NXIVM’S Bronfman released to halfway house
ALBANY — Ten days after a federal judge denied her request for a sentence reduction, Seagram’s heiress and longtime NXIVM loyalist Clare Bronfman was released from prison and moved to a halfway house or “community confinement” in New York City.
The 45-year-old Bronfman, formerly of Clifton Park and Manhattan, had been serving her nearly seven-year term in a Philadelphia lockup. As of May 2, she has been listed as being in the New York Residential Reentry Management Office in lower Manhattan, according to the website of the federal Bureau of Prisons. The office oversees halfway houses.
In a statement, BOP spokesman Donald Murphy said the bureau does not discuss conditions of any individual, but noted that every adult in custody can earn up to 54 days off their sentence for each year of the term for good conduct. Murphy said Bronfman is in “community confinement,” which meant she is either in home confinement or a halfway house.
On April 22, Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis denied Bronfman’s motion for a reduction of her 81-month term, highlighting many of his remarks from Bronfman’s sentencing Sept. 30, 2020. Garaufis had said that even if Bronfman was eligible for a reduced sentence, he did not believe one was warranted as what she pleaded to was “particularly egregious in light of the financial and emotional harm Ms. Bronfman’s actions caused.”
The judge’s denial had no bearing on the transfer of Bronfman, who remains in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons until June 29, 2025. A source with knowledge of the matter said a letter to victims of Bronfman noted she would be living in a halfway house in the Bronx.
Bronfman, the daughter of late Seagram’s liquor tycoon Edgar Bronfman, joined the Colonie-based NXIVM, a purported personal growth company widely now viewed as a cult, with her sister, Sarah Bronfman. and became its most highprofile benefactor and defender.
Bronfman adamantly supported Keith Raniere, 63, the NXIVM cult leader known as “Vanguard,” with extreme loyalty and at least $100 million in support over several years. And that loyalty continued after a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Raniere of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy and racketeering charges that included possession of child pornography. Raniere, formerly of Halfmoon, is serving a 120year
nd sentence in an Arizona federal prison.
Bronfman pumped at least $5 million into a fund to pay for the defense of Raniere and his codefendants, which included NXIVM president Nancy Salzman, her daughter, Lauren Salzman, actress Allison Mack and bookkeeper Kathy Russell. All pleaded guilty. Only Bronfman has remained loyal to Raniere.
Bronfman, who sat on NXIVM’S executive board between 2009 and 2018, pleaded guilty just weeks before Raniere’s trial to conspiracy to conceal and harbor undocumented immigrants for financial gain, as well as identification fraud.
She had made unkept promises of a scholarship or jobs to immigrants to come to the Capital Region to work for NXIVM. Instead, they became reliant on her and NXIVM to stay in the country, prosecutors said. And Bronfman paid $135,000 in bills using the credit card of former
high-ranking NXIVM member Pamela Cafritz, a close friend of Bronfman, after Cafritz died in 2016 of cancer.
Garaufis sentenced Bronfman in 2020 to six years and nine months in prison. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan later upheld the convictions and sentences of Bronfman and Raniere.
At Bronfman’s sentencing, Garaufis said she “repeatedly and consistently leveraged her wealth and social status as a means of intimidating, controlling and punishing individuals whom Raniere perceived as his adversaries, particularly NXIVM’S detractors and critics.”
Bronfman was not a member of Dominus Obsequious Sororium, or DOS, the secret Ranierecontrolled “sex cult.” Prospective members of DOS were told they were joining a women’s empowerment group, but first needed to supply “collateral” in the form of embarrassing personal information. Once they joined, however, the women learned they were “slaves” beholden to “masters” to whom they owed a lifetime commitment.
In DOS, women were sleepdeprived, calorie-starved and in many cases branded on their pelvic areas with a symbol later revealed to be Raniere’s initials. Former DOS member Sarah Edmondson went public about the group in an October 2017 article in The New York Times.
While Bronfman was not involved in the running of DOS, she hired a private investigator and public relations firm to rehabilitate its image. She also tried to get Edmondson charged with bogus crimes in Vancouver.