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The leader of infamous sex cult Nxivm has been accused of poisoning several of his female followers, including two who later died.

Keith Raniere ran what he called a self-help group for two decades until his arrest in 2018. Nxivm was actually a pyramid scheme and cult that recruited women and subjected them to hideous abuse such as being branded on their genitals, being starved and forced to have sex with Raniere.

Four women who lived with Raniere at a property in New York for several years in the late 1990s all developed various types of cancer during that time, a new investigation has revealed. Four cats that lived in the house also became sick with cancer.

Two of the women – Barbara Jeske and Pam Cafritz – have since died from different types of cancer.

(Image: MDM)

A hair sample from one of the surviving women has tested positive for high levels of barium (used in rat poison) and bismuth, harmful chemicals that can cause serious health problems and even death if ingested.

The lab tests were commissioned by Nxivm's former publicist Frank Parlato, who led the investigation into their deaths for TV special 'The Lost Women of Nxivm'. He says there's a lot of evidence pointing toward Raniere poisoning the women living in his house, including his degree in biochemistry - and the fact that he inherited millions of dollars after their deaths.

Raniere controlled the property's fridge and even made the women ask him for permission to eat the food inside it. He reportedly never drank the tap water in the house himself.

"The women even went to Keith and asked why they were all getting cancer and he said that someone else was trying to poison him - and that they were the collateral damage," Mr Parlato said.

"But of course Keith never got cancer, just the women around him."

(Image: Getty Images)

Ms Jeske's sister Cindy Liberatore also believes she was poisoned, possibly through the bizarre, foul-tasting 'do-do balls' that Raniere pressured her to take everyday to improve her immune system.

"Who knows what was in them - probably some kind of poison inside some type of an excrement," she told The Sun Online.

"When she became semi-comatose I stopped her from taking them."

Ms Jeske died in 2014 from brain cancer at age 63. Ms Liberatore, a nurse, looked after her sister in the final weeks of her life, and claims Raniere banned her from taking pain medication and arranged for her will to be changed.

After her death, Ms Liberatore says high-ranking members of Nxivm tried to take her sister's body and freeze it, against her desire to be buried. When she refused, she says Raniere suggested cutting off Ms Jeske's head and taking it.

"I think Barbara started figuring out what was really going on in the group and once he [Raniere] realised she was figuring it all out, I think he just wanted to do away with her," she told Sun Online.

"Along with the fact that she was aging and he wanted younger women to take their place. So he got rid of the older ones and replaced them with younger ones."

Mr Parlato is pushing for US authorities to exhume the bodies of Barbara Jeske and Pam Cafritz to test for poison.

Raniere is currently in prison awaiting sentencing after being charged with a number of serious crimes including sex trafficking.