BROOKLYN (CN) – Seagram’s liquor heiress Clare Bronfman is out on a $100 million bond after she was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on racketeering charges Tuesday in connection with a group that prosecutors say operated like a secretive cult and recruited women as sex slaves.
Bronfman signed the bond around 5 p.m. Tuesday, but U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis called for a continuation of the hearing Friday morning, as the heiress still needs to call sureties and make available $50 million in assets. Until then, Bronfman will be on house arrest in Manhattan and under electronic monitoring.
Flanked by court marshals and with her hands clasped behind her back, a thin Bronfman pleaded not guilty to all charges, wearing a pale pink T-shirt, dark jeans, ice-blue flip-flops and thin-rimmed glasses. Her brown hair frizzed to her chin.
On Tuesday, prosecutors unveiled their anticipated superseding indictment against Keith Raniere, founder of international professional-development group NXIVM, and his “inner circle,” charging them with running a cult-like criminal enterprise.
Raniere is accused of having created a pyramid sex-slavery scheme called “DOS” or “The Vow” within NXIVM (pronounced “nexium”) in 2005.
Prosecutors claim women known as “masters” recruited other women, known as “slaves,” to join DOS, while concealing Raniere’s position at the top of the pyramid.
The indictment filed by U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue adds as defendants Bronfman, 39, alongside Kathy Russell, Nancy Salzman and her daughter Lauren Salzman. Russell and the Salzmans were arraigned in Albany on Tuesday.
A detention memo filed Tuesday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Kim Penza said Bronfman had schemed to get usernames and passwords from people “believed to be NXIVM’s enemies,” so the group could monitor their emails. She’s also accused of wire fraud to make it appear that a victim was eligible for an investor visa, and of helping Raniere avoid paying taxes by “arranging to pay the monthly credit card bill using [a] dead person’s bank account.” She has also tried to discredit victims and “orchestrated abusive litigation” against people who spoke out, Penza wrote.
The superseding indictment also names “Smallville” actress Allison Mack, who was arrested earlier this year.
According to the indictment, Bronfman and the other defendants were part of a criminal enterprise that demanded “absolute commitment to Raniere, including by exalting Raniere’s teachings and ideology, and not tolerating dissent; inducing shame and guilt in order to influence and control members and associates of the enterprise; obtaining sensitive information about members and associates of the enterprise in order to maintain control over them; recruiting and grooming sexual partners for Raniere; [and] using harassment, coercion and abusive litigation to intimidate and attack perceived enemies and critics of Raniere.”
After collecting damaging information about slaves’ family members or compromising photos, masters like Mack allegedly blackmailed them to keep the group a secret and to have sex with Raniere.
Bronfman surrendered to federal authorities Tuesday and was represented in court by Susan Necheles of Hafetz & Necheles LLP.
Bronfman’s arrest comes as no surprise to those following the case, and her lawyer said in court Tuesday that she knew she was a target for prosecutors.
