Deny sex-cult guy bail, say feds
ACCUSED KINKY cult leader Keith Raniere should stay locked up, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said Friday.
Raniere offered to post $10 million bail — but the feds say that’s not enough to guarantee he’ll stick around to face sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy charges, now set to be tried in October.
“Facing a lengthy term of imprisonment, and with followers around the world, the defendant has every incentive to flee,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Raniere also proposed hiring private security guards to make sure he doesn’t skip and to drive him to his lawyer’s office, to court, and to his doctor.
The feds aren’t buying that idea either.
“In effect, the defendant proposes to build a personal jail for himself, supervised by private guards in a residence of his choosing, none of which would impede his flight or his ability to intimidate witnesses against him,” their court papers said.
Raniere, 57, and actress Allison Mack, Clark Kent’s pal in “Smallville,” are charged with building up a creepy secret society of women they blackmailed and even branded as part of NXIVM, a so-called self-help organization that was nothing more than a cult, authorities say.
Raniere and Mack are due back in court next week for a pretrial hearing before Brooklyn Judge Nicholas Garaufis.