NXIVM Corporation trivia: 104 interesting facts about the alleged marketing company!

NXIVM Corporation is alleged to be a multi-level, American, marketing company but has been labeled as a pyramid scheme!

So what let’s dive into some unknows about this company!

1. NXIVM was alleged to be an American multi-level marketing company
2. Based near Albany, New York
3. That offered personal and professional development seminars through its “Executive Success Programs”
4. NXIVM has been labeled by several journalists as a pyramid scheme
5. And has also been accused by former members of being a recruiting platform for a cult operating within it
6. Variously called “DOS” or “The Vow”
7. In which women were branded and forced into sexual slavery
8. In early 2018, NXIVM founder Keith Raniere and his associate, actress Allison Mack, were arrested
9. They were indicted on federal charges related to DOS
10. Including sex trafficking
11. Both Mack and NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in early 2019
12. Raniere’s trial is expected to begin on April 29, 2019
13. In 1998, Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman founded NXIVM
14. Offering “Executive Success Programs” (“ESPs”)
15. And a range of techniques aimed at self-improvement
16. Raniere stressed that the programs’ “main emphasis is to have people experience more joy in their lives”
17. In 2003, Forbes magazine reported that some 3,700 people had taken part in ESP offerings
18. Naming Sheila Johnson, Antonia Novello, Stephen Cooper of Enron, and Ana Cristina Fox, daughter of former Mexican president Vicente Fox
19. Other participants were later reported to include Richard Branson, Linda Evans, Allison Mack, Kristin Kreuk, Grace Park, Nicki Clyne, and Sarah Edmondson
20. In the early 2000s, Seagram heiresses Clare and Sara Bronfman became attached to the organization
21. During seminars, students were expected to call Raniere and Salzman “Vanguard” and “Prefect”, respectively
22. The Hollywood Reporter stated that Raniere “adopted the title ‘Vanguard’ from a favorite arcade game he had played as a child, in which the destruction of one’s enemies increased one’s own power”
23. Within the organization, the reasoning for the titles was that Raniere was the leader of a philosophical movement
24. And Salzman was his first student
25. A prior business venture of Raniere’s, Consumers Buyline, was accused by the New York Attorney General of having been a pyramid scheme
26. Raniere signed a consent order in 1996 in which he denied any wrongdoing
27. But agreed to pay a $40,000 fine
28. And to be permanently banned from “promoting, offering or granting participation in a chain distribution scheme”
29. NXIVM’s training is a trade secret, subject to non-disclosure agreements
30. But reportedly uses a technique the organization calls “rational inquiry”
31. To facilitate personal and professional development
32. In 2003, NXIVM sued the Ross Institute
33. Alleging copyright infringement for publishing excerpts of content from its manual in three critical articles commissioned by cult investigator Rick Alan Ross
34. And posted on his website
35. Ross posted a psychiatrist’s assessment of NXIVM’s “secret” manual on his website
36. The report called the regimen “expensive brainwashing”
37. The manual was obtained by Ross from former member Stephanie Franco
38. A co-defendant in the trial
39. Who had signed a non-disclosure agreement not to divulge information from the manual to others
40. NXIVM filed suits in both New York and New Jersey
41. But both were later dismissed
42. In October 2003, Forbes published an article on NXIVM and Raniere
43. Vanity Fair subsequently reported of the article: “People at NXIVM were stunned. Expecting a positive story, the top ranks had spoken to Forbes, including Raniere, Salzman, and Sara Bronfman. What upset them above all were Edgar Bronfman’s remarks
44. ‘I think it’s a cult,’ he told the magazine, going on to say that he was troubled about the ’emotional and financial’ investment in NXIVM by his daughters, to whom he hadn’t spoken in months”
45. In 2006, Forbes published an article about the Bronfman sisters,
46. Stating that they had taken out a line of credit to loan NXIVM US$2 million
47. Repayable through personal training sessions from Salzman
48. And for Salzman being available to take calls from Clare
49. And a third Forbes article in 2010 discussed the failures of commodities and real-estate deals made pursuant to Raniere’s advice
50. In 2006, actress Kristin Kreuk became involved with NXIVM
