NXIVM co-founder Keith Raniere has been transferred to a federal detention facility in Brooklyn and remains in custody without bond on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Raniere is scheduled to be arraigned at 2 p.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. He was arrested on March 25 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and had been held for almost two weeks at a federal prison in Oklahoma City.

On Monday, Paul DerOhannesian, a criminal defense attorney from Albany, filed a notice in federal court indicating he had been retained by Raniere.

Raniere, 57, is the leader of an international "self-help" organization that has been headquartered in the Capital Region for roughly two decades and has been described by some experts as a cult.

The federal complaint alleges that Raniere took part in forming a secretive group within NXIVM in which women said they were coerced into joining a slave-master club. The women, some of whom said they were pressured to have sex with Raniere, told federal authorities that a female doctor associated with NXIVM used a cauterizing iron to brand them with a design on their lower abdomen that contained the initials of Raniere and Allison Mack, an actress and NXIVM associate who is listed in the complaint as an unnamed co-conspirator.

In court filings, U.S. Justice Department officials said that Raniere fled to Mexico last November when the federal investigation began. They have asked for him to be detained without bond while the case is pending, describing him as a flight risk and danger to the community.

A warrant for Raniere's arrest was issued more than a month ago. He was taken into custody after Mexican federal police helped U.S. authorities track him to a luxury, $10,000-a-week villa in Mexico, where he was staying with several women, federal officials said.

The federal investigation has broadened beyond the slave-master club allegations. Two weeks ago, FBI agents searched the Saratoga County residence of NXIVM's president, Nancy Salzman.

Salzman is a registered nurse who has been listed as a co-founder of NXIVM.