- [Blair] Hey, everybody, I know sometimes the topics I cover on this channel can get a little bit intense,
perhaps like this video you guys are gonna be watching today, so I just wanted to remind
you guys that my puppy Casper has his own YouTube channel. So if you need a little
bit of wholesome goodness after this video, make
sure to check it out. Links for his channel will be in the description box down below, or just type in Casper the
Friendly Floof on YouTube. Love you guys, let's get into the video. Hello everybody, and
welcome back to the channel. My name is Blair or the iilluminaughtii, and today we're going to
be discussing a company, or a cult, or whatever you wanna call it, it's called NXIVM though. NXIVM may not be one of
the more well-known MLMs I've covered, but they're definitely vastly more disturbing, and
the most cult-like organization I think I've come across
aside from actual cults. Interestingly enough, NXIVM
doesn't sell anything either, not products I mean. What they sold were
personal growth seminars up until they were shut down, and yeah, you heard that right. I know we hope time and time again, that these MLMs get shut down
for being a pyramid scheme and taking advantage of people, but today the MLM we're
discussing was shutdown for things in an entirely
different direction. Even though the case has
been pretty much closed, this is a company, if you
can even call it that, that's always interested me,
so let's just dive into it and get ready for some
real scary horror stories. Let's go. I'll very briefly go
over NXIVM's founder here because even before the
saga of MLM cultishness can even start, it's
important to know that NXIVM was pretty much on bad
footing even before it began. Keith Raniere, the NXIVM founder, has a dark and very alarming past. Even as a child, he had a
strange view about people, and a perspective on the world that was really kind of concerning. As a boy, he read Isaac
Asimov's sci-fi novel about a brilliant scientist
who knew his galaxy was in irremediable
decline, and had reduced all human behavior to elegant
mathematical equations. It inspired Raniere later
to try and do the same. Keith went on to eventually
study math and physics at the Polytechnic Institute, but it wasn't long before the first crime, not just a red flag,
but a crime, took place. In 1984 when he was 24 years old, he slept with a 15-year-old girl. But Keith apparently explained
to the girl's older sister, that her sister's soul was much older than her biological age. So yeah, that's not how law works. I don't care if that teenager had a soul that was 1,000 years old,
according to this guy, that's illegal, she's underage. This isn't something anime shit where she's actually a
4,000 year old vampire. I don't wanna fucking
hear it. It's not legal. Her name was Gina Hutchinson,
and she'll be mentioned later, but I'm sure you can already
see why this will probably be one of the more disturbing
MLMs I've covered. Also in the 80s, Keith worked for Amway. No surprise there really. And 1989 was cited in the
"Guinness Book of World Records" for being one of three people in the world with an IQ superior to
the rest of humanity. In the 90s, Keith made
his own pyramid scheme, not NXIVM, at least not yet, this one was called Consumers Buyline. Keith apparently founded
this on the principle that a more ethical world would consist of people that understood
and pursued their goals in aggressive and ruthless
ways, which is just rich coming from the guy
that slept with a minor, but okay, let's continue. In 1990, Raniere decided
to apply his theory to a new business, Consumers Buyline, a multi-level marketing
program near Albany that promised lucrative commissions to old customers for recruiting new ones. He barnstormed the nation
promoting discounts on groceries, dishwashers, and even hotel
stays, stroking crowds of a thousand, pumped-up
and profit-hungry people. "He was like a mythological figure, "the guy with the 240
IQ was coming to town," says Robert Bremner, a former
distributor for the outfit. Raniere says by the end of 1993, he had sold $1 billion
in goods and services, employed 80 people, and had
a quarter million believers paying him $19 a month to hawk his goods. "He claims he was worth 50 million, "yet he appeared to carry
no money," says Bremner. Adding that Raniere
seemed to sleep all day, rolled into his office around 10:00 p.m., and sometimes held meetings at 1:00 a.m. Business flagged, debt ballooned,
and customers complained. Regulators in 20 States
began to investigate. In 1993, the New York Attorney
General filed a civil suit alleging Consumers Buyline
was a pyramid scheme. Without admitting wrongdoing,
Raniere settled for $40,000 of which he only paid $9,000 as of 2003 when this article was written. He says he can't pay the
rest, though he also says his ample finances let
him live on savings. To be clear, a guy with
an IQ of 240 supposedly, couldn't figure out how to run an MLM without being shut down for
pyramid scheme allegations. Okay, sure. That's why I don't
believe he's a smart man. A smart man wouldn't sleep with a teenager and create an MLM, but
Keith wasn't done obviously. A year later, he made
another MLM that failed called National Health Network. They sold vitamins, but
again, it was short lived. The third MLM was called
Executive Success Programs, later rebranded as what we will
be focusing on today, NXIVM. Keith started this with Nancy Salzman, a psychiatric nurse at the time. Now that you know a bit about the founder and have an idea for what's to come, let's start getting into
NXIVM as a business. Now there are a lot of documentaries or video essays on NXIVM. One from Investigation
