe those courses he took made him feeble-minded or something, or maybe he was always that way. It was my impression that the Bronfman sisters had no say in anything.
I was at a restaurant with Frank when he broke the news to Keith on the phone that Yuri was, unlike what he pretended, not a true NXIVM devotee or even a friend of Keith. When Frank was talking to Keith on the phone, Ken and I were with Jim at the same restaurant and Jim finally began to grasp that Frank was really right about Yuri.
I personally found it strange that all the houses Yuri was building in the partnership had been undergoing construction for many months, even years. None were finished. But Yuri’s own properties were making fast progress.
I was there when Plyam signed the ownership interests over to the Bronfmans. I witnessed Yuri’s signature on some of the documents. I believe it is possible that Jim Del Negro may not have reported all expenses. Jim may have sold off equipment and building materials and pocketed the cash.
I was there every day. We took all the equipment to a storage area- Jim and I, and Jim was the only one who had the keys to the storage shed. Jim may have also diverted money from Precision into his own bank account. Jim was the one who got Precision money wired to his account- not Frank. Jim said Frank “Oversaw all of the investigative and surveillance activities concerning the Plyams. (This included an attempted break-in, the hiring of several former employees of the Plyams, and the hiring of several off-duty LA cops). That is not true. Frank, after recovering the properties from Yuri, had no interest in investigating Yuri. He wanted to get the construction done.
Letters to Bob Crocket show Frank tried to settle. Actually believed a settlement could be made with Yuri with amnesty to Yuri and where Yuri could turn over certain properties he acquired allegedly with Bronfman money and everyone could come out whole. Frank never did any investigation, certainly no surveillance, and no break in that I know of and I was a part of every day details in the entire plan. If there was a break in, it was likely Del Negro or Kristin Keefe, who do those kinds of things – from what I learned.
For some reason, NXIVM seemed more interested in trying to destroy Yuri, rather than allow the Bronfmans to fix the homes and get their money back. I don’t know why the “ Bronfmans” or rather NXIVM didn’t want Frank or myself to testify. Del Negro “reluctantly admitted that he knew about an independent auditor named Phelps who was hired, with the approval of the Bronfman’s and the Plyam’s, to examine Precision’s records. … And he … recommended in emails to Keefe, the Bronfman’s and Becky Freeman that Phelps not be paid because he could not “guarantee what’s going to be in his report to the court.”
I was there when Frank hired Ted Phelps. So was Jim. Frank told Phelps he wanted the truth. If Yuri was innocent then exonerate him. No smears, no innuendos. I heard NXIVM later fired Phelps and threatened to sue him then stiffed him on his bill. Keith and Kristin knew Frank was not going out to LA to consider investing in the project to help out Clare and Sara who were said to be out of money.
I was with Frank when he broke the news on the phone to Clare. Curiously she wept more from the thought that Yuri had betrayed Keith than about the potential loss of her real estate investment. Frank wanted to fix the properties and get the Bronfmans money back. NXIVM had another agenda. We went out to Los Angeles, got the properties back for the Bronfmans, uncovered a fraud- that they now are pursuing in court, and took control of the sites – in spite of Yuri’s efforts to thwart us. NXIVM, the Bronfmans, and Del Negro, instead of being grateful, dismissed us. Now they are lying about Frank in court. Ironically Del Negro took over Frank’s position and the project has been mainly a failure ever since. The last thing I would like to add is that when Frank and I confronted Jim with the question of whether he seduced or raped Ken’s girlfriend, he said no.
Frank pressed him and Jim partially confessed and said, “It wasn’t my fault.
She raped me. I was in bed and she came into my room and pinned me down and made me have sex. “Another time I was in the bathroom and she barged in and forced me to have sex with her.” Jim Del Negro is perhaps 6’ 3’’ inches tall and 200 pounds and Jean is at best 4’ 11’’ and 100 pounds. Jean is undergoing therapy right now for what she feels Jim did to her. I do not know if she is going to press charges. I do not know what is true or not. I was not a witness. In any event, I do not believe Del Negro’s story that this 100 pound woman forced him to have sex. This lie us as preposterous as are many of the lies Jim told the court. Please feel free to contact me at any time.
I am more than willing to testify in any court of law as to what I saw, heard and witnessed…


23 comments:
Whoa, intense, head-spinning stuff. What a read. Thank you for sharing.
a den of thieves
This guy is full of shit from where I'm looking.
"This guy is full of shit from where I'm looking."
Are you looking up from the bottom of a used toilet?
NXIVM stink seems to be pervasive.
I don’t buy the story for a New York minute. It's a plot between them all to point fingers at each other so no one really knows the truth. It's a game they play and it's old as dirt.
Jim makes Frank look bad, Lou makes Jim and Yuri look bad. Jim makes Lou look bad.
If you look at the backgrounds of all the players, it's Parlato and Raniere that are the slimy ones.
Based on the limited amount of information that is out about the trail, Crockett has not proven that the Plyams have done anything wrong. Other than get conned by Raniere. Let's face it he either bought or conned the Dalai Lama
Clare and Sara Bronfman have been conned out of millions of dollars in legal fees, contracts, investments and keeping the most loyal Raniere followers employed so they can pay for more trainings and Raniere has his slaves to wipe his ass.
Maybe this will be what it takes for Clare and Sara Bronfman to wake up and tell the whole gang of wolves to go screw themselves, take what is left of their trust funds and go do some real good in the real world.
This narrative strikes me as authentic. There is a lot of detail. I cZnt say whether Yuri is a thief. But it is clear Del Negro is warped.
This lou is just as dirty as parlato.
I wouldn't trust one word out of his mouth.
