NXIVM

NXIVM ( NEK-see-əm) was a cult led by Keith Raniere, who is now a convicted racketeer and sex offender. It was also the name of the now-defunct company that Raniere founded in 1998, which provided seminars ostensibly about human potential and served as a front organization for criminal activity by Raniere and his close associates. NXIVM was based in the New York Capital District and had centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The subsidiary companies of NXIVM engaged in recruitment based on the multi-level marketing model and used curricula based on teachings ("tech") of Raniere known as "Rational Inquiry". Courses attracted a variety of notable students, including actors and children of the rich and powerful. At its height, NXIVM had 700 active members. Alarmed by Raniere's behavior and NXIVM's practices, former members and families of NXIVM clients spoke to investigative journalists and described the organization as a cult. In 2017, former NXIVM members revealed damaging information about Raniere and NXIVM to The New York Times; that information included the existence of a NXIVM-connected secret society called "DOS" in which women were branded, made to record false confessions, and made to provide nude photographs for blackmail purposes. Following The New York Times exposé, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York investigated the organization, and in 2018 brought criminal charges against Raniere and other NXIVM leaders and participants containing allegations of sex trafficking, forced labor, visa fraud, and wire fraud. All defendants except Raniere pleaded guilty. Raniere was tried in 2019. Prosecutors revealed a decades-long pattern of grooming, sexual abuse of girls and women, physical and psychological punishments against dissenters, and hacking and vexatious litigation against enemies. On June 19, 2019, Raniere was convicted on the top charge of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy as well as...