In 1998, Ranieri’s “Consumers’ Buyline”, a multi million-dollar discount buying club, collapsed under allegations it was a pyramid scheme. Raniere admitted no wrongdoing but paid about US$40k in settlement fees following an investigation by the state attorney general’s office.
He went on to found NXIVM, offering self-help deprogramming to heiresses, Hollywood actors and powerful CEOs but it was a multi million dollar ponzie con and sex trafficking cult.
Clare and Sara Bronfman enrolled in the personal growth company NXIVM classes in 2002.
Clare’s commitment to the ideals of the organisation led the equestrian loving heiress to purchase a home and a horse farm near to the company’s New York headquarters.
In its early days the self-help organization attracted many celebrities, CEOs, and a visit from the Dalai Lama.
Edgar Bronfman Sr., enrolled in a NXIVM course of study in early 2003 but left when he discovered that Clare had loaned Raniere US$2m. He went on to expose the organisation as fraudulent and accused Raniere of running a cult.
Clare, an heiress of the Seagram Company business empire ignored her father’s warnings and took on the role of Operations Director then bankrolled the cult over a period of 15 years, squandering an estimated US$50m of her fortune, hiring lawyers from about 30 law firms to pursue cases against NXIVM critics. She also funded Raniere’s private air travel (about US$65k per flight).
Heiress Clare Bronfman lost her liberty when NXIVM folded.
In October 2017, the Bronfman sisters stuck by Raniere despite his exposure by the New York Times, as the leader of a violent sex “cult,” which secretly branded, starved, blackmailed and enslaved women
Clare boldly published a statement on her website in December 2017 stating: “Some have asked me why I remain a member and why I still support NXIVM and Keith Raniere. The answer is simple: I’ve seen so much good come from our programs and from Keith himself.”
In July 2018, Clare was indicted on racketeering, identity theft, conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain, fraudulent use of identification and money laundering charges. Sara Bronfman was not accused of any wrongdoing.
In her April 2019 trial, Clare pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification and admitted to tax evasion on Raniere’s behalf.
Nine former members of NXIVM testified against Clare, detailing her role in the organization’s fierce and unabated legal pursuit of them for years after they had left and although Clare had not herself been a member of DOS, the secret society within NXIVM charged with branding women, her finance provision enabled many years of abuse and brainwashing within the organization.
In December 2019, the judge informed prosecutors and Clare’s attorney that he was considering an “above guidelines sentence”, meaning he could impose more prison time than would normally be given under sentencing guidelines. The judge sentenced Clare to six years and nine months in prison.
And yet Clare stubbornly refused to disclaim Raniere, writing to the judge, that “many people, including most of my own family, believe I should disavow Keith and NXIVM, and that I have not is hard for them to understand or accept. However, for me, NXIVM and Keith greatly changed my life for the better.”
United States v. Keith Raniere
Raniere was extradited from Mexico, arraigned in a Texas court then transferred to New York for trial facing charges of: sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit forced labor.
The offences arose from his role as the leader of a secret society called “DOS” or “The Vow,” in which women were recruited to be slaves under the false pretense of joining a women-only mentorship group. DOS was structured as a pyramid with Raniere at the top.
To join DOS, slaves were required to provide their masters with “collateral,” which included highly damaging information about themselves and/or family members, naked photographs and rights to their assets.
Once they had joined, slaves learned they had to provide additional collateral, which they did, fearing that otherwise the collateral they had already provided would be used against them. None of the slaves (except for those directly under Raniere) knew that he was involved in the organization when they were recruited.
DOS slaves understood that if they told anyone about DOS, if they left DOS or if they failed to complete assignments given to them by their masters, their collateral could be released.
DOS slaves, performed services other than sex (such as editing Raniere’s articles and transcribing interviews for his benefit).
The masters who issued the assignments received the financial benefit of free labour from their slaves.
A number of DOS slaves were given assignments that implicitly or expressly directed them to have sex with Raniere and required them to:
(1) Adhere to very restricted diets (Raniere was known to sexually prefer extremely thin women).
(2) Remain celibate (Raniere taught that women should be monogamous but that men are naturally polyamorous).
(3) Stop waxing or shaving their pubic hair (Raniere preferred women with a lot of pubic hair).
The DOS masters who directed their slaves to have sex with Raniere received financial benefits in the form of continued status and participation in DOS, as well as financial opportunities from him.
