Part 2 opens with a panoramic view of the MDC and all of its hope killing brutalist construction. We hear voiceover audio from a recording Keith made for his website Raniere Speaks. The website was set up by loyalist Suneel Chakravorty after Keith’s conviction, but before he was sentenced.
Suneel became kind of Keith’s PA. A Harvard graduate, he is in the tech field. Based on his Xitter account, Suneel is really pro AI. He thinks people who are resistant to AI are afraid of change. As someone who is very wary of it, he is probably right but I digress. Back to the episode
Once MDC officials heard about the website, Keith’s communication with Suneel was blocked. There’s plenty more little details from Keith’s time in jail, before he was shipped to Tucson, Arizona, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
From the audio clip: “Justice is supposed to be blind! That means the saint and the devil are handled the same! …if I go to a pen and I have this sex charge… I will probably be killed in prison.”
Cut to loyalist Nicki Clyne saying Keith will probably be killed in prison. She knows he’s innocent. Sitting outside of the MDC, she and Keith are communicating by flashlight. No, really. They’ve created some flashlight language. Keith and his followers are all fluent.
We cut to Nicki driving in her car. She tells us her lawyer has advised she take her Canadian butt back home and separate herself from this whole Nxivm mess. Nicki says the federal government was after her for two years. They might still come after her “because I’m doing this.” By “this” she means publicly supporting Keith.
The “Affidavit.”
Keith was really hoping for an adjournment, a delay in sentencing. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, was like, Keith, it’s not going to happen. You need to prepare yourself for sentencing day.
Interview with Agnifilo from the Frank Report:
Frank Report: What would you rate the chances if you were an oddsmaker of the judge granting an adjournment?
Agnifilo: Between zero and 0.01% and I’m being generous. I mean, I think if an asteroid hit the Earth, he would sentence Keith on Tuesday. This is happening.
Keith, being Keith, was certain he could throw a wrench in the proceedings and get his way. He told his followers to write up an “affidavit” to present to the prosecution. Agnifilo was not pleased.
According to Nicki, Keith worked on this little document for “months and months” with Suneel. It has statements like, “We, the prosecutors, have never tampered with evidence. We did not lie in court. We did not lie to the public” and so on. Nicki says the statements are such any prosecutor should be willing to “affirm.” Keith’s loyalists want all three prosecutors to sign it. And then? Oh, whatever.
We cut to loyalist Michele who says the plan is to give the document to the prosecutors and then send a copy to the press. It is assumed media reaction will put pressure on the judge to put off sentencing.
The gang of loyalists arrive at lead prosecutor Moira Penza’s office building in NYC. They are wearing masks that say “silenced” on the front. If only! The irony! Guys, you have a literal film crew following you around. Who is silencing you?
Michele suggests she and Nicki be the ones to go to Moira’s office. Nicki looks like she’s about to short circuit. “I mean, yeah. My— I wanna go, I, strategically… I don’t want to fuck myself. That’s the only thing. Like…”
The gang decide to just send it by email. “Yeah, that’s nicer. We really don’t want, in any way, to come across as threatening,” Nicki says, sounding relieved. “Well, it literally says ‘dirty prosecution’ on my website,” says Suneel, with a bit of a smirk.
Here’s what I think: Fuck Keith. Let him be “at cause” with the choices he made. Go back to your life, Suneel. Lead us into this new dystopian era of AI. I kid! I kid! AI is awesome. I’m sure the future is bright.
It’s so interesting watching this scene, though, knowing Keith ignored his high-priced lawyer’s advice. The loyalists seem so sure this will get a strong enough reaction from the press and prosecution to create a ruckus. Meanwhile, Moira’s up in her office sending a cease and desist to Keith’s lawyer. She’s not interested in playing with the Manson Family 2.0.
We cut to Moira, in her office, who points out Keith had excellent representation in court. She calls the whole thing a side show and, typical for Keith, an attempt at manipulation. She’s not impressed.
The loyalists are still living inside their little bubble with Keith’s version of reality. He is still a powerful figure who commands attention. They believe the adjournment is a done deal. To celebrate, they will be dancing in front of the MDC that evening.
“Tonight’s going to be lit!” says Michele, smiling in a way that looks forced. She sounds delusional and arrogant.
It’s Lit.