Discovery, another from Lifetime. There's a book called
"The Program," a podcast, and HBO intends to cover this as well. Obviously I can't go over every
single one of their accounts on this story or we'd be here for years, but I'm going to piece
together everything we can from the various sources, and there are a lot of
sources for this one. NXIVM members had a
12-step mission statement once they entered the
company, one that they would "pledge to ethically control
as much of the money, "wealth, and resources of
the world as possible." (chuckles) Yeah, that's real. Keith also demanded that he be
called Vanguard in meetings, and for Salzman, Perfect. I will not once be referring to them in those terms throughout this video, because these people don't
deserve their self-imposed titles or even a shred of respect. One of the most notable
people NXIVM recruited was Allison Mack. She was on "Smallville" in 2001 when NXIVM members targeted her, introducing themselves
as a mentorship program. They held a seminar about
empowering women, and to Mack, meeting one of the most intelligent men, finding mentorship as she
reached celebrity status at only 18, must've sounded promising. With a lot of MLMs or strange companies, from Tyra Banks's MLM to Goop, the celebrity stamp of
approval brings companies miles ahead of where they should be. Keith lured her into the
group, and Mack in return, targeted sororities with young
women that would trust her, look up to her, and join. At first upon reading all
of this, I didn't understand why these women wouldn't
just run for the Hills, just nope out of there, just anything. With hindsight it seems so
obvious this was a horrible idea. However, Keith Raniere has a way about him that I can't exactly describe. - Do you know what I'm
gonna say right now? - No. - You're insecure about that. Is that scary for you? - No.
- Why not? - 'Cause I trust that
what you're gonna say is gonna be good and be fine.
- And in the end you're gonna be okay.
- I'll be fine, yeah. - When we have insecurities, and this relates to vulnerability, where we think we may not be
okay, then it becomes scary. See it's not the insecurity
that's the problem, it's the fear of the insecurity. - [Blair] I can see why
he was so successful at preying upon people hearing him speak. In one video with Allison Mack, he has such an eerie way about him. I don't feel like the word manipulative just does it justice. He tells Alison she's insecure about what he's going
to say next, and asked, "is that scary for you?" Out of context, without
the cult background, this may not seem like a big deal. It's just one conversation, but some of the phrases
he uses are just weird. - It's hard for a person
to be deeply authentic if they're inauthentic with themselves, and people who are
inauthentic with themselves, the nature of being
inauthentic with yourself is that you're blind to it. Otherwise you'd be authentic with yourself and then you'd be sort of
conning yourself on top of it. But true, self-inauthenticity
is blindness. It's an incompletion. But with understanding
this philosophically, and opening these areas up,
then what are the practices? What are the actual practical
tools that allow you to, if you will, it's almost custom designed. Here you might call it
designer emotional states. Designer emotional capacity,
designer emotional transitions. Not only how do you design them, but how do you practice them? - [Blair] It's hard for a
person to be deeply authentic if they're inauthentic with themselves. Sounds so deep and so thoughtful. On the surface, he comes across
like a wise intelligent man, when in reality, that phrase
holds almost no weight. You can't be honest if
you lie to yourself. If I say that in plain
wording without his tone, yeah, it's pretty obvious. Yet Keith's manipulations are top notch. I'm not sure if he actually
believes what he's saying, or he's just using it as a tactic, but without his language and tone, I doubt he would have gotten this far. And at first, NXIVM appeared like a life-changing
event for these people. Recruits paid more than
$7,500 for grueling, 12-hour incentives,
featured NXIVMs patented Executive Success Program technology, a patchwork of various self-help programs, religious ideologies,
and hypnosis techniques. They could also take classes
through the smaller companies under the NXIVM umbrella. The Source, a workshop
for actors led by Mack, Delegates, a Task Rabbit-esque startup, primarily staffed by
younger female members, and JNESS, a female empowerment
group whose Facebook wall features Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes juxtaposed against a pastel-pink template. - I left my five day, my initial training, as if a veil had been lifted and I could see things
more clearly in my life, I could communicate better with people. - That sounds fantastic. - Yeah, it was great. - [Blair] People that took it described it as so enlightening, or like
a veil was being lifted. It was undoubtedly effective, but not because this
information was so profound and Keith was revealing secrets
of the world or anything. Plain and simple, this really
looks like brainwashing. - [Reporter] Rick Ross
studies groups like NXIVM. - In my opinion, it's basically
copied from other sources, specifically, Scientology, Ayn Rand, EST. So there's all of that mixed together, and that becomes NXIVM. - [Blair] Experts have said
it's like a copy of Scientology or other similar cult-like beliefs. It's not original, and it's
not truly life-changing. Still that's what it's
described as by NXIVM leaders. - And the first step is making
a vow of obedience to her, as me being a slave and
her being my master. - Slave?