DOS slaves were seriously sleep-deprived from participating in “readiness” drills, which required them to respond to their masters any time day or night.
DOS slaves were also branded in their pelvic regions with a cauterizing pen with a symbol incorporating Raniere’s initials.
The US government estimated that Raniere had more than fifty DOS slaves under him.
Many DOS slaves were recruited from Nxivm, the umbrella organization for a number of self-help workshops created by Raniere and that had been taught at centres across the US and internationally since 1998.
Raniere was revered within Nxivm and referred to as the “Vanguard” and
each week in August, the Nxivm community gathered to celebrate Raniere’s birthday and pay tribute to him.
According to a number of sources, including former high-ranking members of Nxivm, Raniere’s word was final and nothing of importance happened within the organisation without his approval.
Nxivm students were taught that Raniere was the smartest and most ethical man in the world and he was frequently cited having earned three top class degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but a review of his submitted transcripts showed that he graduated with a low qualification, having failed or barely passed many of the upper-level math and science classes he bragged about taking.
Nxivm displayed features common to pyramid schemes, as courses cost thousands of dollars and participants were encouraged to continue to pay for additional classes and to recruit others to take classes in order to be promoted within the ranks of Nxivm.
Different ranks were marked by different color sashes, and students had to reach certain ranks in order to begin receiving salaries or commissions.
Members of Nxivm were taught that riches would be gained by only by
advancing in Nxivm, but in reality only a small percentage of Nxivans made any income and a much greater percentage found themselves in significant debt to the organization.
Raniere had previously been investigated by law enforcement for operating a pyramid scheme called “Consumers’ Buyline, Inc.”which folded losing subscribers many $USM
As part of a consent order he entered into in 1996 with the New York State Attorney General’s Office, he was prohibited from operating any multilevel-marketing scheme.
Raniere had a decades’ long history of abusing women and girls.
According to confidential sources, he had repeated sexual encounters with multiple teenage girls in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.
In one instance, he met a fifteen-year-old girl while he was in his 20s and had repeated sexual contact with her.
In another instance, he met a twelve-year-old girl whose mother worked for him and began tutoring her. Shortly thereafter, he began having regular sexual intercourse with her, including at his home where he lived with multiple adult sexual partners. One of those partners hired the girl to walk her dog, providing him with daily access to the girl for sex.
Raniere told DOS slaves he had sex with that he believed the age of consent was too rigid and that it should be lowered to when a child’s parent said the child was capable of consent.
Raniere directed the abuse of Nxivm members who had committed so-called “ethical breaches.”
In one instance, he ordered the long-term confinement of a Nxivm member in her early-20s to heal an “ethical breach” because she had developed romantic feelings for someone other than him.
During her 18-month confinement, with limited exceptions, the woman had extremely limited contact with her family or other members of the community and she received limited medical attention.
Her period of confinement was repeatedly extended for other supposed ethical breaches, including, in one instance, because she cut her hair.
The woman felt she could not leave because of the repercussions on her family and also because she was illegally in the United States and Raniere and other members of Nxivm had helped her illegal entry to the country.
Raniere physically assaulted at least two intimate partners and in 2012, under the guise of mentorship, he encouraged a woman to run headfirst into a tree and to drink from a puddle.
Raniere humiliated women in order to eradicate weaknesses he taught were common in women. For example, women attending the classes were forced to wear fake cow udders over their breasts while people called them derogatory names. One DOS master under the direct control of Raniere told her slaves that he would put her in a cage to punish her.
Raniere posed disturbing hypotheticals as part of the Nxivm curriculum, challenging whether incest and rape was actually wrong. He told one DOS slave that incest was not wrong if the “victim”was sexually aroused by the experience, and he questioned whether gang rape was bad if the person being raped had an orgasm.
Foreign Ties and access to Cash
Renerie pretended to be a renunciate whilst in reality, he had spent his life profiting from pyramid schemes and financial backing from independently wealthy women.
Renerie was financially backed by Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune who provided him with millions of dollars and paid for his private air travel costing up to approximately US$65k a flight. She also paid for numerous lawyers to bring suits against Nxivm critics.
Renerie never banked money in his name but made purchases using a credit card in one of his dead lover’s names.
In the past year and a half, Renerie and the mother of his child accessed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a bank account in the same dead lover’s name, which contains over US$8m.
Raniere, 60, was found guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor, wire fraud conspiracy and was sentenced to 120 years in prison, and was also ordered to pay his victims nearly US$3.5m.
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