http://time.com/5568135/nxivm-allison-mack-raniere/
Here Are All the Major Players in the NXIVM Case, Where Women Were Allegedly Held as 'Sex Slaves'
This week, the former Smallville actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering charges, marking another blow to the purported self-help group NXIVM. While the organization describes itself as a “community guided by humanitarian principles,” a former member who fled used a different word: “cult.”
In October 2017, the New York Times published an exposé into NXIVM (pronounced Nex-ee-um), in which former members claimed that they had been blackmailed, branded and nearly starved during their time inside the organization. (“There is no playbook for leaving a cult,” former member Sarah Edmondson said.) Since then, the group has crumbled as various members have been arrested on charges that range from extortion to sex trafficking to possession of child pornography.
The FBI alleged that co-founder Keith Raniere started a secret subgroup of NXIVM called DOS (which stands for a phrase roughly translated from Latin as “lord over the obedient female companions”), in which women were kept as “sex slaves.” (Raniere has denied all accusations, and has said through his lawyer that all sexual encounters were consensual.)
The saga will continue in court this month, with opening statements against Raniere slated for April 29. Here’s what we know about each of the members who has been charged, and where their cases stand now.
I curious about the whole Snowden thing.