NXIVM Sex-Cult Leader Keith Raniere Sentenced to 120 Years in Prison
For two decades, NXIVM founder Keith Raniere was hailed as the “the smartest man in the world” by thousands who joined his ultra-secretive organization in upstate New York that preached personal growth through sacrifice.
But on Tuesday his downfall was made complete when the 60-year-old
was sentenced by a judge to 120 years in prison after 15 former NXIVM members
confronted him in Brooklyn federal court, detailing the abuse they endured in
his sex cult.
The sentencing marks the end of a years-long battle between
Raniere, known as “Vanguard,” and scores of former members who allege NXIVM was
a criminal enterprise in which Raniere had sex with underage girls, forced
women he impregnated to have abortions, and made “slaves” illegally monitor his
enemies. Last June, Raniere was convicted of seven offenses—including wire
fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy—for
manipulating his followers for his own sexual gratification under the guise of
NXIVM’s mission.
Camila, one of Raniere’s victims, slammed the sex-cult
leader in court on Tuesday afternoon, describing how he “hid his abuse behind
concepts of value and nobility.”
“But there is nothing noble about abusing a child,” she
declared as Raniere looked away.
Camila, who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Raniere
for over 12 years—beginning when she was 15 years old—spoke for the first time
about the abuse she endured, detailing to the court how the 60-year-old
isolated her from friends and family for his “sexual gratification.”
The woman, now in her 30s, explained her decision to speak
was her way of “getting her voice back” after years of “coming to terms with
the trauma and abuse.”
Throughout Raniere’s trial, jurors saw sexually explicit
messages between the pair, including multiple conversations about BDSM.
Prosecutors used Camila’s abuse as the basis for Raniere’s child-pornography
charge.
On Tuesday, Camila, whose two sisters also had a
relationship with Raniere and were forced to get abortions, said the abuse was
more than sexual—but also emotional, mental, and psychological, resulting in
her isolating herself from friends and family to “please” Raniere.
“He manipulated me for what he wanted,” she said. “I became
unreachable to my parents, my brother, my friends until I had nobody to worry
about me. He knew the things that mattered most to me and what I feared and
used that against me.”
“I hold scars on my body from him that can never be erased,”
Camila added.
Sarah Edmondson, a former top recruit in NXIVM who was one
of the original whistleblowers against the organization, also addressed the
court via video. Speaking directly to Raniere, she slammed the cult leader for
being a “liar, parasite, and a grifter” who manipulated people seeking personal
growth.
“In a curriculum that focused on personal growth—you have
taken none,” she said. The 43-year-old, who was part of a secret group forced
to have Raniere’s initials branded on them, said she removed the marking with
plastic surgery.
As the two women spoke to Raniere, clad in a navy prison
jumpsuit and orange T-shirt, he remained emotionless.
Hours before the sentencing in Brooklyn federal court, over
a dozen of Raniere’s supporters lined up outside the courthouse—including
Battlestar Galactica actress Nicki Clyne, who arrived with a camera crew.
(While Clyne was a NXIVM member, she has not been charged with a crime.)
Prosecutors have recommended a life sentence for Raniere,
while his defense asked for 15 years behind bars, arguing that while the
60-year-old “continues to assert his complete innocence to these charges,” he
believes there was misconduct by prosecutors in his case.
Since its founding in 1998, NXIVM amassed an estimated
17,000 members, holding $5,000 workshops that promised to give followers the
skills to promote a path to “greater self-fulfillment.” But prosecutors contend
it was nothing more than an illegal pyramid scheme, luring in new recruits who
were made to recruit others. In 2017, authorities opened an investigation after
a New York Times exposé alleged female NXIVM members were being branded and
used as Raniere’s playthings.
Less than a year later, Raniere was arrested in Mexico and extradited
to the U.S. on charges including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy,
child exploitation, and child pornography.