He goes and watches innocent people who have been working on a project for three years with no pay get shaken out and he sounds like he's proud of it. He doesn't know any of the background facts nothing....
He's about as credible as Raniere.
Thank you John.
Side bar to topic, this website
https://www.eff.org/
might be of interest
Electronic Frontier Fondation covers
Bloggers' Rights
Coders' Rights
FOIA Project
Patent Busting
Surveillance Self-Defense
Teaching Copyright
Takedown Hall of Shame
https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers
Steve Coffey and Bob Crockett must be so aggravated.
A real insight into the events in LA. Del Negro is a fit disciple for his Vanguard.
This guy is so full of shit you can smell it around the world
Great story the only problem is the forensic accountant for bronfmans testified that plyams loaned the company over 3 million dollars and still owe him about half million dollars.
It would have been helpful to hire an accountant or at least look at the books and records before accusing someone of fraud.
For a little insight into Lou Avino, go to
http://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/other-courts/2005/2005-50323.html.
How can you believe anything that this guy says? He's a convicted felon who was involved in a con job. Sounds like a perfect NXIVM operative to me.
Yuri is the criminal. That's clear. The others are just sleazy
Confidence tricks – games are as old as dirt.
It is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is the con man, and his accomplices are known as the plants.
The tricks are designed to exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naiveté.
The common factor is that the victim (mark) relies on the good faith of the con artist.
Look at Raniere history, its one failure after another and one flimflam game after another. He plays games on purpose to see who will buy his poppycock. When they do, he knows he’s got another one on the line and what does he have to do to hook them.
Follow the money, how does he get it and where does he spend it. Look at where he spends his time; it’s not passing on his so called wisdom is it?
He’s too busy skimming; where is the next mark, how do I keep this mark from finding out the truth, I have to go serves this plant so she will feel special, we need a better mouse trap to silence that person from exposing the truth they just uncovered.
When people catch on to even a part of his behavior that could expose him, he will spend millions in legal fees to discredit them. It’s not about winning in court, it’s about the confusion he can create and the lies he and his plants can tell his “marks” to keep his game going.
This story is a prime example of the confusion game. Sorry JT, I think you were the mark in this story. They wanted this story released to add confusion and for some, it might have worked.
What I find interesting is that everyone gas an opinion and that is quite intriguing. What is less appealing is everyone is an expert. Everyone knows for sure what the truth is.
Really reading this Avino story I cannot say for certain what the truth is. It seems honest but others say it is intended as a smokescreen.
I don't know. But from my point of view I don't care. It us all just damn interesting.
Better than a who done it mystery. This has it all sex money con artistry.
Still if you ask me I say the cult is crazy Parlato is a thug but Yuri is guilty.
Just because a group is a cult doesn't mean you can steal at will.
@2:47 PM : As you said, it's just a story.
And please, read John's preamble, don't be sorry !
All that is about NXIVM trials is blurry and it came an habit to see twists appear in the stories.
NXIVM "family members" and zombie devotees learn to find the 'factual datas' from the flow, but here, intuition is more valuable than any quest for such datas.
Here my intuition tells me that whatever it is written in this blog, justice will find its path, a way or another...
i doubt that Avino's story was planted by NXIVM. I also doubt that his allegations about the Plyams are accurate or provable because if they were, he'd be the Bronfmans star witness at the trial.
Did anyone understand that plyams loaned money to the project and are owed almost a million bucks according to bronfmans forensic accountant.
I'm curious how the plyams are crooks when they are owed money ??
Parlato is a con man and so is raniere
I don't think so. Plyam stole about nine million
There has not been a single shred of evidence that verifies ANY of the many allegations against the Plyam's. Not even close. Oh, contrare!
There is one thing, maybe the only thing, truthful in any of the plaintiff's witnesses testimonies is the possibility that Keith Raniere may well be one of the smartest, certainly one of the most cunning, crooks...er, spiritual leaders...of our time.
The $65 mil heist from one of the wealthiest, presumably most powerful families in the world; pretty impressive.
But, not only does Raniere, in part by creating this huge distraction to scapegoat the broker, weasle out of signing a note for the stolen loot, he somehow finagles the Bronfman brats into making himself aka Salzman the beneficiary of their estates, just in case the family goes after him someday for the stolen money under a claim that just maybe the girls were not necessarily in their right minds when they "lent" him the loot he stole...IS stealing.
But what really shows Keith's brilliance is that in the process of all this, he tricks not just a gaggle of gaga cult-junkies into doing his dirty work for him BUT also cons a group of hardcore, er, wisened, upstanding gentlemen of Italian (and Missippian) ancestry, hailing from Buffalo.
Frank, good luck keeping that million. Will, all the best with the movie deal. Lou, the post here should count toward you keepin' your cut, even after they get Frank.
Note to self: if ever intending to steal a vehicle DO NOT bring it into a dealership for a trade-in value appraisal.
If Bouchey represents herself in court on other matters because she can't afford an attorney, where does she get the $$ to fly cross country to testify? Let alone put up in a hotel and such for a few days. Plyams?
Which brings up another general question, if one receives a summons to appear in court 3,00 miles away, can that summons be ignored because of financial or other hardship? Just asking.
In case you missed...
Barbara Bouchey's appearance on Paul Gretzinger Parentology show telling parents how to handle money.
http://www.youtube.com/parentologywithpaula#p/u/13/lws3OnUH-XE
Some sample advice..."Always have a slush fund"
*******************
Paula Gretzinger's show Parentology is full of her bright smile, flashing implants and not much else. Show is pitiful. Gretzinger's looks like she's suited up for "Desperate Housewives of Clifton Park".
http://www.youtube.com/parentologywithpaula
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