Long prison stint looms for defiant self-help guru

NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced self-improvement guru Keith Raniere came under harsh attack on Tuesday from former followers during sentencing in his sex-trafficking case.

India Oxenberg, the daughter of “Dynasty” actress Catherine Oxenberg, called him an “entitled little princess” and a sexual predator and lamented that she “may have to spend the rest of my life with Keith Raneire’s initials seared into me.”

Oxenberg was among more than a dozen people to speak out against Raniere in federal court in Brooklyn. Most of them asked U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to make sure Raniere spends the rest of his life in prison. Raniere was to hear his sentence later Tuesday on convictions last year of turning some of his followers from his group, NXIVM, into sex slaves branded with his initials.

In court papers, Raniere’s lawyers have said he’s “not sorry for his conduct or choices.”

The court proceeding in Brooklyn culminates several years of revelations about NXIVM, which charged thousands of dollars for invitation-only self-improvement courses at its headquarters near Albany, New York, and had branches in Mexico and Canada.

Guests included Hollywood actors and other affluent or prominent individuals, some of whom were willing to endure humiliation and pledge obedience for Raniere’s vision of how to pursue perfection.

Prosecutors are seeking life in prison while defense lawyers say he should face 15 years behind bars for his conviction on charges including racketeering, alien smuggling, sex trafficking, extortion and obstruction of justice.

NXIVM has been the subject of two TV documentary series this year, HBO’s “The Vow,” and the Starz series “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.”

Raniere, 60, led what amounted to a criminal enterprise, inducing shame and guilt to influence and control co-conspirators who helped recruit and groom sexual partners for Raniere, prosecutors said. Among other crimes, Raniere began a sexual relationship in 2005 with a 15-year-old girl and confined another teenager to a room for nearly two years, they added.

The likelihood of leniency seemed to dissipate with the recent sentencing of Clare Bronfman, 41, an heir to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, for her role in what has been described by some ex-members as a cult. Bronfman was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. Prosecutors had only sought five years.

Ex-followers told the judge that Bronfman for years had used her wealth to try to silence NXIVM defectors.

Reniere’s followers called him “Vanguard.” To honor him, the group formed a secret sorority comprised of female “slaves” who were branded with his initials and ordered to have sex with him, the prosecutors said. Women were also pressured into giving up embarrassing information about themselves that could be used against them if they left the group.

Along with Bronfman, Raniere’s teachings won him the devotion of Hollywood actors including Allison Mack of TV’s “Smallville.” Mack also has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

In a sentencing submission, lawyers for Reniere said he “continues to assert his complete innocence to these charges.”

They wrote that his jury conviction at an unfair trial resulted from a media campaign involving witnesses who were motivated to testify falsely as part of a “heavy-handed prosecution that threatened potential defense witnesses.”

His lawyers said the life prison term prosecutors sought was excessive.

“No one was shot, stabbed, punched, kicked, slapped or even yelled at,” they said. “Despite the sex offenses, there is no evidence that any woman ever told Keith Raniere that she did not want to kiss him, touch him, hold his hand or have sex with him.”