When Forbes exhibited Keith Raniere and his "sex cult" Nxivm

By Will Yacowicz

At the beginning of 1998, Keith Raniere attracted thousands of acolytes to the central office of his self -help group on the outskirts of Albany, New York, under the promise of life transformation lessons.Raniere not only promised his clients to release his greatest potential;He assured them that with his methods he could reduce the symptoms of Tourette syndrome and even help his children talk up to 13 languages.

However, in a cover report in October 2003, Forbes stated that "some people see a darker and darker side" in the future Guru.They said that he led "a program similar to a" cult dedicated to emotionally breaking their subjects "while" introduces them to a strange world with messianic claims, idiosynchronic language and ritual practices ".

Also read: They arrest in Mexico to the leader of Grupo Nxivm by sex trafficking

"I think it's a cult," said the late Edgar Bronfman to Forbes in 2003.His two daughters, Sara and Clare had been involved with the group and Clare helped with their foundation.

Ahead 15 years: Raniere faces a trial for positions of sex trafficking, forced work, extortion and organized crime in relation to NXIVM (pronounced Nexium), a group that was born from a previous one.To avoid going to trial together with Raniere, Clare Bronfman and four more women agreed to declare their guilt for the papers they played in NXIVM.Prosecutors say that the group was a criminal organization that exercised coercion over women, including minor girls, to have sex with Raniere.Clare Bronfman, who will receive a sentence in July after having declared guilty last month on minor positions, could spend two years in jail.

He denies everything

Raniere has denied all the charges against him and declares himself not guilty.In the first days of the trial, his defense was based on the fact that what happened in NXIVM was mainly under the consent of adults who wanted to improve their lives with the help of a coach.The trial, full of accusations of forced sex, enclosures, and even marking as cattle with iron from Raniere, could last between five and six weeks.

If they are convicted, Raniere could spend his whole life in jail.

Read here the profile that Forbes made about Raniere in October 2003.

Personality cult

By Michael Freedman

Keith Raniere's devotees say that he is one of the smartest and ethical people alive.They describe it as a humble and soft genius that can diagnose the evils of society with remarkable clarity.They say that their teachings as executive coach inspirations can empower the most successful people in the world to obtain higher levels in position and money.Moreover, your program can even cure evils such as diabetes and scoliosis.

Some 3,700 people have approached Raniere, 43 years old, and Executive Success Program, the business he created in 1998.Thanks to a powerful mouth promotion network, in his business he included Sheila Johnson, co -founder of Black Entertainment Television;Antonia c.Novello, formerly from the US surgeon's office, Stephen Cooper, interim director of Enron, the two daughters of multimillionaire Edgar Bronfman, of Seagram;as well as Ana Cristina Fox, daughter of (then president) of Mexico (Vicente Fox).Raniere's disciples say that their methods refine their approach and give them a greater capacity to analyze the motivations of others."It's like a practical mastery," says one of his acolytes, Emiliano Salinas, son of another former president of Mexico.

Also read: when private life becomes public

Raniere, who does not have a mastery title, has benefited from the well -paid fashion of the Executive Coaching, a growing multimillionaire market.There are established signatures and recognized characters that promise, for a payment, help people to be better executives, improve their productivity, and successfully navigate office policies.Famous trainers, such as Marshall Goldsmith, Professor Vijay Govindarjan, from Dartmouth, and Richard Leider, charge between $ 25,000 per day at $ 100,000 for half a dozen sessions throughout the year and a half.They teach executives to change their "negative behaviors" to find what drives them and how to find the right goals.

Keith, the manipulator

However, some people see a darker and manipulator side in Keith Raniere.The detractors say that he leads a cult program in which he destroys their subjects psychologically, separating them from their families and inducing them in a strange world of messianic claims, idiosyncratic language, and ritual practices."I think it's a cult," says Bronfman.Although he once took a course and sponsored the program, he has not spoken with his daughters in months and worries him the many hours and the emotional and financial investments that they have dedicated to the Raniere group.One of his daughters, Clare, 24, has given 2 million dollars to the program, with an interest rate of 2.5%, says Mr. Bronfman (but she denies it).

