Sex cult leader wants sentencing delayed

NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere wants the deadly outbreak of coronavirus to slow down his sentencing.

The cult leader, who went by “Vanguard,” was swiftly convicted after just four hours of jury deliberations in June 2019 in the sordid sextrafficking case that also ensnared a TV actress and a liquor heiress.

He is set to be sentenced April 16 for the conviction of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but his lawyers argue their inability to meet with Raniere because of coronavirus concerns at federal jails means the judge should push back the sentencing.

“It is not possible to properly prepare a sentencing memorandum, with the defendant’s full participation, in a case of this magnitude and complexity, given the understandable restrictions on counsel visitation during this unprecedented health crisis,” Raniere’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, wrote to the judge on the case.

Agnifilo asked for a pushback to May 21 for sentencing. Raniere is being held in a federal jail in Brooklyn awaiting his sentence.

The application to push back the sentencing comes days after the federal Bureau of Prisons suspended all visitation to federal jails by family, friends and even attorneys in the midst of the coronavirus

Federal prosecutors were in agreement with Raniere’s lawyers that the sentencing should be postponed, according to Agnifilo’s letter.

Raniere, leader of the upstate “self-help” group NXIVM, branded women’s pubic regions with his initials and treated them as his “sex slaves.” He was originally set to be sentenced last September. outbreak.