File this story under “you can’t make this stuff up!” With the arrest and arraignment of “Smallville” actress, Allison Mack on sex trafficking and other related charges, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports an offshoot of the pyramid scheme”self-help” group and purported cult Nxivm (pronounced NEKS-ee-əm) took up residence at “111 Hicks St., a Brooklyn Heights tower, where up to a dozen [sex] slaves allegedly stayed for various rituals over the past year, according to Frank Parlato, a former publicist for Nxivm who has turned whistleblower.”
Among the women allegedly housed in Brooklyn Heights are daughter of Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg, India. Artvoice blog reports Canadian “Battlestar Galactica” actress Nicki Clyne recently married Mack in order to remain in the United States and hold sway over the Brooklyn “slaves.” Mack leveraged her celebrity status to recruit victims at events held at a private residence in Williamsburg. The reported “rituals” are likely to have subjected the victims to the group’s known tactics of blackmailing with “collateral” of incriminating photos, videos or other damaging information, the branding of their bodies, starvation diets, forced labor all leading up to sexual encounters with leader Keith Raniere.
Spurred by Frank Parlato’s accounts, many news outlets have published in-depth exposes on the group’s exploits including The New York Times,20/20, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Founded in Albany, NY by Keith Raniere and associate Nancy Salzman in 1998, the group touts itself as a “multi-level marketing organization” offering “Executive Success Programs” as a series of seminars. Attendees were required to address Raniere and Salzman as “Vanguard” and “Prefect” respectively. The group has boasted billionaire Richard Branson, Dynasty actress Lynda Evans, daughter of former Mexican President Vincente Fox, Ana Cristina Fox and BET Co-Founder Sheila Johnson as patrons.
Seagram’s heiresses Sara and Clare Bronfman, are also among the group’s most entrenched devotees. Raniere was arrested in Mexico last month and Parlato reports Clare Bronfman, “a true fanatic,” has moved to South Brooklyn to be near her svengali, fund and run the organization while he is held in federal lock up in Marine Park. If convicted both Raniere and Mack face mandatory 15 years to life.
And it just gets weirder and weirder. Unsurprisingly, a television show is already in the works.
