NXIVM co-founder sentenced to 31/2 years
Sex cult leader also fined US$150K
The co-founder and former president of NXIVM, an organization that ran a “secret society” sex cult, was sentenced to 42 months in prison on Wednesday in New York federal court.
In addition to prison time, Nancy Salzman, 67, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to pay a US$150,000 fine for racketeering conspiracy, including conspiracy to commit identity theft and obstruct justice. The Clifton Park, N.Y., resident also will forfeit more than US$500,000 in cash, as well as real estate and a Steinway grand piano.
Salzman, who pleaded guilty in 2019, was “essential to the Nxivm criminal enterprise,” Peter C. Fitzhugh of Homeland Security Investigations New York said in a statement.
NXIVM, pronounced “nexium,” purported to be a self-help organization, but prosecutors said it contained a web of multi-level marketing schemes and a “secret society,” in which women were groomed, held to secrecy and forced to have sex with NXIVM’S leader, Keith Raniere.
Its promises of self-help and empowerment drew the rich and famous to the organization. Among those who played important roles in NXIVM were Clare Bronfman, the multimillionaire heiress to the Seagram liquor fortune, and Allison Mack, an actress who starred in the TV series Smallville.
Not only were women in the cult coerced into having sex with Raniere, they also were forced to provide free labour and recruit others into the group, prosecutors said. They were branded with Raniere’s initials in secret ceremonies, and their food intake was limited by Raniere, 61, who preferred ultrathin women, according to witness testimony.
For more than a decade, federal officials said, Salzman was the “right hand” for Raniere. She participated in efforts to gain control over “perceived critics and enemies,” including illegally surveilling and investigating them, prosecutors said.
A box that appeared to contain private banking information of journalists, judges and a cult expert was discovered in Salzman’s home in a 2018 raid by law enforcement. Salzman also edited videos that were set to be used in a lawsuit against NXIVM, before the videos were submitted as unedited, prosecutors alleged.
Raniere was sentenced in October to 120 years on racketeering, sex trafficking and forced labour charges.