Aug 14, 2018

Allison Mack’s secret sex cult NXIVM was simply ‘a little edgy’, say lawyers


Rebecca Lewis
Metro
August 14,  2018

Smallville star Allison Mack’s secret sex cult NXIV was simply ‘a little edgy’, lawyers for the defendants have claimed.

Mack and founder Keith Raniere have been charged with sex trafficking and forced labour conspiracy after claims emerged that Mack had been involved with supplying slaves to 57-year-old Raniere, the leader of an American self-help ‘sex cult’ organisation called NXIVM.

Raniere allegedly blackmailed women into becoming sex slaves, and the pair allegedly branded victims’ skin with their initials.

Mack and Raniere as well as four others have also been charged with racketeering conspiracy, while Raniere, Mack and Lauren Salzman were also being charged with wire fraud.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

However now Raniere’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo has claimed that Raniere ‘didn’t enjoy the branding’ and that ‘it was something that the women wanted to do and that he thought was not inappropriate if that’s what they wanted to do’.

‘These women wanted to be part of DOS,’ said Agnifilo.
‘It was a little extreme, it was a little dangerous, it was a little edgy, it was all those things. That’s why they wanted it.’

Speaking to Megyn Kelly in a Dateline episode that aired on 6 August, Agnifilo also suggested that he didn’t ‘know why anyone could feel that they’re physically threatened by Keith Raniere or anyone in Nxivm’.

‘Keith Raniere is a remarkably — he might get mad at me for saying this — soft man.’

In 1998, Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman founded Nxivm, offering ‘Executive Success Programs’ that have attracted thousands of people into its classes.

The organisation, which claims to use ‘rational inquiry’ to facilitate personal and professional development and growth, began to be referred to as a cult by outsiders – mainly because Raniere demanded followers address him as ‘Vanguard’ and Salzman as ‘Prefect’.

Over the years, many accused Nxivm of being a pyramid scheme, taking money in exchange for Raniere’s seminars and claiming they could only grow by paying for more workshops, which cost $5,000 a pop.

However it was the deeper world of NXIVM that shocked many when it came to light in court in recent months, as according to the complaint, Raniere ‘maintained a rotating group of fifteen to twenty women with whom he maintains sexual relationships’.

‘These women are not permitted to have sexual relationships with anyone but Raniere or to discuss with others their relationship with Raniere,’ it said.

‘Some of the Nxivm curriculum included teachings about the need for men to have multiple sexual partners and the need for women to be monogamous.’

Mack, 35, was allegedly the leader of a subgroup within Nxivm called DOS (or The Vow), for which she allegedly recruited female members to engage in sexual acts with Raniere.

The complaint against Mack alleges that she would recruit new members, who had to hand over compromising videos, photographs or information to join. As well as DOS members being used for sex, they were also allegedly forced to cut their calorie intake as Raniere preferred thin women, and were not allowed to remove their pubic hair.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/14/allison-macks-secret-sex-cult-nxivm-simply-little-edgy-say-lawyers-7839732/

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