American guru Keith Raniere was sentenced Tuesday October 27 by a federal judge in Brooklyn to 120 years in prison for various crimes related to his sect, Nxivm, which allowed him to maintain a network of sex slaves.
Read also: The prosecution warns about the violence of delinquency
This is the end of the career of this 60-year-old man, with extraordinary power of persuasion, still revered by dozens of people despite the revelations concerning him.
In June 2019, after a six-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, he was found guilty of all seven counts against him - including sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl, extortion and conspiracy.
Keith Raniere had set up, in 1998, an organization based in Albany, New York, called Nxivm (pronounced nexium), which provided personal development training at exorbitant prices.
From the start, this charismatic figure had cultivated a circle of 15 to 20 women under the influence, with whom he had sex at will.
One of them was only 15 years old.
"No empathy for the victims"
In a letter prior to the pronouncement of his sentence, Keith Raniere proclaimed his innocence and said he was "
proud of his life's work
".
He refused to express regret and claimed to have "
never intentionally harmed anyone
".
He claimed that all sexual relations with cult members were consensual.
The Brooklyn federal prosecutor had asked for life imprisonment, saying that beyond the gravity of the facts, he "
showed no empathy for his victims
", and "would
continue to commit crimes if released
".
In 2015, Raniere had created a second parallel pyramidal organization, called DOS, which included “slaves” and “masters”.
The "slaves", all women, were notably forced to have sex at the discretion of the "Grandmaster", another of his nicknames.
Some had to undergo a "marking", which consisted in drawing letters on the skin, often the initials of Keith Raniere, using a cauterizing pen, which burned the flesh.
Keith Raniere's five co-defendants have, one after another, pleaded guilty and avoided trial.
To date, only Clare Bronfman has been sentenced.
Figure of the sect, big money woman of Nxivm with her sister Sara, she was sentenced at the end of September to more than six years in prison.