Raniere says that nothing in its operations indicates that it directs a cult and that, in fact, many participants believe that Executive Success is a good coaching program and already.Stephen Cooper, from Enron, is located in this category.And yet, Raniere is an unusual mentor for the rich and well connected.A decade ago, he handled an alleged pyramidal operation that collapsed after adding at least 250,000 clients and generated more than 33 million dollars in a year.In January, a federal judge failed in favor of an ex -girlfriend who had a bitter legal battle with Raniere.The judge invoked the "vindictive outburst of a scheduled subject" and discovered that Raniere had harassed her, ruined her business and manipulated her to leave her 10 -year -old son with the father of the child.The woman, toni f.Natalie told Forbes that she believes that Raniere washing her brain, convincing her that her role on earth is having her baby, the baby who will change the course of history.Raniere says that this accusation is "ridiculous and irrational".

At the forefront of fraud

These days (2003) Raniere wants his followers to call him "Vanguard".(His associate in the business, Nancy Salzman, an ex -fermera and 49 -year -old therapist, and public face of Executive Success, calls him "Prefect".Long and brown hair and his beard rank a look a little similar to that of Jesus.His well -calculated behavior could convince that it is a philosophy teacher, or perhaps a poet without trade or benefit.He has no driver's license because he trusts the adventures his friends give him, or prefers to walk about 20 kilometers a day.States that it does not have a bank account and that it declines any salary from the coaching program of 4 million dollars a year that he created."He considered that everything is a payment for what I have done," he says.Although he is co -owner of a little house near Albany, NY, next to a friend, says that he spends most of the nights in one or another of the houses of three friends.Assures that he does not have a house."I live a life similar to that of a church mouse," he says with a candorous smile that disarms you.

Ambition and its own language

His teachings are mysterious, plagued with his own and impenetrable jargon on ethics and values and defined by an ethos of blind ambition similar to that of the intense characters of an Ayn Rand novel.Your trick?That your own interest is the maximum, that does not motivate what others want, and avoid the "parasites" (as label people who need help).Only with this you can be true with yourself and become "ethical".The other side of the currency, of course, is that in this worldview virtues such as charity, teamwork, and compassion ... but perhaps it is something that we do not understand.

The Executive Success program resembles motivation groups such as Landmark Forum, Sterling Institute of Relationship, and LifeSpring.It also evokes the training of the "human potential" of the 70s, with certain elements similar to those of scientology and parallels with EST, the controversial group thought program founded by Werner Erhard.

Unlike EST, which gained fame for preventing students from using the bathroom in the sessions, Executive Success offers many breaks.Students pay up to $ 10,000 for five days of lessons and emotional tests in 13 -hour sessions.In class, shoes are removed, they practice strange hand greetings, and use bands with code colors that indicate the ranges within the organization.When a high -ranking student enters the room, others must stand up to demonstrate their respect.There they are taught to make caravans to each other and to "vanguard".When from time to time he presents himself, as if he were Elvis Presley, the students run towards him.Some excellent say they saw him greet each of the women in the mouth.However, Raniere denies this.

A 12 -step cult

Once a day, students recite a 12 -point speech with a mission written by Raniere.(Here an example: "There are no defined victims; therefore, I will not choose to be a victim".) The tone is apocalyptic, with some occasional errors, despite its ingenuity.The world is full of people who want to "destroy each other, steal, rub others and rejoice in the misfortune of others".Therefore, Raniere writes: "It is essential for survival of humanity" that the wealth and resources of the world are under the control of "successful and ethical people", for example, those who train with Executive Success.

It is a tremendous sales work, something that is good for this corporate manipulator.Raniere, who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the suburbs (from New York), is addicted to promotion, as well as his father, who worked in advertising.An old biography says that Keith "is one of the three main people expert in solving the problems of the world".Its website includes quotes from Albert Schweitzer, Margaret Mead and himself."Humans can be noble.The question is: are we going to be able to start what is necessary?, Write, and conclude that its program "represents the change that humanity needs in order to alter the course of history".

