>>6790959
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nxivm-founder-keith-raniere-convicted-of-running-criminal-sex-cult
NXIVM leader Keith Raniere was convicted Wednesday of using the self-help group he founded as a sex cult for his personal pleasure.
A jury in Brooklyn federal court spent just four hours deliberating Raniere’s guilt. The verdict—guilty on all counts— followed six weeks of relentlessly lurid testimony, where jurors heard Raniere used created a criminal enterprise that allowed him to have sex with underaged girls, forced women he impregnated to have abortions, and commanded his “slaves” illegally monitor on his enemies.
“In short, the defendant and his inner circle used tactics that destroyed his victim's sense of self and ability to trust,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza said on Monday. “Making them compliant and vulnerable to being used in whatever way the members of the enterprise chose.”
Raniere’s attorney Marc Agnifilo argued that while the evidence against his client was “repulsive, disgusting and offensive,” it didn’t prove he committed crimes.
“We don’t convict people in this country for being repulsive and offensive,” Agnifilo said on Tuesday. “Disgusting lifestyles aren’t criminal. He’s not mighty. He’s not great. He’s not godlike. He’s none of those things. He sits there and creates curriculum.”
Raniere did not testify during the trial and his defense did not call any witnesses on his behalf.
He was initially charged in 2018 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 doner; and the group’s bookkeeper Kathy Russell. While all five have since pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, Salzman was the only one to testify against Raniere.
Since 1998, NXIVM amassed an estimated 17,000 members—including billionaire Richard Branson, former Trump advisor Roger Stone, and actress Kristin Kreuk—with $5,000 workshops that promised the skills to promote a path to “greater self-fulfillment.” Prosecutors say it was an illegal pyramid scheme, sucking in new recruits who were made to recruit others. In 2017, authorities opened an investigation into the organization 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.
Prosecutors allege Raniere, who was hailed by his followers as “the smartest man in the world,” manipulated women for his own sexual gratification under the guise of NXIVM’s mission.
“The strict but carefully constructed image the defendant’s inner circle made for him a humanitarian, leader, mentor and guru. You saw him for what he was: a con man, a predator and a crime boss,” Penza said. “[Raniere] tapped into a never-ending flow of women and money. A crime boss with no limits and no checks on his power.”
Throughout the trial, several women testified about NXIVM’s purported women’s empowerment group, DOS. The women allege it was actually a master-slave program where they were forced to have sex with Raniere, blindy obey their “masters,” and brand themselves with his initials near their crotch with a cautery pen—without anesthesia.