NEWSNXIVM Founder Keith Raniere Facing Life In Prison, See His Arrival At Court
Oct. 27 2020, Updated 3:30 p.m. ET
Keith Raniere faces life in prison on Tuesday, October 27, when he is set to be sentenced for sexually abusing women as part of his twisted sex cult. The NXIVM founder, who branded young women he kept as sex slaves, arrived to the Brooklyn federal court in an unmarked car. Raniere's victims are expected to speak at Tuesday’s sentencing.
Battlestar Galatica actress Nicki Clyne, who is married to fellow NXIVM cult member and former Smallville actress Allison Mack, made an appearance to support Raniere. Take a look outside the Brooklyn courthouse.
It took the jury just four hours to find the NXIVM founder guilty on all counts back in June of last year. The accused rapist was convicted of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and attempted sex trafficking. Raniere was also convicted on all 11 underlying counts of racketeering that fell under the wire fraud charge.
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"Keith maintains his innocence. It's a very sad day for him," his lawyer Marc Agnifilo said after the verdict. "I think he's not surprised, but he maintains that he didn't mean to do anything wrong."
The case was largely centered around the secretive sect of NXIVM called DOS, in which women were starved, blackmailed, branded and forced to submit to a variety of sexual acts including orgies at the request of their "master," Raniere.
Within the cult, young women found themselves serving Raniere’s every whim and were ordered to make drastic changes in their lives to please the cult leader. For most, this started with their diet, with Raniere limiting the girls to just 900 calories a day so that they weighed under 100 pounds in many cases. He was allowed to have a growing waistline because it showed his “sacrifice for humanity,” since he did not have time to work out.
Raniere had entered a plea of not guilty to all charges. His sentencing had been scheduled for September 25 of last year, but was delayed and then postponed due to COVID-19.
He had been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn alongside Clare Bronfman and Ghislaine Maxwell.
