Jail for Nxivm No. 2
Cult big ‘let the monster out’
Nxivm co-founder Nancy Salzman was sentenced to 3¹/2 years in prison Wednesday for her unwavering support of sex-cult leader Keith Raniere and her vicious targeting of his enemies and critics.
Wearing a white blouse and black slacks, Salzman appeared in Brooklyn
federal court and apologized for her senior role in the twisted upstate group, which drained its members of their cash and operated a secret sorority that groomed young women as sex slaves for Raniere.
But Salzman, 67, claimed she, too, was a victim of the sick Svengali, telling Brooklyn federal court Judge Nicholas Garaufis that she didn’t deserve to go to prison.
The jurist wasn’t buying it. “You were Mr. Raniere’s second-incommand and shared his power,” Garaufis railed. “You enabled and facilitated Mr. Raniere’s heinous crimes. In your 20 years at Nxivm, the door was always open but you never left.”
Salzman won’t start serving her time until Jan. 19, after undergoing an undisclosed medical procedure.
Prosecutors had lobbied for a prison term of more than three years, arguing that Salzman’s blind devotion to Raniere, 61, and the cruel actions she took as Nxivm’s former president helped him perpetrate his most depraved acts. But she dodged the maximum penalty of 51 months under federal sentencing guidelines.
Before Garaufis handed down his sentence, Raniere’s ex-girlfriend and an early member of the cult, Toni Natalie, delivered an emotional victimimpact statement blasting Salzman as the guru’s “evil partner.”
“It was you, Nancy, you who let the monster out,” Natalie seethed. “When Keith found you, he found his perfect match, his perfect evil partner. You knew early on of his attraction to young girls, and with you by his side, look what he was able to do with so many of them.”
Raniere already has been socked with 120 years in prison.