The genius of the transa

Reniere states that he learned to speak with complete sentences a year;that he taught himself mathematics preparatory level in 19 hours when he was 12 and that at 13 he had learned mathematics at the university level and several computational languages.As a child he read a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov about a brilliant scientist who knew that his galaxy entered an irremediable decline and reduced all human behavior to elegant mathematical equations.That inspired Raniere to want to do the same.After graduating from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, NY, in 1982, with a specialty in Physics, Mathematics and Biology, he found work in software programming and consulting.

In his work he began to nurture his idea of immaculate self -interest as a path to ethical behavior.For him, employees often take jobs that do not like and make decisions in which they do not believe.In a more ethical world, I reasoned, they should have people to understand their goals and dedicate themselves to fulfilling them.Raniere says that he was inspired by Rand's books.The protagonists of Atlas Shrugged (the rebellion of Atlas) and The Fountainhead (the spring), are hyperindividualist, aggressive and ruthless.

In 1990, Raniere decided to apply his theory in his new business, Consumer’s Buyline, a multilevel marketing program near Albany that promised huge commissions to existing customers who could enroll new.He toured the entire country offering discounts on grocery stores, washing machines and even nights in hotels, shaking multitudes of infrequent individuals and hungry for profits."It was like a mythological character," says Robert Bremner, a program ex -salesman."The guy with the IQ of 240 reached the city".

A lot of fortune, but nothing in your pocket

Raniere says that by the end of 1993 he had already sold $ 1,000 million in products and services, he used 80 people and a quarter of a million followers paid $ 19 per month to promote his products.At that moment, he says, his fortune was 50 million pesos.Despite this, he never had money, says Bremner, who adds that Raniere seemed to sleep all day, appeared at his office at 10 p.m. and made together at 1 a.m..The business began to stagger, the debts grew and the customers complained.Authorities in 20 states began to investigate.In 1993, New York Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit against Consumer’s Buyline, with the allegation that it was a pyramid business.Without admitting any crime, Raniere reached an agreement for $ 40,000, of which barely paid 9,000.He says that he cannot pay the rest despite the fact that his baggy finances allow him to live on his savings.

A year later, Raniere created another multilevel business, National Health Network, which sold vitamins.Together with his ex -girlfriend Toni Natalie, they set up a health store in Clifton Park, NY.One day in 2007, Raniere met the woman who would become her partner, Nancy Salzman.She was a nurse and therapist who had studied hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming, with which the therapists examine and imitate a person's language and speech patterns to alter their behavior.(Raniere also studied this.)

The partner and accomplice

Salzman had just passed through a difficult stage.Raniere seemed captivating and for her she became her spiritual guidance, becoming her most burning follower."There is no more important discovery for humanity from writing as Raniere's technology," Salzman once wrote in a brochure.He gave Raniere's girlfriend, Toni Natalie, and lent him $ 50,000 for the health business business.When he broke in 1999, a bitter legal battle was triggered in a Federal Banking Court in Albany.Raniere took the side of Salzman and Natalie retired.Court's records show that Raniere sent Natalie scored verses of Paradise Lost (lost paradise).("And even the slightest of her movements baffle the infernal malice - stupid/weak".) He drew a diagram with Natalie's life plan and said he unleashed to a "pride barrier", to a "mortal sleep line".

Raniere and Salzman did not deny the accusations directly, but they said that Natalie could have altered documents in the court, a position that she called ridiculous.In January, a federal judge said that it seemed "disturbing" that Raniere would have sent the police to Natalie's mother's house and that she would have issued threats to her and her family.Raniere has appealed the case several times and brought Natalie on the edge of a nervous breakdown."I can't think, I can't work, I can't pay my accounts," she says.

Albany, Mexico ... and beyond

In 1998, Salzman incorporated into Delaware the company that launched the Executive Success Progra.She and "Vanguard" agreed that he stayed with part of the profits at a certain moment.The company today is known as NXIVM.They offer classes in Albany, Manhattan, Seattle, Boston and several cities in Mexico and plan to grow more.

