51 Facts About Keith Raniere

Keith Raniere was born on August 26,1960, in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of James Keith Raniere, an advertising executive, and Vera Oschypko, a ballroom-dancing instructor.

When Keith Raniere was five years old, his family relocated upstate to Suffern, New York.

Keith Raniere attended Suffern High School for ninth grade before transferring to Rockland Country Day School.

Keith Raniere graduated in June 1978, two months prior to his eighteenth birthday.

In 1982, Keith Raniere graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a 2.26 GPA, barely passing and failing many classes.

Keith Raniere was employed as a computer programmer for the New York State Division of Parole.

In June 1988, the Albany Times Union profiled Keith Raniere, reporting on his membership in the Mega Society after he achieved a high score on the MEGA test, an unsupervised, 48-question test published in the April 1985 issue of Omni magazine.

At a CBI pitch meeting, Keith Raniere met Toni Natalie, who subsequently became a top seller for the organization, along with her then-husband.

In 1994, Keith Raniere created National Health Network, a multi-level seller of vitamins; that business failed three years later.

In 1996, Keith Raniere signed a consent order with New York State resolving the case against CBI; without admitting wrongdoing, he agreed to pay a $40,000 fine.

The consent order permanently barred Keith Raniere from "promoting, offering or granting participation in a chain distribution scheme".

In October 2003, Keith Raniere was featured, cloaked in shadows, on the cover of Forbes magazine, accompanied by the appellation "The World's Strangest Executive Coach".

Bouchey spent $1.6 million covering losses of commodities trades which Keith Raniere had made in her name.

Keith Raniere suggested to Clare Bronfman that the losses were due to market manipulation by her father.

The Dalai Lama additionally wrote the foreword to the book The Sphinx and Thelxiepeia, which Keith Raniere co-authored in 2009.

The prior year, Keith Raniere had co-authored his first book, Odin and The Sphinx.

In November 2010, Vanity Fair published an article, "The Heiresses and the Cult", in which Natalie, another former partner of Keith Raniere, recalled that he "had insisted she keep the body of her dead puppy in her garage freezer and look at it daily".

In 2010, it was reported that Keith Raniere had ordered that the child be kept away from peers and that he was being cared for by nannies speaking five different languages.

In February 2014, Keeffe broke up with Keith Raniere and left NXIVM.

In 2015, Keeffe publicly alleged that Keith Raniere directed the Canadian investigative firm Canaprobe to obtain financial information on six federal judges and a United States senator as well as a reporter, an editor and the publisher of the Times Union.

That same year, Keeffe further alleged that Keith Raniere had planned to lure his critics to Mexico with an invitation to an anti-cult conference; once there, the critics were to be arrested on false charges by order of a local judge who had been bribed.

Keeffe stated at Keith Raniere's sentencing that he had never paid child support for their son.

Keith Raniere was sanctioned and ordered to pay $450,000 in attorneys' fees.

Keith Raniere later claimed to have been the victim of harassment.

Keith Raniere offered to tutor the girl, whose mother worked for CBI, and one of his live-in partners, Pamela Cafritz, hired her to walk their dog and encouraged her to visit their townhouse.

The prosecution established that Keith Raniere impregnated each sister at various times and compelled them to obtain abortions.

Daniela maintained her captivity began when she told Keith Raniere she had romantic feelings for another man.

Keith Raniere accused her of an "ethical breach" and assigned Salzman to help her "learn from her mistakes".

Salzman corroborated Daniela's account at the trial, testifying that her efforts to leave the room were all rejected, and that Keith Raniere had told Salzman to ignore a letter sent by Daniela pleading to be let out, brushing it off as "a tantrum".

The abusive relationship with Keith Raniere continued into her adulthood, where his control and demands led to her developing an eating disorder, self-harming and attempting suicide.

In 2015, Keith Raniere created a secret subgroup within NXIVM called "DOS", an acronym for "Dominus Obsequious Sororium".

Keith Raniere was the only male in DOS and sat at the top of the pyramid as the "grandmaster".

Keith Raniere initially recruited eight women to join DOS, including Allison Mack, Nicki Clyne and Lauren Salzman, who became his inner-circle members and DOS "first-line masters".

Keith Raniere encouraged DOS masters to use demeaning and derogatory language and racial slurs to humiliate DOS slaves.

The DOS branding ritual followed a script created by Keith Raniere: slaves were required to be fully naked, with the ceremonies filmed and used as more collateral on the DOS slaves.

Salzman testified that she was helping Keith Raniere edit his DOS manifesto that enforced the master-slave relationships.

Salzman later testified that when the police arrived, she and Keith Raniere barricaded themselves in the master suite, with Keith Raniere attempting to hide in a walk-in closet.

American authorities took custody of Keith Raniere and presented him in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, and later transferred him to custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City.

From his 2018 arraignment in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York through his sentencing in 2021, prosecutors sought to keep Keith Raniere remanded to the MDC.

Keith Raniere's attorneys petitioned for his release on bail, while prosecutors opposed the petition, citing Keith Raniere's inconsistent answers about his income and his previous flight to Mexico.

In opening statements, prosecutors contended that Keith Raniere was not a mentor but a "predator" who targeted people looking to improve their lives and took advantage of them once he gained their trust.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, conversely, said that Keith Raniere's interactions were all consensual, saying that those who left the group were not subject to punishment.

Agnifilo concluded Keith Raniere was an eccentric who lived an alternative polyamorous lifestyle with consenting adults, noting that "disgusting lifestyles aren't criminal".

The communications included Keith Raniere instructing his followers to have Alan Dershowitz, the attorney who successfully negotiated a non-prosecution agreement for the late Jeffrey Epstein, speak on his behalf; Dershowitz did not comment on the matter.

Prosecutors said Keith Raniere has stayed in touch with members of NXIVM since his conviction, casting himself in emails as a victim and encouraging them to keep the group alive.

On July 20,2021, Keith Raniere made a virtual appearance from his USP Tucson prison cell for a hearing on restitution, the last remaining material from the trial.

Judge Garaufis ruled that twenty-one victims of Keith Raniere should receive a total of $3.46 million in restitution.

Garaufis's order stated that "all lower-ranking DOS members are statutorily entitled to the return of their collateral" and ordered Keith Raniere "to effectuate that return to the fullest extent practicable".

Keith Raniere gave notice of appeal of both his conviction and sentence to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in November 2020.

In May 2022, Keith Raniere filed suit against the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Prisons, alleging that his civil rights are violated as a prisoner in USP Tucson.

Keith Raniere sought an injunction allowing visitation and phone calls from Chakravorty, who he claims is a paralegal working on his appeals.