ALBANY – Jailed NXIVM leader Keith Raniere is trying to stop the federal government from seizing a Delaware corporation that legally owned the rights to the ideology of his cult-like self-improvement organization.

Raniere lawyer Paul DerOhannesian argued in court papers that the 59-year-old convicted sex trafficker is the "innocent owner" of a 10 percent stake in the First Principles corporation. Raniere faces a possible life sentence at his sentencing, which Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis rescheduled Friday for Jan. 17 at 11 am.

DerOhannesian, a Capital Region-based attorney, contends Raniere holds a greater stake in First Principles than that of former NXIVM executives Nancy Salzman, her daughter Lauren Salzman and actress Allison Mack. All three women, former Raniere loyalists and his past lovers, pleaded guilty to racketeering-related charges in U.S. District Court.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who have identified First Principles as the property of NXIVM president Nancy Salzman, moved to seize the corporation in July as part of their asset forfeiture effort.

Not so fast, DerOhannesian argued in a Sept. 9 letter to Garaufis.

" ... Keith Raniere is an innocent owner of the 10 percent interest in First Principles, which is property titled in his own name, having acquired this property with his own lawful funds," DerOhannesian stated. "He has demonstrated this by a preponderance of the evidence."

DerOhannesian said Raniere claimed "his right, title and interest in all proceeds and patents of First Principles" as well as "ethical and psychological tests, business and financial records of First Principles, Inc., all files (student and otherwise), all curricula, materials, rights and related property and any interests and proceeds derived from the assets of First Principles."

In a response filed Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin Orenstein argued Raniere has failed to present facts to back up his claim that he owns First Principles.

The government has a right to seize the corporation, she said, because First Principles owned the "tech" or ideology of NXIVM. That ideology enabled NXIVM to isolate members, encourage members to take expensive NXIVM courses and make them dependent on the organization. She went on to say the ideology taught philosophies that "there are no ultimate victims; therefore I will not choose to be a victim" and a "precept that women make excuses and claim victimhood to avoid commitments."

The prosecutor said the tech, which was throughout NXIVM and its many affiliates, culminated in the creation of Raniere's secret "master/slave" group known as Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS) and "The Vow."

Related: NXIVM leader Keith Raniere won't be sentenced until 2020

Women who joined the clan needed to first surrender personally damaging -- and often false -- information about themselves or family members known as "collateral." Once in DOS, they were "slaves" ordered to adhere to the demands of their "masters" who ultimately answered to the demands of the "grand master" -- Raniere.

Under his demands, the women lived on 500-calorie-a day diets, needed to provide sexually explicit images of themselves and in some cases were ordered to seduce Raniere, whose role as the "grand master" of DOS was a secret to women until they joined.

At Raniere's direction, women in DOS were branded in their genital areas with his initials -- an act performed with a cauterizing pen.

In June, Raniere was convicted of all charges in an eight-count indictment following a nearly two-month trial. All the defendants, including NXIVM operations director and Seagram's heiress Clare Bronfman and longtime NXIVM bookkeeper Kathy Russell, who also pleaded guilty before the trial, will be sentenced next year.

Read the Times Union's full coverage of NXIVM.