- Slave. - She used the word slave?
- She used the word slave. - [Blair] And women were even blackmailed to keep NXIVM's secrets. Sarah Edmondson featured on "ABC News," says she gave Lauren Salzman,
Nancy Salzman's daughter, a written confession and nude photos so she couldn't leave
without fear of repercussion. - [Reporter] Lauren Salzman had demanded highly compromising collateral. - You need to provide something to me that I'm gonna hold
forever, just to confirm, and to solidify that you'll
never share the secret. - So what did you give her? - So I gave her a written confessional. - [Blair] Women were hoping for a giant make-over and inspiration. Those that joined were told to diet and eat 800 calories a day
instead of the 2000 recommended, but I'm sure followers
found a way to justify that. He was only helping them
change their lives, right? And being pushed was fair if
they broke the diet, right? Because they should be following the rules to better change their lives. Well, it's worth noting here
that when you're starving, like literally starving yourself, it's much harder to concentrate. One woman that had tried the diet said she absolutely believes she was more suggestible,
moody, and lightheaded. After the diet however,
there were more behaviors that women justified in
their minds like branding. I'm going to warn you, things start to get
pretty graphic from here. I want to say, oh, it gets better, and hey, come back in two
minutes and things will die down, but that's not the case. Things get worse. If you don't believe
you'll be able to handle mentions of branding and slavery, I'd recommend clicking away
and I more than understand. There was a method to the branding. It was supposed to be
precisely seven strokes, one line across and two diagonal
lines to form a sideways K, then four smaller lines to
form the sideways R beneath, and the little spoon to
the big spoon of the K. The women were supposed to be naked. They were supposed to be videotaped. They were supposed to
be held down on a table, arms above the head, legs
spread, ankles and wrists bound, helpless, vulnerable, exposed. And they were supposed
to say the following, "please brand me. "It would be an honor. "An honor I would want to
wear for the rest of my life." "That last part is the most important. "They should probably say
that before they're held down "so it doesn't seem like
they're being coerced," Keith Raniere told actress Allison Mack, his lover, disciple, and slave. And Keith branded these
women with his initials. - [Reporter] She says
she was told the brand was a Latin symbol, but
realized it really included the letters K and R, which
are also the initials of Keith Raniere. - I lost it when I figured it out. - You're stamped as property of somebody. - I am not cattle. I'm not owned by Keith. - [Blair] Sarah Edmondson says she thought about getting a tattoo at first, and then even believed her
branding was a Latin symbol, but Sarah describes the ordeal
as worse than childbirth. - It was the most inhumane,
horrific way to treat anybody. - What was that like? - It was worse than childbirth. - It was worse than childbirth? - Yep. It was imagine a hot laser
dragged across your flesh for 30 minutes, without anesthetic. - [Blair] When she realized the branding was KR, Keith's initials, she was furious and said she's not cattle. Unfortunately, many of these women were treated worse than cattle. Although the branding may
have actually been Mack's idea because Allison said a
tattoo wasn't intense enough, it was Keith that truly ran the operation. Keith's ex-girlfriend Natalie
says that even before NXIVM, "what Keith was able to do
was immediately ascertain "your weak points and insecurities. "And then he takes those
insecurities and convinces you "he's helping you with them, "but it's just things he
uses to hold you hostage." These women were sex slaves for Raniere. There's no gentle way to say that, and I don't wanna diminish their suffering by calling them his partners or lovers. These women didn't feel
that they had a choice. They'd been brainwashed,
they were starving, they were branded, and higher-ups in NXIVM had nude photos of them to blackmail them. That's not a partnership. They were slaves and they were tortured. It wasn't until 2017, that the full extent of what NXIVM really was came into light thanks to Frank Parlato,
a former NXIVM publicist, and Mark Vicente. I'll explain who Mark is
first since he's the one who wrote the article calling
Vicente a hero to begin with. To date, Frank has been accused of fraud and cheating the IRS. He was supposed to
stand trial in May 2020, but because of everything that's going on as of writing this, it doesn't
look like that's happening. At least not yet. Frank faces charges for
his actions against the IRS and wire fraud, but he is no
longer believed to have stolen a million dollars from heirs
of the Seagrams liquor fortune. Frank says that in fact, it was Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman, an heir to the fortune, that set him up. Before I continue forward
with Frank's investigations, let me back up and tell you who Clare is. There's a lot of people involved
with this, so bear with me. Clare Bronfman had been an
heiress to billions of dollars before she came involved with this cult. She apparently poured out
$150 million into NXIVM after her sister, Sara,
