A self help guru, groomed women for sex, subjecting
them to shame and humiliation and threatening
to expose their deepest secrets if they didn't
comply with his wishes.
RT correspondent, Brigida Santos, has the
full story.
Brigida, what a, these, it's almost like you
can't push the limits in weird in stories
anymore.
What are the prosecutors alleging in this
case against Keith Raniere?
The prosecutors are accusing Keith Raniere
of creating an organization known as an NXIVM
that was advertised as a professional self
help, coaching and educational business, but
actually operated more like an expensive pyramid
scheme/master slave sex cult.
During ongoing trial proceedings, the assistant
US attorney has described the NXIVM leader
as a predator who sexually exploited women
often humiliating and blackmailing them with
collateral which came in the form of naked
photos or damaging secrets.
One of the females Raniere reportedly exploited
and sexually engaged with was actually under
age and last week a witness testified that
Raniere also psychologically manipulated and
broke his followers through near starvation
diets, forced sex and isolation.
Now, he reportedly labeled anyone who questioned
him and his teachings, a suppressive person
and encouraged his followers to distance themselves
from these so called bad influences.
But is this something straight out of the
cults playbook.
So Brigida, you know, it sounds like we hear
these stories again and again.
It honestly does it, you know, the stories
about whether it's the Scientology church,
whether it's the Mormon church, whether it's
the Catholic church, if you look at all the
similarities, you kind of have that cult factor
that people are saying more and more.
You're hearing that.
Well, there is a, it's a cult environment
and there's always codefendants in those cases.
You know, there's other people that are part
of it.
Are there codefendants in this case with,
with Raniere?
Now he currently stands trial alone, but five
other NXIVM members were formally charged
with a laundry list of crimes last year, including
extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking,
money laundering and obstruction of justice
among a few of other ones.
Those who have since pleaded guilty includes
Smallville actress, Allison Mack, Seagram's
heiress Clare Bronfman and NXIVM's former
accountant.
Several of these women are now expected to
testify against Raniere during the ongoing
trial.
Brigida, you've handled similar stories that
in that we've done in the past.
What is the draw here?
How does somebody just abandon all sense of
common sense?
I mean, how is it that, it's almost a suspension
of disbelief.
How are they brought in?
It's almost like, it's almost like that mentality
that I see is like the human trafficking cases
that I'm handling right now.
We see that a lot, how people are pulled into
this.
If you were to, if you were to pinpoint what
happens, what happens here?
How are they, how are they pulled into this?
Is it just a, it's gotta be a well organized
scheme?
Yeah.
So a lot of these people are already searching
for answers.
You know, they're going to him looking for
self help.
They want to pay fees to take classes that
they think that they're going to gain something
out of that's going to make their life better.
And then you have these famous people like
Allison Mack that actress from a CW show,
I believe it was called Smallville.
You know, she's famous.
She's drawing in young other women who look
up to her and she's now part of the scheme.
And so they just bring in more and more people
who are looking for answers and are susceptible
to falling prey to this kind of a figure.
This leader.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know what I see sometimes too is sometimes
the prosecutors look at this and they say,
ah, these, these are accomplished people.
They have, don't have any reason to, to be,
to be in weird world is the only way you can
describe this or to to drive, to drive this
program that seems to be nothing less than
human trafficking really when you drill down
on it.
And so prosecutors and law enforcement don't
pay as much attention to it and it gets it,
they get away with for a lot longer.
Listen, thanks for joining me.
I'm dying to see how this goes in a court
room.
