Founder of the ‘self-help’ group NXIVM, which has been unmasked as a weird slave-master sex cult, has been hit with a barrage of new charges, which embody manufacturing of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child.
Keith Raniere, leader of NXIVM (pronounced ‘Nexium’), an Albany-based cult that styled itself as a self-improvement group, is dealing with two extra charges in a superseding indictment unsealed by the legal professional for New York’s Eastern District on Wednesday
It is now alleged that Raniere, higher referred to as ‘Vanguard’ or ‘Master’ throughout the secretive group, coerced underage women to take part in porn photoshoots for greater than 10 years. He then stored recordsdata with sexually specific photos and saved them on a tough drive.
The memorandum issued by the district legal professional’s workplace said that different high-ranking members of NXIVM that had been placed on trial together with Raniere had been effectively conscious of their leader’s sexual relationships with minors. One of the underage victims was recognized as “a fifteen-year-old girl” who was working for the group’s co-founder, Nancy Salzman.
The similar day new charges in opposition to Raniere had been filed, Salzman pleaded responsible to a racketeering cost. The teen turned “Raniere’s first-line slave” in the clandestine sorority group inside NXIVM referred to as DOS, which stands for ‘dominant over submissive’ in Latin.
Another sufferer was described solely as “a child” whose sexual relationship with the ‘guru’ was “known” and “facilitated” by different members.
Raniere was arrested in his luxurious hideout in Mexico in March final 12 months and flown to the US, the place he, together with different outstanding members, together with Hollywood actress Allison Mack and liquor heiress Clare Bronfman, had been indicted on plenty of charges. Apart from the new child porn allegation, Raniere has already been charged with compelled labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking, tried sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit id theft.
The courtroom papers described DOS as a pyramid construction with Raniere, who was the one man in the sorority, solely on the prime. New members, or “slaves,” who had been recruited into NXIVM had been compelled to provide collateral to make sure that they’d maintain mum concerning the group. The collateral was sexually specific photos or movies, in addition to true or unfaithful allegations made in opposition to themselves or their household which had been filmed. The “slaves” had been blackmailed into offering new collateral, generally as typically as each month, which noticed them signing over their property or doing issues that may kill their careers if made public.
Raniere is accused of subjecting members of DOS to bodily and psychological torture reminiscent of self-induced sleep-deprivation. Raniere additionally instructed his feminine followers to have their genital areas branded together with his initials and instructed them to outlive on a 800-calorie food plan, all below the guise of girls’s empowerment.