Raniere was charged along with five other women: co-founder
Nancy Salzman and her daughter Lauren, a top lieutenant; Smallville actress and
alleged second-in-command Allison Mack; Clare Bronfman, heiress to the
Seagram’s fortune and NXIVM’s largest donor; and the group’s bookkeeper, Kathy
Russell. While all five pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, Salzman was the
only one to testify against Raniere.
Bronfman was sentenced last month to 81 months in prison for
the extreme lengths the 41-year-old went to in order to protect the group and
its leader.
“I’m immensely grateful and privileged that people all over
the world are praying for me because they know my goodness,” Bronfman said just
before she was sentenced. “It doesn’t mean I haven’t made mistakes, I have made
mistakes.”
In a stunning move, Kristin Keeffe, who has a 13-year-old
son with Raniere and worked in NXIVM’s legal department for a decade, also
spoke to the court on Tuesday about Bronfman and Raniere. Breaking down in
tears, Keeffe described the power Raniere and his inner circle wielded over
her—a force that led her into hiding with her son for years.
“My child will never get back the years we spent in hiding,”
she said, after detailing how Raniere and several of NXIVM’s top lieutenants
used threats to silence her after she had Raniere’s child.
Throughout Raniere’s six-week trial last June, jurors heard
lurid testimony from several women, some of whom testified about NXIVM’s
purported women’s empowerment group, DOS. The women allege it was actually a
master-slave program in which they were forced to have sex with Raniere,
blindly obey their “masters,” and brand themselves with his initials near their
crotch with a cautery pen—without anesthesia.
Among the written DOS instructions created by Raniere,
Lauren Salzman testified, slaves were told to “be a hungry dog for your
master.”
India Oxenberg, a former member of NXIVM and daughter of
Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg, detailed to the court on Tuesday how
Raniere “stole seven years of her life” and abused her. Calling Raniere several
names—including “sexual predator” and “racist”—Oxenberg went into detail about
the pain she endured while in DOS and the mental manipulation she endured while
in the perverted sorority.
“You’re a liar and sadist for getting pleasure watching our
skins burn,” she said. “I may have to live the rest of my life with Keith
Raniere’s initials on my skin.”
Oxenberg, who didn’t leave the organization until after
Raniere’s arrest, urged the judge for a “permanent sentence” in light of the
permanent effect his abuse had on his victims. “I will be the victim of Keith
Raniere’s for the rest of my life—but I don’t need to act like one,” Oxenberg
told the court, her voice breaking several times.
But since Raniere’s conviction, the 60-year-old has
maintained his innocence and continued to issue demands to his disciples from
inside prison, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo last month.
Requesting a life sentence, prosecutors revealed in a memo
to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis that Raniere has still been
communicating with his remaining supporters through phone calls and
emails—suggesting that “he is unrepentant, has no empathy for his victims, and
would continue to commit crimes if released.”
Some of those commands include digging up dirt on Garaufis,
asking pundits, including Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, to speak on
Raniere’s behalf, and to allegedly start a podcast with a $25,000 cash prize
that would entice listeners to find “purported errors in Raniere’s prosecution
and trial.”
“Raniere concealed his abuse behind the smokescreen of his
supposed ‘personal growth’ programs—a charade he continues to this day,” the
memo said, asking for the judge to impose a life sentence. “Since his
conviction, Raniere has continued to demonstrate a complete lack of remorse for
his crimes.”
In a court filing last month, Raniere’s own defense lawyers
admitted that the “Vanguard” carries no remorse for his actions and will not be
asking his former members for forgiveness. Instead, the legal team accused
Garaufis of corruption and demanded a new trial. Garaufis on Friday denied
Raniere’s second bid for a new trial.
Raniere himself has insisted he’s innocent in an interview
with NBC. In his first interview since his conviction, Raniere claimed that
while he was a leader of an organization that essentially imprisoned women, he
is simply the victim of unethical prosecution.
“I am innocent,” Raniere said in the Friday jailhouse
interview with Dateline NBC, before stating he was “sorry and pained” for his
role in NXIVM. “This is a horrible tragedy with many, many people being hurt.
There is a horrible injustice here. And whether you think I’m the devil or not,
the justice process has to be examined.”
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