Keith Raniere, the leader of the NXIVM group within which there was a "sexual sect" in which women were tattooed with the man's initials, will spend the rest of his life in prison: this Tuesday he received a sentence of 120 years in prison.
The prosecution requested a minimum of 15 years and even prison for life, a sentence that is usually extended for serious cases such as aggravated homicide.
Raniere had already been convicted in June of last year on charges that include sex trafficking, extortion, organized crime and possession of child pornography, although he had not received his sentence as the hearing was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the hearing to sentence Raniere, Judge Nicholas Garaufis allowed
15 of the women who were abused by the NXIVM leader to speak about their experiences.
"I want to be able to get over it, but it hurt me in so many ways," said Camila, a pseudonym for a Mexican woman who said she was 15 years old when she began being sexually abused by Raniere.
"I still hear her voice in my head; it is a daily fight" against a "psychological terrorist," said the young woman, whose sisters were also subjected to Raniere's acts, according to court documents.
The 60-year-old
promoted himself as a self-help guru
supposedly with a very high IQ, who with NXIVM (pronounced nexium) and the various programs it offered, especially in Mexico, Toronto and New York, was going to open a path to happiness. .
However, the enclave became a sexual sect, according to authorities, by controlling several of the members to
force them to have sex with Raniere, blackmailing them so that they did not say anything
, telling them not to eat more than 500 calories per day and to be marked on the hip or groin with a tattoo containing Raniere's initials.
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The women were from the subgroup that claimed to be a supportive sisterhood nicknamed DOS, supposedly Latin to mean something like "master of obedient slaves / companions."
What happened to several people who managed to escape from NXIVM and alerted the authorities about the group's illegalities has been shown in two
recently released docuseries, 'The Vow' on HBO and 'Seduced' on Starz.
"You are a sexual predator and you raped me", declared this Tuesday in the audience India Oxenberg, whose story is told in depth in 'Seduced'.
The group attracted famous people, such as the 'Smallville' actress Allison Mack, who pleaded guilty to organized crime charges in April 2019, and wealthy or politically important families, including the Mexican son of a former president, Emiliano Salinas and sisters Clare and Sara Bronfman, heirs to the Seagram beverage company.
In September, Clare Bronfman was sentenced to 81 months in prison on charges of identity theft and immigration fraud.
Despite all the testimonies and evidence presented during his trial and at the hearing on Tuesday,
Raniere maintains that he is innocent and that he has no regrets.
"He is not sorry for his conduct or his decisions," his lawyers wrote in a court motion in September.
"He intends to fight this case with all his might, confident that one day he will be vindicated," they added.
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According to them, the sentence is exaggerated because no one was “shot, stabbed, beaten, kicked or even shouted”, although several witnesses spoke during the trial of physical and emotional violence.
Raniere has even encouraged his followers, which he still has, to raise money for legal defense, to create a podcast to try to disprove all the testimonies and to look for possible errors in the prosecution documents with which to appeal, in exchange for $ 25,000, according to authorities.
With information from The Times Union, AP and The New York Times