began taking their classes. Sara persuaded Clare,
who was 23 and competing as a show jumper for horse shows, to join and soon they were paying Salzman as a personal coach. Clare bought a house
near NXIVM's headquarters in Clifton Park, New York,
and a horse farm up the road so she could continue her training. Between her classes, she
would compete in tournaments. Eventually she ditched
her equestrian sponsor, a German clothing
company, and opted instead to wear a purple-and-black
jacket emblazoned with "NXIVM." Raniere began taking a
close interest in Clare, former members say. With no history as an equestrian,
he began to train Clare in an effort to get her
on the US Olympic team. "They encouraged her to
compete because Keith thought "if Clare made it into the
Olympics, he would be known "as this great world coach, get fame, "and be exposed to the Olympian world," says Barbara Bouchey, who
was a leader within NXIVM and Raniere's girlfriend before
leaving the group in 2009. Bouchey says she remembers
going with Salzman and Raniere to watch Clare compete. After making the US team,
but failing to make the cut to compete in the Olympics in 2004, Clare eventually stopped competing. Things only spiraled down from there. Although her father, Edgar
Bronfman, initially took interest in their courses and referred to Salzman as one of "the most influential
females in my life," Bronfman, wasn't thrilled with how Clare was spending his money. In 2003, just a few years
after its inception, NXIVM was accused of being a cult. Edgar said this himself
in a Forbes article. "I think it's a cult," says Bronfman. Though he once took a course
and endorsed the program, he hasn't talked to his
daughters in months, and has grown troubled over the long hours and emotional and financial investment they have been devoting
to Raniere's group. One daughter, Clare, 24, has
lent the program $2 million at 2.5% interest, the
senior Bronfman says. She denies this. Keith of course, was
furious, and they say that because of her father's criticism, Clare had committed an
irreparable sin against NXIVM. However, we've seen MLMs be
accused of cultish behaviors in the past, and as of
2003, this was no different. NXIVM was still in business, but whether it was because
of the strain put on Clare, or simply that she
learned to be manipulative from Keith herself, Clare
started going after Frank. As he puts it, "she knew I
had recovered assets for her. "I know she knew because she
sued the managing partner "of the LA real estate project "in that civil case in Los Angeles. "She testified to all good I had done "by recovering $26 million
in assets on the project. "Then within three months
of winning that lawsuit "against the managing partner,
who Keith Raniere selected, "she was in the grand jury in Buffalo "telling them the exact
opposite, that I had cheated her "in order to put me in prison." As messed up as this
sounds accusing someone of a crime they didn't commit, I'm grateful it happened. If not, Frank may never have made the in-depth report on NXIVM in 2017. He spoke in depth about
the branding process, and wrote an article citing
why Dr. Danielle Roberts, a medical professional
that actually carried out this branding, should
have her license revoked. He spoke about the Salzman's, posed the question if Clare
Bronfman had a 500 calorie diet because Keith says fat on
women disturbs the transmission of essential energy to him, and says the actress Nicki
Clyne, had also been branded. All of these came out in mid June, 2017, including advice from a
former Raniere supporter on why people should leave
and save their lives. Whether or not Frank did
this as some sort of revenge, or he was horrified all along, I can't speak to his intentions, but thanks in part to Frank,
getting the ball rolling, "The New York Times" picked up the story. As for Mark Vicente, hopefully you haven't
forgotten that name yet, he was another important
role and true hero to this NXIVM saga. He was the one that
put his story out there and gave it the publicity needed. As Frank writes, "shortly after
I broke the branding story "in June, 2017 on the "Frank Report," "and "The New York Times"
was putting together "or trying to put together a story. "Barry Meyer, "The New York Times" writer "that most thorough and
spectacular wordsmith, "a man who can in a thousand
words, destroy a cult, "was seeking to find
people to go on the record. "Naturally, I was willing, but who was I? "Just an indicted guy,
indicted by Bronfman's lies, "who wrote a salacious
blog condemning Raniere "with every justification
to get back at them, "maybe with lies. "What proof was there that
this insane story was true? "Meyer needed other people on
the record to write a story "about the secretive
group that branded women. "Now, you all know the wealthy Bronfman's "propensity to litigate. "You must realize that
"The New York Times" "has to survive on its credibility, "and if you put these two facts
together, you will realize "how hard it was for the "Times" "to actually publish the story, "and the only way it was
ever going to be published "is with ample sources on the
record and complete vetting. "So who was going to be on the record? "Almost no one. "The only woman who was
branded, and this was slavery "if there ever was, who
was willing to go on record "and actually show the world
