'The Vow': What is NXIVM? All about Keith Raniere's sex cult that involved celebrities like Allison Mack
There does not seem to be any dearth of cults in the United States or even of abusive men who use their position to manipulate women into doing their bidding. HBO's latest docuseries, 'The Vow', chronicles the rise and fall of Keith Raniere, a savvy businessman who used his charms and wit to entrap many into his cult, NXIVM (pronounced Nex-e-um). Raniere's cult is the subject of the docuseries which features former members such as actresses Sarah Edmondson, Bonnie Piesse and filmmaker Mark Vicente to name a few. In 2019, Raniere was convicted of multiple federal crimes such as sex trafficking of children and conspiracy to commit forced labor, all related to a secret society within NXIVM.
Raniere was born in 1960. His father was a New York City advertising executive and his mother was a ballroom dancing teacher. He spent the first five years of his life in Brooklyn and grew up in Suffern, New York, before he moved to Albany when he was 16 years old. In 'The Vow', it is detailed that Raniere was brought up as a prodigy, one who learned multiple languages when he was a child and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute earlier than most peers while majoring in three subjects.
While Raniere's charges are all related to NXIVM, his predatory behavior might have started earlier. According to a 2012 report by the Times Union, when he was 24 years old, Raniere became sexually involved with 15-year-old Gina Melita after they had met in a theater group. When they ended their relationship, Melita introduced him to her friend, Gina Hutchinson. When Hutchinson's sister Heidi found Raniere climbing into her sister's bedroom window, he told her that Gina was a "Buddhist goddess meant to be with him". Gina would drop out of school and continue her relationship with Raniere. She later died by suicide in 2002 after participating in NXIVM, according to her sister.
It was not until he was 38 years old, in 1998, that Raniere founded NXIVM with Nancy Salzman — a nurse and trained practitioner of hypnotism and neuro-linguistic programming — on the basis of offering self-help programs known as the "executive success programs". A few years later, the program was rebranded to be what we know it as today: NXIVM. Raniere took on the title of Vanguard while Salzman took on the title of Prefect. The programs offered by NXIVM claimed to help people overcome their insecurities and fears and even cure Tourette's Syndrome.
NXIVM soon started to become more prominent as Raniere and Salzman began recruiting influential people. One of the organization's funding sources was the Bronfman family, specifically sisters Sara and Clare who were heirs to the billion-dollar Seagram's fortune. With Mark Vicente and Sarah Edmondson as part of their inner circle, the group was able to infiltrate Hollywood, with 'Smallville' actresses Kristen Kreuk and Allison Mack becoming involved.
According to a 2017 Times Union report, some members of NXIVM broke with Raniere and the organizations citing "concerns about unethical practices and the alleged abuse of his leadership status to sexually manipulate women in the organization". The same report states that in March 2010, when Raniere learned that an inner-circle member Daniela had kissed another man, he ordered her confined to a room with only a mattress and video cameras. She was held in isolation for almost two years. Former members claimed that Raniere had manipulated them, branded them with his own initials and formed a secret inner circle of women to have sex with.
In March 2018, Raniere was arrested in Mexico on charges of sex trafficking. He was accused of raping girls as young as 12 years old, the imprisonment of Daniela and forcing one follower too run into a tree and drink from a puddle. The following year, after five hours of deliberation, the jury found Raniere guilty of all charges, including the sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography of a minor victim, sex trafficking of multiple victims, identity thefts, labor trafficking, forced labor, conspiracy to alter records for use in an official proceeding and conspiracies with regards to sex trafficking, forced labor, racketeering and wire fraud.
While Raniere was set to be sentenced earlier this year, the coronavirus pandemic led to this being delayed. On August 14, the sentencing for Raniere was announced to be scheduled for October 27, according to a Forbes report. Raniere faces 15 years to life in prison.
'The Vow' premieres on HBO on August 23 at 10/9c.