NXIVM leader Keith Raniere loses in court again
NEW YORK — Keith Raniere is still claiming he was wrongfully convicted of possessing child pornography. And the jailedfor-life NXIVM leader is still failing to convince a federal judge in Brooklyn those arguments have any merit.
Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis rejected two motions Wednesday that the 63-yearold from Halfmoon filed in an effort to compel prosecutors to produce evidence related to his conviction for possessing sexually explicit images of a 15-yearold girl from Mexico. That was among Raniere’s convictions in June 2019 when a jury in the Brooklynbased Eastern District of New York found him guilty of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and racketeering charges with underlying crimes that included possessing the images. The purported personal growth guru, who cofounded NXIVM and its Executive Success Programs in 1998, is serving 120 years in an Arizona prison under a sentence imposed by Garaufis. In December 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan affirmed Raniere’s conviction and sentence. Raniere has continued to push for a new trial, alleging that the FBI tampered with images to frame him of possessing the child pornographic images.
The victim, now in her 30s, has sworn under oath she was the underage teenager in the the photos, which the FBI seized in a March 27, 2018, search of Raniere’s executive library on Hale Drive in the Knox Woods town house complex. She became involved with Raniere, NXIVM and later Dominus Obsequious Sororium — a Raniere-controlled clan in which sleep-deprived and calorie-starved women were blackmailed into taking lifetime vows of obedience as “slaves” to “masters” in a pyramid-shaped organization commanded by Raniere, the “grand master.” The victim was among the DOS “slaves” physically branded with an image on her pelvic area that was later revealed to be Raniere’s initials.
Raniere, represented by Manhattan attorney Arthur Aidala, argued in his first motion that Garaufis wrongly overlooked two critically important pieces of evidence, such as “secret evidence” and conclusions from an FBI senior computer science expert. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar, in turn, said Raniere’s arguments were “nonsensical and circular” and “utterly without merit.” She asked the judge to reject the motion, which the judge initially rejected
in November, in addition to a second motion Raniere filed in December asking to compel the government to produce evidence from an FBI photo technician.
Garaufis’ decision, dated Wednesday, said the FBI computer science expert and victim’s own statements “substantially outweigh” arguments raised by Raniere.
“Mr. Raniere again does not cite any law showing he has a right to the information requested,” the judge stated. “And Mr. Raniere again does not demonstrate that ‘elemental fairness’ should lead the court to compel the government to grant him access to this information. Mr. Raniere’s counsel had an opportunity to review and test the veracity of the photographic evidence prior to trial.”
Raniere has at least one remaining motion for a new trial.
Arrested in March 2018 in Mexico, Raniere was the sole defendant among six NXIVM officials to go to trial. NXIVM president Nancy Salzman, who cofounded the cult-like group with Raniere, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 31⁄2 years in prison. She was released to a halfway house in the region in September.
Her daughter, Lauren Salzman, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges and became the prosecution’s star witness against Raniere, was sentenced to five years probation. Former television actress Allison Mack who pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges and provided information for prosecutors, was released from prison in July after serving two years. Kathy Russell, a NXIVM bookkeeper, was sentenced to two years of probation for visa fraud.
Clare Bronfman, the Seagram’s heiress and former NXIVM operations director, was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison under her guilty plea to conspiring to conceal and harbor undocumented immigrants for financial gain and identification fraud.
Bronfman, 44, serving her time in a federal prison in Philadelphia, has remained loyal to Raniere. Bronfman, whose conviction and sentence was affirmed by the Second Circuit, filed a motion last month asking Garaufis to reduce her sentence based on reductions in federal sentencing guidelines that, according to the motion, the U.S. Department of Probation said would apply for Bronfman,