In August, in a complex of office cafés near the Albany airport, 50 entrepreneurs and bankers, they met sitting in fluffy armchairs to seriously discuss concepts such as "value" and "ethics".The days start at 8 am with the "Palmada Esp", similar to the hammer noise with which a judge arrives at the Court.Students take lessons about "money", "the face of the universe", control, freedom and submission ", among others.They learn an incomprehensible and solipsist jargon."Parasites" are people who suffer, create problems where they do not exist and die from attention."The suppressors" see good, but they want to destroy it.Therefore, an individual who criticizes EPS demonstrates a suppressor behavior.

In "money", students learn that every dollar they spend represents a certain part of their effort, and also that "Vanguard identifies the concept of giving and receiving with integrity".The coaches are urgent to take each lesson several times at a cost of several thousand dollars;And to think that every dollar they spend like this is a valuable representation of their effort.In a fundamental part of the program, known as "meaning exploration", teachers explore the beliefs and contexts of students in search of emotional buttons.There they encourage people to reveal some negative habit, to accept how they help their survival and promise to replace it with something new.

Confidentiality by force

Confidentiality is sacrosanta.Students must sign non -dissemination agreements and swear not to reveal what they learn.If they violate that, they will be "compromising their internal honesty and integrity".In August, Raniere demanded a woman for disseminating information.When a Forbes audit reporter in a session, the group's lawyer presented a three -page confidentiality agreement that prohibits the magazine from writing about almost nothing or heard in said event.The reporter refused to sign him (although later they allowed him a brief visit to the Albany site).

For some, all this can be very intense.After several sleepless nights and 17 -hour workshops, a 28 -year -old woman from a powerful Mexican family says she has had hallucinations and had a nervous collapse in her hotel on the outskirts of Albany.He had to go to a hospital and required psychiatric treatment.His psychiatrist, Carlos Rueda, says that in the last three years he has treated two more women who took the lessons and that one had a psychotic episode.

A kingdom where it only rivers

Stephanie Franco, a New Jersey social worker, paid $ 2,160, more expenses, for a five -day class in Albany at the suggestion of her half -brother, an executive in a family textile company (with brands like Lollytogs).Other relatives also did, but Franco was worried about the group's rituals, as well as the emphasis on recruiting more customers.The family found Rick a.Ross, a Jersey City cult specialist.But it was all in vain.Then he went up to his website information about the group, but then received a demand from Raniere and Salzman, who accused him of violating copyright.In September, a federal judge in Albany denied the organization its initial request that Ross deleted the information.

The Franco family also hired John Hochman, a forensic psychiatrist who teaches in UCLA.He studied the Executive Success Manual and described it like this: “It is a kind of kingdom where Vanguard governs, with its own English language dictionary, with its own moral code, and with the ability to obtain taxes from their subjects when making participantsof his seminars.It is a real -border kingdom, but with psychological barriers.There is influenced how subjects spend their time, socialize and think ”.In their demand, Raniere and Salzman made similar accusations of an alleged violation of their copyright by Hochman and Stephanie Franco.

Raniere and Salzman say that they take care of accepting problematic students.In his world, those who question Raniere's vision do not capture the idea.He speaks slowly and methodically, with one and the other, with words that he coons for himself and then pauses to explain them.For some, that makes genius.For others, it is nothing more than manure.

Fascination and meritocracy

Despite this, many disciples swear the avant -name.Several students reached a range that qualifies them to obtain 20% by commission of the new members to which they have recruited.However, most students are there for coaching.Sara, the 26 -year -old daughter of Edgar Bronfman, says she lived in Belgium and listened to the program for a family friend.It was amazed by everything that Raniere could teach her.Since then, she reached the coach range and works full for Executive Success.

Sara and other devotees talk about riding centers in Australia and other places.Raniere has private investors to pay for a 7,000 -square -meter building near Albany.In the original design, the building was going to emerge from a stone basement under a hexagonal glass roof.That, as a tribute to civilization;One more step in the mission of spreading the avant -garde gospel all over the world."I don't know how much you know my family," says Sara Bronfman, watching Delite the silk band that crosses her chest.“But coming from a family in which I never earned anything in life, it has been a moving experience that they have recognized me with this yellow bar.It is the first thing I have obtained based on my own merits ”.