June 6, 2018

USA: Smallville' Actress Allison Mack, Who Had Been Arrested On Sex-Trafficking Charges, Was Released On $5 Million Bail. Allison Mack Says Branding Flesh Of NXIVM ‘Sex Slaves’ Was Her Idea

The Wall Street Journal
written by Corinne Ramey
Tuesday April 24, 2018

Actress Allison Mack was released from jail Tuesday and will be confined to her parents’ home while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges linked to her alleged involvement in a cult like group based in upstate New York.

Ms. Mack, best known for her role in the television series “Smallville,” had been held in federal jail in Brooklyn since her arrest on sex-trafficking charges last week. U.S. Magistrate Judge Viktor Pohorelsky said Tuesday that prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed on release conditions, which included a $5 million bond and detention at her parents’ home in Los Alamitos, Calif.

“Basically, you should avoid contact with anyone you know to be affiliated with Nxivm,” the judge told Ms. Mack, who appeared in court in baggy khaki jail scrubs and with her hands clasped behind her back.

Her mother, Melinda Mack, also was in court and agreed to use her home as collateral for the bond.

The bail hearing, in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, marked the latest chapter in the bizarre saga of Nxivm, pronounced “NEX-i-um,” a purported self-help group based in Albany. The group, led by mathematician Keith Raniere, offered seminars and courses it claimed would “[help] people realize the potential that exists within them.”

In recent years, some former members have described the group as a cult, claiming followers were forced into rituals including branding and sexual acts.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Ms. Mack, 35 years old, and Mr. Raniere, 57, on charges of sex trafficking, sex-trafficking conspiracy and forced-labor conspiracy due to their leadership positions within the group.

Ms. Mack has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday. Court filings show the actress, who lives in Brooklyn, has engaged in plea negotiations with prosecutors.

Mr. Raniere, who has denied wrongdoing, wrote in a letter to Nxivm members: “Over the past months, there have been extensive independent investigations performed, by highly qualified individuals, and they have firmly concluded that there is no merit to the allegations that we are abusing, coercing or harming individuals.”

In court documents, prosecutors described a scheme in which the women were recruited into the group and then blackmailed into sexual relationships with Mr. Raniere.

In 2015, Mr. Raniere created a secret society within Nxivm, called DOS, prosecutors said. They said the society functioned like a pyramid scheme, with “slaves” becoming “masters” by recruiting their own “slaves.” Mr. Raniere, the only man in the scheme, held the position at the top of the pyramid.

“DOS stands for ‘Dominus Obsequious Sororium,’ which at least one DOS slave was told by her master translates to ‘Master Over the Slave Women,’ ” says a complaint.

“Slaves” were required to provide collateral, like naked photos, which “masters” would threaten to release if the “slaves” didn’t obey. Many “slaves” were branded with Mr. Raniere’s initials in their pubic regions, using a cauterizing pen, the complaint says.

Ms. Mack was directly below Mr. Raniere and recruited her own “slaves,” prosecutors said. They said she recruited women by telling newcomers they were joining a female empowerment group. “DOS masters, including [Ms. Mack], groomed DOS slaves for sex with Raniere by requiring DOS slaves to adhere to extremely restrictive diets and not remove their pubic hair (in accordance with Raniere’s sexual preferences),” prosecutors wrote in a letter to the judge.

Other orders included taking ice-cold showers, standing for an hour at 4 a.m. and doing planks, the complaint says.

In his letter, Mr. Raniere says “the sorority”—presumably DOS—isn’t part of Nxivm and that he isn’t associated with it.
For those of you who don't know, Valerie Jarrett was born in Islamic Republic of Iran in 1956. Which is one of the reasons why the 'Muslim Brotherhood' was mentioned in Roseanne Barr's spontaneous ONE TWEET  with ONE SENTENCE reply to another person at 2am. (emphasis mine)
Page Six
written by Laura Italiano
Wednesday May 30, 2018

Branding the flesh of female “sex slaves” was her own idea, says former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack — now an accused leader of the upstate cult Nxivm.

Speaking with a reporter for The New York Times Magazine, Mack scoffed at the idea of merely tattooing the women.

Tattoos are for wimps, Mack implied in the interview, which she gave six months before her arrest on federal human-trafficking charges.

“I was like: ‘Y’all, a tattoo?’” Mack told reporter Vanessa Grigoriadis, speaking from her apartment in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, for a Nxivm profile running Sunday.