the brand, was Sarah Edmondson. "But I doubt she would have done that "if Mark had not been there first, "willing to go on the record,
putting himself on the line. "Mark had his picture taken,
him and Bonnie, his wife, "for "The New York Times". "He was then declaring war on Raniere, "and again, let me remind you, "there was no investigation
by law enforcement. "He was far more likely
to be investigated himself "by law enforcement in the
Northern District of New York. "Keith and the witch-like Clare Bronfman "were almost sure to go and file "some false criminal
complaint against him." If Mark hadn't come out
as a former NXIVM member to validate Sara's story, it
would have never been told. "The New York Times"
couldn't have picked it up with only one source. Without Mark, NXIVM might've
taken much longer to take down. So thank you, Mark Vicente, though I know it's a couple of years late
for telling your story. It was dangerous, and I'm sure it couldn't have been an
easy decision to make, but thank you for making it. From there in late 2017, investigations truly began in earnest. ABC got ahold of the story in December, speaking to the branding
ritual with Sarah Edmondson, the former NXIVM member
I mentioned earlier. Obviously once the story was released, there were no more excuses. Their secrets were revealed, and Keith Raniere was
arrested in late March, 2018. Raniere obviously denied
having done any wrong at first. His lawyer said,
"everything was consensual. "There are well known groups
of men who brand themselves," attorney Marc Agnifilo said. "A group of women do that and
suddenly they're victims." But when pressed about
the branding, he replied, "I'm not qualified to
say, what is normal." I understand these are Keith lawyers. Obviously they're going to
say whatever they have to, but it's despicable for anyone, anyone to consider branding acceptable. Just because these groups of
men are doing it, doesn't mean these NXIVM women should
have been subjected to it. Have they never heard of that phrase, "just because everyone
is jumping off a bridge "doesn't mean you should?" That kind of mindset is what gets us here in the first place, people
blindly trusting others like Alison Mack and
Raniere's celebrity clients to steer them in the right direction. The charges kept stacking
up against Raniere though, until they're almost too long to list. Prosecutors said Raniere had a stable of over 50 female slaves. They say he told his followers that men needed multiple sexual partners while women should be monogamous. Nancy Salzman, Keith Raniere's partner, said that Raniere had no knowledge of the dominus obsequious sororium, a phrase which means a
master over slave women. Apparently all the
brandings and slave meetings were under her watch as she explained. "I was in one mode, project Keith. "My main priority was
that Keith was okay." If you ask me, even during the trial, she was in that project Keith mode, because I don't believe for a second Keith, wasn't aware of the abuse. At the very least, he was
aware of the meetings. According to Salzman, the group would meet three times a week, with
members required to pose for a naked group photo at
the start of every meeting and send it to Raniere. "We were supposed to be in
uniform, all looking the same, "and all fully frontally
naked," Salzman testified. Raniere required the brands on the women to be on full display, and
they should all appear happy. If they weren't to his satisfaction, he would sometimes request a new photo. "If our legs weren't spread enough, "we'd have to spread our
legs more," Salzman said, adding that the group members
were aware that his preference is skewed towards "up-close
vaginal pictures." So Salzman can somehow say oh,
the DOS meetings were all me, yet testify to this? Raniere was the one
controlling these women, including Salzman herself. That's no excuse
whatsoever for her actions, but he was the one at
the top of this pyramid, and understand here, I'm not
talking about the business. Fuck the business, the MLM
is the least of his crimes. I'm talking about the pyramid
shaped cult that was going on. DOS members were also
required to do penance for perceived misdeeds. Such penance included
paddlings with a leather strap, which Raniere would
occasionally supervise remotely via a conference call. "He called in and wanted to make sure "we were flicking the wrist
hard enough," Salzman said. She testified that a fellow
DOS member, Daniella Padilla, told her Raniere had once
been violent towards her after accusing her of
being in a prideful state. "She had been on the floor
and he had kicked her," Salzman recounted Padilla telling her. Renier had also planned to
build a dungeon in the basement of the sorority house,
and Padilla purchased various BDSM sex toys
for use during penance, as a sex toy company
owner testified last week. Padilla had also planned
to purchase a cage, though she canceled
the order shortly after the inner workings of DOS were made public in the spring of 2017. Raniere also drafted a public statement defending the existence of DOS
while simultaneously denying he had anything to do with it. The statement which was read
at trial accused the media of shaming the women for engaging
in consensual activities, and spearheading a campaign
against the rights of women and alternative lifestyles. At one point in the email,
Raniere compared DOS members to authors of the