51. Salzman and her daughter Lauren went to Vancouver to recruit Kreuk’s Smallville costar Allison Mack
52. The younger Salzman bonded with Mack
53. And the latter became involved
54. Although Kreuk would subsequently leave NXIVM
55. Mack became “an enthusiastic proselytizer” for NXIVM
56. Persuading her parents to take courses
57. And, after wrapping production of Smallville in 2011, moved to Clifton Park, New York near NXIVM’s home-base in Albany
58. March to April 2007 saw a string of donations from NXIVM cult members to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, with over a dozen members donating the maximum allowable figure of $2,300
59. The donations totalled $29,900
60. The World Ethical Foundations Consortium sponsored a visit to Albany by the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009
61. The visit was initially cancelled due to negative press surrounding NXIVM
62. But was rescheduled
63. And the Dalai Lama spoke at Albany’s Palace Theatre in May 2009
64. Subsequently, in 2017, Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the self-styled “Personal Emissary for Peace for the Dalai Lama,” who had arranged the appearance, was suspended from his position amid corruption charges
65. The investigation also revealed a personal relationship between Dhonden and Sara Bronfman
66. Which began in 2009
67. A report by the Ross Institute described its seminars as “expensive brainwashing”
68. For several years, NXIVM was accused of being a cult controlled by Raniere
69. In a 2010 article in the Albany Times Union, former NXIVM coaches characterized students as “prey” for use by Raniere
70. In satisfying his sexual or gambling-related proclivities
71. Kristin Keeffe left the group in 2014
72. Describing Raniere as “dangerous”
73. And stating that “all the worst things you know about NXIVM are true”
74. Starting with an October 2017 article in The New York Times, details began to emerge about DOS
75. A “secret sisterhood” within NXIVM
76. In which female members were allegedly referred to as “slaves”
77. Branded with the initials of Raniere and Mack
78. Subjected to corporal punishment from their “masters”
79. And required to provide nude photos or other potentially damaging information about themselves as “collateral”
80. It has also been alleged that members of DOS were forced into sexual slavery
81. Sarah Edmondson, a Canadian actress who had been an ESP participant since 2005, said that she left the group after Mack inducted her into DOS the preceding March at her Albany house
82. Edmondson alleged that participants were blindfolded naked
83. Held down by Mack and three other women
84. And branded by NXIVM-affiliated doctor Danielle Roberts
85. Using a cauterizing pen
86. Appearing on an A&E show about cults, Edmondson would provide additional context on the use of the “collateral” concept
87. Stating that it was used in innocuous forms from the earliest, outermost stages of NXIVM in order to acclimatize victims
88. The Times would later report that “hundreds” of members left NXIVM after Edmondson went public about her experience
89. On December 15, 2017, the ABC news magazine 20/20 aired an exposé featuring interviews with many former NXIVM adherents
90. Including Edmondson and Catherine Oxenberg
91. Who alleged that her daughter, India Oxenberg, was in danger due to the group
92. Several former members reported financial and sexual predation carried out by NXIVM leaders
93. Edmondson was featured in “Escaping NXIVM”
94. During the first season of the CBC podcast Uncover
95. In March 2018, Raniere was arrested and indicted on a variety of charges related to DOS
96. He was arrested in Mexico and held in custody in New York after appearing in Federal Court in Fort Worth, Texas
97. The indictment alleged that at least one woman was coerced into sex with Raniere
98. Who forced DOS members to undergo the branding ritual alleged by Edmondson and others
99. United States Attorney Richard Donoghue stated that Raniere “created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets”
100. And the FBI’s New York Field Office Assistant Director-in-Charge stated that Raniere “displayed a disgusting abuse of power in his efforts to denigrate and manipulate women he considered his sex slaves”
101. On March 13, 2019, Nancy Salzman pleaded guilty to a charge of racketeering criminal conspiracy
102. Her daughter, Lauren Salzman, was also charged in the case
103. On April 8, 2019, Allison Mack pleaded guilty to charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader
104. Raniere and Mack are scheduled to be tried in federal court beginning on April 29, 2019