“People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle ‘BFF,’ or a tramp stamp,” said Mack, who played Clark Kent’s buddy on the long-running WB series. “I have two tattoos, and they mean nothing.”

Apparently, searing their flesh with a cauterizing pen instead, leaving them permanently scarred with the initials of both Mack and accused cult boss Keith Raniere, would be far more meaningful — even if the branded women themselves didn’t know the meaning.

“Not all the women were told that these initials were present in the symbol,” Grigoriadis writes.

Astoundingly, she adds, some of the women saw being branded as a way to conquer their fears.

“Some of them kidded around through it,” the article says.

“Even if they cried when they were getting the brand; even if they wore surgical masks to help them with breathing in the smell of burning flesh . . . they were still able to transcend the fear and cry out to one another: “Badass warrior bitches! Let’s get strong together.”

Grigoriadis also spoke to Raniere, who easily admitted he was “polyamorous” but insisted that he never brainwashed anyone.

Both Raniere and Mack are due to stand trial in October on conspiracy and trafficking charges carrying a minimum prison term of 15 years.
Associated Press
written by Tom Hays
Monday March 26, 2018

NEW YORK — The leader of a secretive group in upstate New York turned female followers into brainwashed "slaves" who were branded with his initials and coerced into having sex, authorities alleged on Monday in a criminal complaint charging him with sex-trafficking.

Keith Raniere, co-founder of the group called Nxivm, was arrested in Mexico and returned to Texas Monday, authorities said. He was to appear in court on Tuesday in Fort Worth on the charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

According to the complaint, Raniere — known within the group as "Vanguard" — oversaw a barbaric system in which women were told the best way to advance was to become a "slave" overseen by "masters." They also were expected to have sex with him and do menial chores for masters, and to keep the arrangement a secret or be publicly humiliated, the complaint says.

The name of Raniere's attorney wasn't immediately available on Monday. In a letter attributed to Raniere previously posted on a website related to Nxivm, he denied the practices were sanctioned by the self-described self-help group.

"These allegations are most disturbing to me as non-violence is one of my most important values," the letter said.

The complaint said that many victims participated in videotaped ceremonies where they were branded in their pelvic area with a symbol featuring Raniere's initials.

"During the branding ceremonies, slaves were required to be fully naked, and the master would order one slave to film while the other held down the slave being branded," the complaint says.

Investigators said Raniere preferred exceptionally thin women, so "slaves" had to stick to very low-calorie diets and document every food they ate. As punishment for not following orders, women were forced to attend classes where they were "forced to wear fake cow udders over their breasts while people called them derogatory names," or threatened with being put in cages, court papers say.

Raniere left the United States late last year after The New York Times reported the stories of some women who defected from their secret sorority and the government began interviewing potential witnesses. He sought to cover this trail by using encrypted email and ditching his phone, court papers say.

He was ultimately found staying with several women in a luxury gated community in Puerta Vallarta where villas can run $10,000 a week to rent, investigators say. After authorities took him into custody on a U.S. warrant, investigators said the women got into a high-speed car chase.

The website related to the group describes Raniere as a "scientist, mathematician, philosopher, entrepreneur, educator, inventor and author" who has "devoted his life to studying the human psychodynamic and developing new tools for human empowerment, expression and ethics."

TED Published on Jun 24, 2011: Emiliano Salinas TEDx - A civil response to violence (with English subtitles) wow, I've added this video to this AP article. What happened to him? Did he think, if you can't beat them, join them? He became the cancer he's talking about in this speech he gave at TEDx. (emphasis mine)
Nxivm's Mexican affiliate is headed by Emiliano Salinas, a son of that country's former president. Several women who belong to the group in Mexico have traveled to Albany, where they were branded, two former Nxivm members told the Times.

Salinas has also denied that the sorority is affiliated with Nxivm.

Raniere and Nxivm have been the subject of criticism for years, dating back to at least 2012 when the Times Union of Albany published a series of articles examining the organization and allegations that it was like a cult.

Over the years, Nxivm has attracted a following that includes Emmy Award-winning actress Allison Mack. Authorities also say Raniere has been bankrolled by Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram's liquor fortune.

Bronfman gave millions of dollars covering expenses like private air travel costing $65,000 flight, court papers say.

wow, a person thinks this is tabloid seasonal stuff. 😦

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 10:28 PM

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