"Declaration of Independence." How can you clearly defend something you had no knowledge about? Clearly, so clearly he knew. NXIVM's operations were
obviously suspended, and even with the offer of a
$10 million bond on the table, Raniere sat in jail. Clare too, was arrested for
racketeering conspiracy, while Allison Mack and
Raniere face charges of sex trafficking, sex
trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. But one story stood out
above all the others through this hellish process. Those of you that are already
familiar with Keith Raniere might already know about this, but to those of you who don't,
well, I'm gonna warn you that this is probably
the most disturbing thing I've found against this man. Although this occurred in 1993, and was reported on by
the "Times Union" in 2012, police ignored these reports
until it was too late. A young woman named Rhiannon
was just 12 years old when Raniere offered her free tutoring. Rhiannon says that he taught
her how to hug back in 1993, but she explains that no, this
wasn't limited to hugging. She says he taught her how
to hug the way adults do, pelvis to pelvis. Pelvis Raniere took her
virginity at the age of 12, before Rhiannon was even in middle school. The "Times Union" reported in 2012 that the girl liked being
able to hang out with Raniere and the other women around him. She thought sex was
just part of fitting in. "They told me I was smart
and took an interest in me. "They let me spend every
afternoon at their house," she said. "It was exciting to be somewhere
where people wanted me. "I was perfect picking,
insecure at the time. "To have someone that mature
and that well thought of "to be interested in
me, it was flattering. "I was very young,
inexperienced, overwhelmed, "and out of my league." This video from "Times Union"
of the now adult then child that was taken advantage of
by Raniere is horrifying. She lists every place they'd
ever done it and said, "he took my innocence. "I can never get that back." Although she signed a
deposition back in 1993 and Raniere was accused of raping at least four other children
between the ages of 12 to 15 in that timeframe, nothing was done. Nothing at least that could
stop him from creating NXIVM and harming even more women. Though it may be some
sort of consolidation that he's in prison now, I can
only imagine how hard it was for Rhiannon to know that he walked free. Trying to process that at 12 years old, not be taken seriously, and then hear that Raniere
did this to countless others. I don't really have words for it. Another woman, Gina Melita, was yet another victim
of Raniere to speak out, and finally during this
time, to be taken seriously. Gina says, "I was falling
asleep watching television, "and as I was dozing, he
touched my face, my legs, "and made a pass." Shortly thereafter, Gina recalls losing her virginity to Raniere and said, "it was very
painful, and a half hour later, "Keith said maybe the
second time won't be so bad. "And so we did it again." She was 15, he was 24. Gina Hutchinson, the Gina we
mentioned earlier in this video who did a soul much older
than her body as Raniere said, tragically never got to
see Keith behind bars. She committed suicide in 2002 by shooting herself in the head. Raniere had told Gina that
she was a Buddhist goddess meant to be with him. So even though we can't
definitively connect Gina Hutchinson's death
to do anything with him, at the very least, I can say
she would have been better off not knowing him. The two Gina's in the same year, 1984, should have never endured what they did. Raniere was 24, while
both were young teenagers between 14 to 16. Then in his thirties,
it was a 12-year-old. I'm not going to sit here and
explain why that's fucked up. If you need to debate that point, you really need to take a look
at yourself in the mirror. To anyone that could have
possibly defended him until now, what justification is there for this? There's none. There's literally no reason why this ever should have
happened in the first place. He was a master manipulator,
not some child prodigy born to change the world as he implies. Mark Vicente himself took
the stand during trial, the man that truly allowed
his story to break. "Times Union" wrote, "he testified that many people join NXIVM, "a purported self-help
organization based in Colonie, "to better help themselves
to promote good in the world. "They ended up being exploited. "'It's a fraud, it's a
lie,' he said choking up. "'It's this well-intended veneer "'that covers horrible, incredible evil.' "Vicente, who spent 12 years at NXIVM, "touched on several topics
Thursday, including films "he said Raniere wanted him to make. "He said Raniere wanted him
to produce a cult-busting film "to reject the notion that cults exist. "Critics of NXIVM had for
years accused the organization "of being cult-like. "Raniere suggested they
pay a family $1 million "to be filmed and portrayed as a cult "for all the project to
reveal it was untrue, "but it was not made. "Within NXIVM, members were
told 'the word doesn't exist,' "Vicente testified. "'He would say, "what is a
cult?" Vicente recalled." With the overabundance of
evidence we've gone through, the verdict was guilty as expected. Allison Mack pled guilty,
Nancy Salzman pled guilty, and several celebrity
members left the cult shortly before things blew up, or the moment it began to be reported on. Personally, I think they
