Robert Gavin
Times Union
December 17, 2021
NEW YORK – A former jailmate of NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, who duped investors into pouring millions of dollars into non-existent film projects, is facing more time behind bars after prosecutors said he tried to repeat the scam using a would-be documentary about NXIVM.
James David Williams, 60, a southern California fraudster who violated conditions of his supervised release in connection with his 2017 conviction on six counts in the Manhattan-based Southern District of New York, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Friday to 18 months in prison.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan highlighted Williams' connection to Raniere in a Dec. 14 pre-sentencing recommendation memo to the judge. The Miami Herald first reported the story on Williams, who had worked in the film industry and resided in Calabasas, Calif., a lavish Los Angeles suburb.
Raniere, 61, known by followers as "Vanguard," was convicted at trial in 2019 of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy and racketeering charges that included underlying acts of possessing child pornography, extortion and identity theft. Raniere is serving 120 years in federal prison in Arizona.
For two decades, the former Halfmoon man commanded the cult-like NXIVM personal growth organization rooted in Colonie, where students paid thousands of dollars to take intensive courses in what critics and federal prosecutors later described as a pyramid scheme. Now, the prosecutors' sentencing memo made it appear that Williams used the subject of NXIVM -- and one of its remaining diehards -- as pawns to line his pockets.
In 2018, Williams and Raniere were both housed in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn between March and mid-December, according to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Reilly and Noah Solowiejczyk. The prosecutors told Wood that in 2020, a Williams-controlled account received more than $500,000 from an account of a man identified as Eduardo Ramirez.
One of Raniere's most ardent supporters, NXIVM loyalist Eduardo Asunsolo, is also known as Eduardo Asunsolo Ramirez.
"Based on its investigation to date, the government believes that these transfers are related to the development and production of a documentary about the cult NXIVM," the prosecutors told Wood.
Neither Raniere nor Asunsolo were accused of any wrongdoing in the memo. Reached Thursday, Asunsolo did not immediately comment on the prosecution's Williams memo, which he planned to review. Raniere's attorney, Joseph Tully, declined comment.
Prosecutors asked Wood to sentence Williams to the 18 additional months of prison. Williams' attorney, Anthony Cecutti, who denied his client intentionally defrauded new victims, asked for 18 months’ supervision, one year of home detention and 500 hours of
community service. He did not identify Asunsolo, but said that in 2020, Williams received more than $500,000 from someone with whom he "shared a business relationship."
In 2016, Williams, movie producer Steven Brown and Gerald Seppala, a Minnesota film executive, were charged with duping investors to pump more than $12 million into movie and documentary projects that never were made. In September 2017, Williams pleaded guilty to six counts, including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and money laundering conspiracy. Williams, who cooperated with prosecutors, remained free on bail. All three men eventually pleaded guilty.
Six months later -- after it emerged that Williams had not divulged all of his defrauding of film investors -- he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud and making false statements to law enforcement officials. This time, the judge ordered Williams detained in the MDC where, at the time, Raniere was housed. Williams, who was there from March to mid-December, was later sentenced to time served.
In their memo to the judge, prosecutors said they learned that in the summer of 2019, Williams visited Hawaii. Williams claimed to his probation officer that it was for his new job working for “Universal Yacht Management,” a company supposedly based in Miami. But the documents Williams produced appeared similar to ones he had previously used in his frauds, the prosecutors said.
The prosecutors learned Williams had concocted the job, the company and his supposed supervisor in yet another scam to enrich himself. They said Williams, who claimed he was unable to pay restitution to his victims, was receiving more than $564,243 from Ansusolo and other companies associated with film production.
Williams spent more than $168,000 on boat and marina-related expenses, used $52,000 in cash, spent more than $50,000 to pay credit card and car payment bills in his wife’s name, spent nearly $18,000 for a luxury apartment in Tempe, Ariz., for his children to live and spent more than $11,500 in payments on a second car, the prosecutors said.
"And," the prosecutors added, "he paid the expenses of his everyday life—spending thousands of dollars at Costco, on airline tickets and hotels, and in tuition to his child’s private high school, among other things."
Robert Gavin covers state and federal courts, criminal justice issues and legal affairs for the Times Union. Contact him at rgavin@timesunion.com.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Ex-Raniere-jailmate-accused-of-pulling-NXIVM-16707708.php
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