Prosecutor lays out trafficking case against self-help guru

A self-help guru groomed women for sex, subjecting them to “shame and humiliation” and threatening to expose their “deepest, darkest secrets” if they didn’t comply with his wishes, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar presented opening statements at the sex-trafficking trial of Keith Raniere, the former leader of an upstate New York group called NXIVM (pronounced Nexium) that’s been likened to a cult. Raniere’s lawyers said his relationships were consensual.