should still be investigated and held accountable, but I
understand that at the time there were bigger fish to fry. Sentencing has been
delayed multiple times now, as this case is still ongoing. Although the crimes have been committed and the verdicts given, there's
still more to the story here because NXIVM was
pretending to be a business, and this means they can be sued as such. The 189-page complaint from 80 victims against 19 higher-ups
in NXIVM was filed on January 28th, 2020, this year. Reading the complaint,
I can hardly believe that this is still happening
in our world today so recently. Often when I hear about shady businesses, their worst acts have been decades ago. I'm not saying that excuses anything, but at least it feels like
there's progress being made to see those older dates, but this wasn't shut down
until two-and-a-half years ago, and what the complaint
alleges is nothing short of utterly terrifying. I can't possibly go through
every page with you guys, but I'll read an overview
so you can get a feel for the insanity these people entered. I'm also going to name every single one of the 19 plaintiffs now because I think it's important
to have these names exposed. So long as they're free
to live their lives with maybe some minor
consequences, some without, the public deserves to know that they are dangerous to society. Keith Raniere, Nancy
Salzman, Clare Bronfman, Sara Bronfman, Lauren
Salzman, Allison Mack, Kathy Russell, Karen
Unterreiner, Dr. Brandon Porter, Dr. Danielle Roberts,
Daniella Padilla Bergeson, Rosa Laura Junco, Loretta J. Garza Davila, Monica Duran, Nicki Clyne. These people are the individual defendants aside from obviously
NXIVM Corporation itself. These people are the doctors
that held members down while branding them, the
members that convinced others to trust them that they should join, and they should have this follow them every time you search their names. So what did they do exactly? Page five states how the
plaintiffs were dependent on the defendants to an unhealthy extent. On a near daily basis,
these victims were told that they were failing to advance on the Stripe Path, NXIVM terminology, and improve their careers,
income, and wellbeing because they were not working hard enough. Once defendants had stripped members of their psychological
defenses, they exploited these highly vulnerable
people for advantage and gain. This included coercing
members into working for the defendants on exchanges in which they would be
severely under compensated, or even uncompensated for their labors. Quitting was a failure, and would result in immense
shame and humiliation. Then on page six, there is
literally an entire section called illegal experimentation
on human beings. When I saw that headline,
my stomach dropped. There was that much, that much involvement of human experimentation,
that there's an entire page in the lawsuit on it. They state that at least 40
members of the NXIVM community, trusting in Raniere, Nancy Salzman, and defendant Dr. Brandon Porter, were subjected to human fright experiments in which individuals were seated
in front of a video display with EEG electrodes placed on their skulls to measure brainwaves. These subjects believe they
were going to watch a talk by Raniere, but instead were subjected to scenes of escalating violence, including actual,
extremely graphic footage of the brutal beheading and dismemberment of five women in Mexico. And we're only on page
six out of 189 pages. Page seven, first held
masters high positions in DOS were tasked with selecting
attractive, trustworthy women who would become sexual
partners for Raniere. Recruits were told that they
were being invited to join a sisterhood, which would empower them to overcome the weaknesses that
Raniere and other defendants taught them to held back in life. Recruits were told that DOS
offered a unique opportunity to enter a one-on-one
mentorship with women who had been elevated in
stature within the community, and who thus were looked
up to as role models. Page seven continues
saying that collateral had to be provided, the
nude images or videos we mentioned earlier, even letters falsely accusing
close family members, or unethical or illegal conduct. Page eight states in black and white, that DOS was a master-slave relationship explained as no different
from a guru and disciple, or mentor-mentee. If that were the case, why not
call it teacher and student? Well, we know why. This was the opposite of empowering. These women were stripped
of any power they had, they were meant to be controlled. DOS slaves were subjected to a
severely abusive environment, which included caloric
deprivation, sleep deprivation, arduous physical labor,
performance of menial tasks, and a variety of punishments
for any failure to fully comply with their masters commands. They had to check in with
their masters when they awoke and when they went to
bed with text messages of "good morning, M" and "goodnight, M." They had to be available 24 hours a day due to readiness drills. They would get a text with a
question mark, nothing more, and they had one minute
to respond with "ready, M" otherwise they'd have
consequences like cold showers, hold themselves in a plank
position, be ridiculed, or strip naked and be paddled. Again, this is not a teacher
