Judge rejects NXIVM leader Keith Raniere's bid for new trial

A federal judge in Brooklyn denied NXIVM leader Keith Raniere’s bid for a new trial, rejecting his argument that two key witnesses lied under oath about their plans to sue the disgraced personal growth guru known as "Vanguard."

“Even if the court were to conclude otherwise, (Raniere’s) contention that the government knew or should have known of the ‘perjury’ is facially absurd,” Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said in a nine-page ruling dated July 16.

In June 2019, a jury quickly convicted Raniere, now 59, on all counts. Charges included sex trafficking, forced labor and wire fraud conspiracy as well as racketeering charges that included underlying acts of possessing child pornography, child exploitation, identity theft and money laundering.

Raniere, who is in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, is yet to be sentenced due to delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of NXIVM have been dancing nightly outside the facility as entertainment for the former Halfmoon man and other inmates.

In January, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of more than 80 victims of Raniere and NXIVM in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The suit is aimed at Raniere and 14 of his associates. In March, Raniere lawyers  Marc Agnifilo and Paul DerOhannesian filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that two women in the lawsuit lied in their trial testimony when they were asked if they later planned to sue Raniere.

One of the witnesses moved from Mexico to the U.S. as a teenager to take classes at NXIVM in Colonie. She became a member of Raniere’s inner circle and one of his many sexual partners but drew his wrath when she dared to kiss another man. Raniere forced the woman to be confined to a room in her family’s townhouse on Wilton Court in Halfmoon for nearly two years.

When the woman testified on May 31, 2019, Agnifilo asked the woman if she planned to bring a civil suit against Raniere or NXIVM. She said:  "That's not something that I have done or decided, no.”

The other witness, an actress from California, was a member of Raniere’s secret master/slave organization called Dominus Obsequious Sororium  (DOS) which translates from Latin into “Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions."  Also known as "The Vow," DOS was billed to women as a sorority to empower them. But secretly, Raniere led the group as supreme master.  He required female “slaves” to be rail thin, obey all commands of their masters -- including assignments to seduce Raniere --  and, in many cases, to be branded with his initials in their pelvic areas.

The woman testified that one night in Halfmoon, Raniere blindfolded her, demanded she undress and drove her to a home where he strapped her to a table where a stranger performed oral sex on her.  As this was happening, she testified, Raniere circled her and asked invasive questions such as whether she had been with multiple sexual partners.

On June 7, 2019, when Agnifilo asked the woman in her testimony if she planned to bring a civil suit, she said no.

Raniere’s lawyers argued that both women committed perjury, it was material to the trial and that "due process prohibits the government from obtaining a conviction by intentionally allowing false testimony to go uncorrected."

The judge disagreed. Garaufis said the testimony of the women “hardly proves that either of them had determined to join that action when they testified at trial more than six months before it was filed.”

Garaufis said that given the testimony of the women, it would have been “utterly unremarkable” if both testified that they did plan to sue Raniere. The judge said that even if Raniere’s attorneys proved that the women lied under oath about the lawsuit it would only entitle Raniere to a new trial if for that perjured testimony he would have been acquitted.

“The court is not so convinced,” Garaufis said.