Update, July 24: Four Nxivm members — president Nancy Salzman and her daughter Lauren Salzman, bookkeeper Kathy Russell and operations director Clare Bronfman — were arrested by federal agents on charges related to the activities of the alleged sex cult. Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram fortune, allegedly helped bankroll the organization.

The charges allege the defendants took part in recruiting and grooming sexual partners for Raniere and of using "harassment, coercion and abusive litigation to intimidate and attack perceived enemies and critics of Raniere." The seven-count superseding indictment charges the six defendants with identity theft, harboring of aliens for financial gain, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

[Albany Times Union]





Update, April 20: Former "Smallville" actress Alison Mack has been arrested and charged in federal court with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. According to investigators, Mack was "in the first level of the pyramid" below Keith Raniere in the sex cult DOS, and she actively recruited new members and solicited compromising material from them to use as "collateral":

Mack and other DOS masters recruited DOS slaves by telling them that they were joining a women-only organization that would empower them and eradicate purported weaknesses that the Nxivm curriculum taught were common in women. Mack and other DOS masters concealed Raniere's status at the top of the pyramid from new recruits. According to court filings, Mack directly or implicitly required her slaves, including Jane Does 1 and 2, as identified in the Indictment, to engage in sexual activity with Raniere. In exchange for this, Mack received financial and other benefits from Raniere. Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 believed that if they did not participate in those activities with Raniere, their collateral would be released.

[Department of Justice]

If convicted, Mack, like Raniere, could face a prison sentence ranging from 15 years to life.

Original post, March 29: This week, the FBI arrested 57-year-old Keith Raniere, an alleged cult leader who blackmailed young women into becoming his sex slaves, on charges of human trafficking. "Keith Raniere created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets," said Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a Justice Department press release announcing the arrest.

The cult in question was a part of an organization called Nxivm (pronounced "nexium"), which was founded by Raniere in the 1990s. Nxivm is described on its website as "a series of educational models that offer integrative solutions to complex subjects such as gender, relationships, childhood development, mind-body complex, compassionate ethics, and creative expression." However, according to the Justice Department Nxivm is a pyramid scheme that charges participants thousands of dollars for self-improvement courses and then incentivizes those participants to recruit new members.

According to the criminal complaint against Raniere, the sex-slavery cult within Nxivm was called Dominos Obsequious Sororium (DOS), which loosely translates to "Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions" or "Master Over the Slave Women." Founded in 2015, DOS collected "collateral" from each member — such as damaging personal information or nude photographs — and threatened to release it if members did not have sex with Raniere.

Nxivm's reputation for brainwashing and manipulating members has been known for years. In 2010, Vanity Fair reported that two heiresses to the Seagram liquor fortune had become ensnared in Nxivm and sunk as much as $150 million into the organization, "including $66 million allegedly used to cover Raniere's failed bets in the commodities market, $30 million to buy real estate in Los Angeles and around Albany, $11 million for a 22-seat, two-engine Canadair CL-600 jet, and millions more to support a barrage of lawsuits across the country against nxivm's enemies." In 2012, the Albany Times Union described Nxivm as "a secretive, litigious organization that some of its former participants say will hound those who cross it with lawsuits and psychological pressure," and also reported that Raniere targeted young, vulnerable women.

Last fall, the New York Times reported on the branding ritual that had convinced some DOS members to leave the cult.

Each woman was told to undress and lie on a massage table, while three others restrained her legs and shoulders. According to one of them, their "master," a top Nxivm official named Lauren Salzman, instructed them to say: "Master, please brand me, it would be an honor." A female doctor proceeded to use a cauterizing device to sear a two-inch-square symbol below each woman's hip, a procedure that took 20 to 30 minutes. For hours, muffled screams and the smell of burning tissue filled the room.

[The New York Times]

The Times also reported that New York state authorities had either declined to pursue complaints by former Nxivm members or exonerated high-ranking Nxivm members after cursory investigations. However, the Times report spurred the US Department of Justice to open an investigation, which culminated in Raniere's arrest in Mexico this week.

In perhaps the most bizarre twist in an bizarre story, one of the highest-ranking members of DOS is reported to be 35-year-old actress Allison Mack, best known for playing Chloe Sullivan on the CW series "Smallville." According to the New York Post, Mack was recruited into Nxivm in the mid-2000s by her "Smallville" costar Kristin Kreuk, who subsequently left the organization. Mack reportedly stayed on, became part of Raniere's inner circle and was used by Raniere to lure other women into the cult. Cell-phone footage of Raniere's arrest in Puerto Vallerta shows Mack and other women planning to follow a police vehicle as it takes Raniere away.

One more bizarre twist, albeit a more tangential one: Doug Rutnik, who is the father of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), represented Nxivm as an attorney for four months in 2004. Raniere reportedly sued Rutnik after Rutnik quit, and Rutnik eventually paid back the $100,000 he had earned from Nxivm. Gillibrand's spokesperson told the New York Post that she "had never heard of this group until she recently read about them in the newspaper" and "is glad that federal and state prosecutors have taken action in this case."