and a student relationship, this is slavery, this is torture. Raniere was convincing and coercing people to be his sex slaves, and the stories each
plaintiff gives are similar, how they trusted him and how they thought he was this brilliant
man that could help them. Jane Doe One, page 14 says
that she was a resident of Mexico, then traveled
to Albany, New York, lured with promises of
training and employment as a computer programmer, and personal tutoring
and mentoring by Raniere. She was 16 years old. Raniere in his inner circle
spent two years grooming her, ultimately leading her to believe that having sex with Raniere was necessary for their relationship to
evolve to a higher stage, which she continued to
believe would lead her to partnering with Raniere
in this development of his revolutionary technology, and securing the Ivy League
university level education she'd been promised. At some point, Jane Doe
One informed Raniere that she was attracted to another man and experiencing romantic feelings. She informed Raniere that she would no longer
have sex with him, therefore he and his
members of his inner circle began a campaign of extreme isolation, culminating in her confinement to a room with virtually no human
contact for nearly two years, during which her pleas to be let out were either rejected or ignored. Defendants eventually
sent her back to Mexico with almost no money
and no identity papers, which they had taken and
refused to give back to her. This one woman's story is just of 80. Jane Doe Two, a woman that was struggling to overcome past trauma, was
instructed by Allison Mack to have sex with Raniere. Mack insisted Jane Doe Two
photograph the encounter and said she had permission
to enjoy the experience. Jane Doe Three joined to
become more self-fulfilling, gave collateral, and was also ordered to have sex with Raniere. She acquiesced out of fear
of punishment and release, and eventually left the community. Jane Doe Four, a very similar,
almost verbatim experience. Jane Doe Five gave Lauren
Salzman several rounds of collateral and was then branded. She moved home several times
out of fear, going into hiding. Jane Doe Seven was
instructed to hold her feet while she was branded, and she realized she was being videotaped. She was branded on her pubic
region with a cauterizing pen in a process that was extremely painful. The wound did not close for two months. Jane Doe 10 and 11, both
participated in readiness drills, and provided services to their master. Jane Doe 19 had false police
charges filed against her, and was unable to sleep for 12 days after the electrodes experiment. Jane Doe 22 suffered
from Tourette's Syndrome and was subjected to several verbal abuses that led to severe psychological trauma. And there's so much more. Women being taught they're inferior, being ordered to smash
their face into a tree, or let themselves pass out, and the results of the
human fright experiments which still haunt people to this day. I scrolled through the whole
thing, and let me tell you, it reads like something
out of a horror novel. It's pure slavery and experimentation. Raniere enjoyed watching people suffer. That's all there is to it. After reading about the
charges and the lawsuit, I want nothing more than
these people to be locked away for the longest time possible. They are a serious danger to the world, and they treat people as less than human. Brainwashed or not, these
dozens of men and women deserve justice. I hope they can get it, and Raniere near suffers the same hell he put countless people,
even children through. In the end, one gigantic problem is how legitimate Raniere seemed, how he got away with this for so, so long. The Ethical Science Foundation
formed by the Bronfmans sponsored him, and a $20
million check in 2004. He was named one of the smartest men alive by the "Guinness Book of World Records." Keith had celebrity endorsements and people doing his dirty work. He was a genius, but a genius
at manipulating others. Hopefully he rots in jail
for it, and later hell. So many of these Jane
Doe's in this lawsuit didn't want to step forward,
and it makes me wonder if there are still those who haven't. I hope people can find them and speak out in groups like
this, even if it's scary. If Mark and Sara didn't, we
don't know how this NXIVM story would have actually ended, or
how many more women and girls Raniere could have harmed. But if I could only say
one thing about NXIVM, it would be this. MLMs are pyramid schemes
designed as businesses. This is a sex cult disguised as an MLM. And with that note, that's
where I'm going to end today's pretty disturbing video. Let me know your guys' thoughts in the comments section down below. I'm sure many of you
have a lot of opinions about a lot of this quite
horrifying information I've shared with you today. Make sure to like the video,
spread around this information, and subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already. If you need to see more content from me, perhaps something a
little more lighthearted, my description box has all
of my social media links, second channel for my puppy, Casper, and the collaboration channel
with some of my buddies in the channel Sad Milk. So I love you guys, I
hope you have a good day, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye guys. (upbeat electronic music)
Wtf is this, not a documentary that’s what.