Several members of the group, including the leader, Keith Raniere, were charged with various crimes and ordered to serve time in prison
New York Times
By Carla Correa
July 5, 2023
Nxivm, the cultlike organization in which a harem of sexual “slaves” were branded with its founder’s initials on their pelvises and coerced into having sex with him, first captured mainstream attention in 2017 when several former members shed light on the group’s practices. One of the victims was 15 years old when the abuse began.
In 2021, the organization’s founder, Keith Raniere, was sentenced to 120 years in federal prison for sex trafficking and other crimes.
Other top members of the group were also charged with various crimes and ordered to serve time in prison. That included the Smallville actress Allison Mack, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges, and who was released from federal prison in July 2023 after serving two years of a three-year sentence.
Here is a timeline of some of the events that led to Nxivm’s downfall.
1998
Nxivm was founded.
Mr. Raniere and Nancy Salzman, a former psychiatric nurse, founded Nxivm (pronounced NEX-ee-um) as a purported self-help organization near Albany, N.Y.
Since then, an estimated 18,000 people enrolled in the group’s workshops, including its “Executive Success Programs.” Most participants only took a few classes, but some members became ardent followers of Mr. Raniere, calling him “Vanguard” and regarding him as the most ethical man in the world.
2017
Former members sought an investigation into the group.
By 2017, several former members had asked New York State authorities to investigate Nxivm. The complaints focused on a secretive subgroup within the organization called the Vow or D.O.S. — an acronym for a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions.” The members were branded and some were assigned to have sex with Mr. Raniere.
The sisterhood, which was billed as an empowerment group, comprised circles, each led by a “master” who recruited “slaves.” In time, the subordinates also recruited their own “slaves.”
The women were required to hand over “collateral” — embarrassing and incriminating information, including nude photographs — that would be publicly released if they disclosed the existence of D.O.S.
After a report about the branding appeared in The New York Times in late 2017, the authorities began a criminal investigation and Mr. Raniere moved into a villa near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
MARCH 26, 2018
Keith Raniere was charged.
At the request of U.S. officials, Mr. Raniere was arrested in Mexico, where he had been living for five months. At a hearing in Texas, he was sent to Brooklyn to face charges that he forced women to engage in sex.
In an affidavit filed as part of the criminal complaint, an F.B.I. agent stated that Mr. Raniere had maintained a “rotating group” of 15 to 20 women with whom he maintained sexual relations.
In an eight-page letter, prosecutors said that Mr. Raniere “has spent his life profiting from pyramid schemes and has otherwise received financial backing from independently wealthy women,” like Clare and Sara Bronfman, heirs to the Seagram’s liquor fortune.
JULY 24, 2018
The case against Nxivm widened.
A superseding indictment charged Mr. Raniere and five women linked to Nxivm, including Ms. Salzman, Clare Bronfman and Ms. Mack, with racketeering conspiracy involving a raft of crimes, including identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
MARCH 12, 2019
Nancy Salzman, the Nxivm co-founder, pleaded guilty.
Ms. Salzman, who was known to the group’s followers as “Prefect,” was charged with identity theft and altering records to influence the outcome of a lawsuit against Nxivm.
In Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Ms. Salzman admitted that she had planned “invasions of privacy” involving email accounts and the altering of recordings “edited to remove sections we did not want to turn over” to opponents in a lawsuit.
Later in March, her daughter, Lauren Salzman, pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy.
In 2021, Nancy Salzman was sentenced to 42 months in prison. Lauren Salzman, whose testimony helped to convict Mr. Raniere, was also sentenced that year, to five years of probation and 300 hours of community service.
APRIL 8, 2019
Allison Mack, an actress on ‘Smallville,’ pleaded guilty.
Ms. Mack, whose involvement in Nxivm boosted the case’s profile, pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges related to her role in the organization. Prosecutors dropped charges of sex trafficking, and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and forced labor.
In Federal District Court, Ms. Mack sobbed as she admitted that she had lured women into D.O.S. by saying they would be part of a female mentorship program. Instead, officials said, she had recruited them into the society as “slaves,” and some women were required to have sex with Mr. Raniere.
She faced up to 20 years in prison on each count to which she pleaded guilty. She was originally scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11, 2019, but the date was postponed twice.
APRIL 19, 2019
Clare Bronfman, a Seagram’s heiress, pleaded guilty.
Ms. Bronfman pleaded guilty to two charges related to identity theft and immigration fraud. The youngest daughter of Edgar Bronfman, the former chairman of Seagram Company, she was known as Mr. Raniere’s legal enforcer but was not a member of D.O.S.
On that same day, Nxivm’s bookkeeper, Kathy Russell, pleaded guilty to one count of visa fraud.
MAY 7, 2019
Mr. Raniere’s trial began in Brooklyn.
In a six-week trial, prosecutors presented a damning case against Mr. Raniere.
Former members said that as Nxivm’s curriculum progressed, Mr. Raniere used psychological manipulation to indoctrinate his followers into obedience. Critics faced retaliation and lawsuits, creating an internal culture with no tolerance for dissent.
But much of the trial focused on D.O.S., which prosecutors said Mr. Raniere created in 2015 as part of a scheme to provide him with a flow of submissive women.
One former member, identified only as Nicole, described how on one day Mr. Raniere took her to a house, told her to disrobe, blindfolded her and tied her down to a table. He then asked her questions about her sexual history while another person performed oral sex on her, she said.
Lauren Salzman testified that the women in D.O.S. were subjected to punishments, including being whipped with a leather strap or being asked to stand barefoot in the snow.
Mr. Raniere was convicted.
Jurors deliberated less than half a day before finding Mr. Raniere guilty of all seven counts, including racketeering, sex trafficking, conspiracy, forced labor, identity theft, sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography.
SEPT. 30, 2020
Ms. Bronfman was sentenced to 81 months in prison.
Nine of Nxivm’s victims spoke at the sentencing hearing for Ms. Bronfman in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, where Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis gave her a sentence that was longer than prosecutors had requested.
At the time, Ronald Sullivan, a lawyer for Ms. Bronfman, said he would appeal the sentence, calling it an “abomination.”
Ms. Bronfman had seemingly not wavered in her loyalty to Mr. Raniere, writing in an August letter to Judge Garaufis that “Nxivm and Keith greatly changed my life for the better.”
OCT. 27, 2020
Mr. Raniere is sentenced to life in prison.
Mr. Raniere’s sentencing was the culmination of his fall from grace and included hours of statements from more than a dozen victims. He received 120 years, effectively life, in prison.
Mr. Raniere has accused Judge Garaufis of corruption and has demanded a new trial, which the judge has denied twice.
“He is not sorry for his conduct or his choices,” Mr. Raniere’s lawyers wrote in a court filing in September.
JUNE 30, 2021
Ms. Mack is sentenced to three years in prison.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Garaufis said Ms. Mack had used her celebrity status to “recruit and groom” women as sexual partners for Mr. Raniere.
Ms. Mack will remain subject to home confinement until September, when she is scheduled to begin serving her sentence.
In a letter to the court, Ms. Mack apologized to the people she had brought into D.O.S.
“I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man,” she wrote, adding, “I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust.”
Ms. Mack was released from prison in July 2023 after serving two years of her three-year sentence.
Nicole Hong, Barry Meier, Colin Moynihan, Claire Moses and Erin Nolan contributed reporting.
Carla Correa, the newsroom’s deputy director of Career Programs, joined The Times in 2015. Previously, she worked at ESPN, The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun. More about Carla Correa
https://www.nytimes.com/article/nxivm-timeline.html
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