NXIVM



NXIVM (a.k.a. DOS) is an organisation that provides "personal-development" seminars. It behaves in a manner rather akin to a litigious cult. It also operates Executive Success Programs, Inc. It was founded by Keith Raniere ("The Vanguard") in 1998. The name is pronounced to rhyme with "Nexium", an over-the-counter 24-hour antacid.

At one point, they ran a news site called "The Knife of Aristotle", which later just became "The Knife". They claimed to help readers snuff out fake news, but their methodology for doing so was incredibly vague. Nevertheless, Media Bias/Fact Check apparently felt confident enough to give it a "Least Biased" rating, somehow. The Knife shuttered its doors somewhere around August 2018.

What it claims
NXIVM boasted "a remarkable development in scientific and psychodynamic understanding, education, and technology that can facilitate this transition so the pattern of humanity's rises and falls can actually be broken and transformed."

Former Smallville star allegedly recruited her co-star,  into the cult. She was sent to a self-help retreat which turned out to be one of their recruitment seminars. Kreuk just barely got in and then got out, but Mack did not. She co-founded the sex sect, recruited and kept the women underfed, branded them with her initials, and introduced corporal punishment along with her leader. and were also involved in the organization in some capacity. Clearly, Raniere was trying to fuck and brand all the women from your favorite sci-fi shows as a kid. In addition, the guy got two heiresses to give him $60 million.

Response to critics
While gratuitous comparisons to Scientology annoy the experienced cult watcher, it really doesn't help NXIVM's case when they take their moves straight out of said tax-deductible religion's playbook:
 * They label dissenters "suppressives".
 * They respond to said dissenters with attempted overwhelming legal force (to the point where judges call them out on it).
 * They sent private investigators to go through Rick Ross's garbage cans, of all the people to try such a stunt on.
 * They also tried to sue Ross for copyright violations when he quoted their material to criticise it, which surprisingly enough didn't work out too well for them.
 * They even cited a Scientology lawsuit victory as a defense against the forced labor/nude photo blackmail charges filed in the sorority scandal.

Sorority scandal
A secret sorority within the organization, said to have started in 2015, was discovered in 2017, with female recruits being non-consensually branded with a mark below their hip after being asked to voluntarily offer naked photographs and other compromising material as "collateral" and a show of trust. The sorority was structured around obedience, with each circle led by a "master" who would recruit six "slaves", who were then expected to recruit slaves of their own. Punishments for lack of strict obedience included fasting and corporal punishments. Over time, more collateral was demanded from its members. Text messages suggest that Raniere was aware of its practices, including the brand which incorporated his initials. According to court testimony by ex-member Lauren Salzman, Raniere envisioned having thousands of slaves.

In 2018, Raniere was indicted with charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Allison Mack was arrested and charged with the same crimes on April 20, 2018. Reason has, however, criticized the charges of "sex trafficking", noticing that what they did at NXIVM can be called several things, it cannot be called "sex trafficking", and that they're calling it so because of sensationalism.

In April 2019, Allison Mack pleaded guilty to the crimes of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges. In July 2021, Mack was sentenced to three years in prison.

In June 2019, Raniere was found guilty of "racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and attempted sex trafficking." Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison on 27 October 2020.