Keith Raniere (NXIVM cult leader)
Keith Raniere is the founder of NXIVM, an American multi-level marketing company, based in Albany, New York that has been labeled as a sex-trafficking operation, a sex cult and a pyramid scheme. The company’s former members have also accused the organization of being a platform for a cult recruitment (also called “DOS” or “The Vow”) in which women were branded and forced into sexual slavery.
Raniere was arrested in early 2018 alongside his associate Allison Mack and indicted on federal charges related to DOS, including sex trafficking.
The companies operations were suspended since May 2018 with a trial case being scheduled on March 2019. However, opening statements to the case are to be heard on April 29 as decided by Hon. Nicholas G. Garaufis.
Keith Raniere Age
The accused sex cult leader is 58 years old as of 2018. He was born on 26 August 1960 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States.
Keith Raniere Family
Raniere was raised in Suffern, New York born to a James Raniere (father) who was an advertising executive and Vera Raniere (mother), a former ballroom dance trainer. His mother passed on while he was 16.
He has a BS in Biology. He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Keith Raniere NXIVM
NXIVM was founded in 1998 by Raniere and Nancy Salzman (NXIVM’s president), a company offering “Executive Success Programs” (“ESPs”) and a range of psychological techniques aimed at self-improvement.
Several people joined the organization, among them: Allison Mack, Kristin Kreuk, Grace Park, Nicki Clyne and Sarah Edmondson. Students attending the company’s seminars were to call Rainere “Vanguard” and Salzman “Prefect”. He was known as the leader of a philosophical movement while Salzman was his first student.
Raniere is also the founder of Consumers Buyline (1990). This was after undertaking an Amway marketing class. He was later accused of of operating a pyramid scheme, to which he responded by signing a consent order agreeing to a permanent ban on “promoting, offering or granting participation in a chain distribution scheme,” while denying any wrongdoing.
Escaping NXIVM
Escaping NXIVM is the first case by UNCOVER’s, an investigative podcast series from CBC Podcasts. It focuses on the NXIVM from the inside perspective of actor Sarah Edmondson, a high-ranking NXIVM member who alleged to the New York Times that she was branded as part of the group’s side sect, DOS.
According to Edmondson, she was with the group for more than a decade before she decided to leave it and blow the whistle on the experience there.
Keith Raniere Alison Mack
Alison Mack is an American German-born actress known for her role in the series Smallville as Chloe Sullivan. She is also a co-accused alongside Raniere on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. She was an associate in NXIVM and was arrested in Brooklyn on April 20, 2018 by the FBI.
Keith Raniere Net Worth
As of 2018, Raniere has an estimated net worth of 2.5 million US dollars.
Keith Raniere Interview
Keith Raniere Bail
NXIVM sex cult leader denied bail for a third time
Published: February 6, 2019
A federal judge in Brooklyn has refused to let accused Nxivm sex cult leader Keith Raniere out on bail ahead of his trial – for the third time.
Raniere who has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest last March, made another bid for freedom after a fire knocked out heat and power at the Sunset Park lockup last month.
His lawyers also argued that his due process rights have been violated because the case has taken too long to bring to trial — which is set to begin in April.
Prosecutors have fought to keep Raniere behind bars, saying he’s a flight risk — and in his latest order, Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis agreed.
“Nothing has happened since the second bail order to cause the court to alter its conclusion that Raniere is a significant flight risk,” the judge wrote in an order issued late Tuesday. “Accordingly, the court finds that the evidence justifying Raniere’s pretrial detention is strong.”
Garaufis also noted that the delay of trial is because of “the inherent complexities of this large multi-defendant case, which presents defense counsel with voluminous discovery to absorb and the court with myriad motions to address.”
Raniere and several others — including one-time “Smallville” actress Allison Mack and Seagram’s liquor heiress Clare Bronfman — are all facing charges over a group within Nxivm where “slave” women were allegedly instructed to have sex with Raniere, get his initials branded into their skin and maintain near-starvation diets.
Mack — wearing her hair in a bun with a penxcil through it — and co-defendants Nxivm president Nancy Salzman, her daughter Lauren Salzman and the cult’s bookkeeper Kathy Russell all returned to court Wednesday. Raniere did not make an appearance.
Garaufis told the court he would schedule hearings within the “next few weeks” to assess whether the fact that Bronfman is bankrolling her fellow defendants’ attorneys via a trust is a conflict of interest.
Prosecutors have raised issues with the legal fund, saying in court papers it could create questions “as to whether the attorney’s loyalties are with the client or the payor.”
Bronfman’s lawyer insists the fund was set up so her client couldn’t wield any influence.
But Garaufis has said he’s also found “issues” with the arrangement — and noted last month that the trust is rapidly running out of cash, which he worries could delay the trial.
Raniere and his co-defendants are due back in court for a hearing on Wednesday.