NXIVM filing named people seeking restitution
A defense attorney for NXIVM leader Keith Raniere made public a court file that identified the names of 117 alleged victims of the jailed personal growth guru, prompting federal prosecutors to call it an “egregious” violation. The attorney said it was done in error.
Defense attorney Steven A. Metcalf II,
who joined Raniere’s defense team in February to work on his appeal, included information such as victims’ full names and some medical information in a response filed early Tuesday morning to the prosecution’s request for restitution for those individuals, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
Raniere, 60, is serving a 120-year sentence in a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz. In June 2019, a federal jury in Brooklyn’s Eastern District convicted the former Halfmoon resident, known within NXIVM as “Vanguard,” of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy and racketeering charges that included underlying acts of extortion, possessing child pornography and identity theft.
Metcalf later informed acting U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar that the filing was “inadvertent” and a “technical error” that was made after midnight. It was marked as being filed under seal, prosecutors said.
Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis has since removed the entry from the court docket. The judge had issued a protective order to keep the information sealed.
Prosecutors credited Metcalf ’s acknowledgement of the error, but reminded Garaufis that Raniere’s defense team had previously opposed the judge’s decision to keep names of victims out of the public record.
“The government remains troubled by the violation of the protective order,” Hajjar stated. “The violation is particularly concerning in light of Raniere’s prior opposition to the designation of victim identities and declarations of loss . ... ”
Hajjar said on Feb. 26, another defense lawyer — identified as Paul Derohannesian, the Albany attorney who was part of Raniere’s trial defense and who has remained on his case — tried to mail an exhibit to Raniere in prison that contained “victim discovery material.” Such material has been described as victims’ identities, impact statements and their declarations of loss, prosecutors said in a filing. That too violated the judge’s order, she said.
After learning of the violation from a legal counsel at the federal lockup, Hajjar sent an email to all lawyers in the case reminding them that the exhibit contained protected information about victims.
“Counsel for Raniere assured the government that the attempt was in error and would not recur,” she stated.
Hajjar added, “In light of the egregious nature of the violation — resulting in the public filing of victim names and sensitive medical information — the government respectfully requests that any future violation of the protective order result in sanctions.”
Derohannesian did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Joseph Mcbride, an associate of Metcalf ’s, said in an email that this week’s error “was cured at earliest possible time. The government’s attempt to bootstrap this isolated incident to the independent actions of previous attorneys entirely unassociated with Mr. Raniere’s current legal team in inaccurate. Furthermore, the government’s characterization of this clerical error as egregious is unfortunate, as it entirely overlooks our continued good-faith efforts to keep protected information confidential.”
Neil Glazer, an attorney suing Raniere in a civil case also in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, called the error “deeply concerning ” and “reckless.”