Mexican authorities broke down the door of a Puerto Vallarta villa in March 2018. Keith Raniere, the man who required followers to call him Vanguard, was found hiding in a closet. His follower Lauren Salzman tried to stop the agents. He stayed hidden.
The arrest came months after the New York Times exposed the existence of a secret inner circle within NXIVM. The FBI investigated. Raniere fled to Mexico and was tracked down and extradited. A federal judge denied bail. His trial in Brooklyn lasted six weeks and featured testimony from former followers and one cooperating co-defendant who described the organization’s inner workings in detail.
In June 2019, the jury convicted Raniere on all seven federal counts: racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, and trafficking among them. In October 2020, he was sentenced to 120 years in prison after the court heard impact statements from fifteen women.
Since the conviction, Raniere has pursued every available legal avenue. His direct appeal was denied by the Second Circuit in 2022. The Supreme Court declined his first cert petition in 2023. His claim that the FBI fabricated evidence was rejected at the trial level and on appeal. A second cert petition is now before the Supreme Court. A habeas corpus petition raising ineffective-counsel claims is on hold.
The pattern is clear: every motion denied, every argument rejected.
Part three of a four-part Hidden Killers investigation into NXIVM and Keith Raniere.
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