The dance party is on at club MDC. We see various cuts of dancing from different nights. I could swear at one point it looks like they hired a DJ. The dancing takes on a religious fervor with everyone’s eyes looking upward to Keith’s window.
Keith had instructed his loyalists to get more people to show up and dance “erotically.” Speculation on Reddit was he was trying to get in good with his fellow inmates. Keith was probably like, “Get erotic or I get stabbed in the cafeteria.”
MDC officials got sick of the dancing bullshit. They moved Keith to a different cell facing in a different direction. No more dance floor view. Keith told his people to “ingratiate” themselves with the guards and offer them coffee and donuts at the end of their shifts. He hoped that would get him moved back. No dice.
I’m sorry, but is that the sound of Marc Agnifilo banging his head on his desk in frustration? Hey, Keith. You do know you haven’t been sentenced, right? These antics are not a good look. Little extra factoid: Keith was busted with two burner phones in his cell.
We cut to Nancy Salzman who is at her parents’ house. Nancy’s parents are in their 90’s and now that she is no longer consumed by Nxivm, she realized they needed her support and care.
Nancy’s kind of at the make-jokes-about-possibly-going-to-jail part of her emotional journey. Better than wallowing in abject terror, I would think. She tells us the court has asked her to write a letter describing her relationship with Keith through the years. Nancy tells us early on in her friendship with Keith, he initiated a sexual relationship. I read in her lawyers’ sentencing defense memo to the judge, Keith initiated having sex with Nancy early early. He wasted no time getting down to phase two of manipulating her.
Nancy says their sexual relationship was brief and he ended it abruptly. It wasn’t that Nancy wanted to be with Keith really, but given his promiscuity, she wondered why he didn’t want to continue sleeping with her as he was with hundreds of other women. (She didn’t actually say hundreds, but that’s a good guesstimate.) She felt rejected and ashamed. Exactly as Keith intended. If that hadn’t worked, he would have told her she was fat or something. As Keith’s ex-girlfriend Toni Natalie has said, he has a very small toolbox. You can read that either way. I’m sure both are true.
We cut to the loyalists giving an interview on CBS This Morning. The reporter wants to know if Nicki or Michele had sex with Keith. “It’s a yes or no question,” she snaps. Reporters, journalists… they can be tough. Michele keeps her cool. Politely, she’s like, relax, lady. Still politely, she tells her it’s none of anyone’s business.
The segment cuts to the affidavit the loyalists sent to Moira. A reporter says the prosecutors did not comment on the document, but they did share a copy of the prison email which showed Keith was behind the whole thing. A lawyer, representing Keith’s victims, calls it a publicity stunt. Hey, Keith. You do know MDC officials record your phone calls and read your emails, right?
We cut to Nippy and Sarah at home in Vancouver. They watched the CBS segment with the loyalists and are like, yeah, that interview didn’t go well.
We cut back to Nancy. She tells us a truly horrible memory of Keith. He had showed up to her house for breakfast, as he usually did. He asked Nancy if she could change Pam’s bed linens, because she had had an accident. This was in 2016 and Pam was bedridden by this time because she was dying of cancer. Nancy started to leave to go to Pam’s, but Keith insisted she make him breakfast first. Then he insisted she stay and talk with him while he ate. Finally, (after what sounds like a couple of hours) Keith let Nancy head out to Pam’s.
When Nancy stepped into Pam’s bedroom she saw she had defecated all over herself. Nancy was shocked. She tells us she couldn’t believe it. “And he let her stay in that while he ate breakfast in my house.”
Nancy had someone call an ambulance to take Pam to the hospital. She was fading in and out of consciousness and appeared close to death. Nancy says it wasn’t the same between her and Keith after that.
While Nancy tells us this memory, we cut to video of Keith eating breakfast. (I can’t get over how he wanted a camera filming him 24/7. I know he’s a narcissist, but filming absolutely everything? So weird.) Keith has a bit of a dainty eating style. Listening to Nancy, juxtaposed with watching Keith, was an interesting visual. Subtle, but deliberate editing, in my opinion.
“He doesn’t care about any of us,” Nancy says. “People are utilities to Keith.”
We cut to Nicki sitting outside of the MDC, chatting with Keith by flashlight as we hear a voiceover audio of a call between Keith and one of his followers. Keith sounds a bit panicked. He thinks “the narrative” has made him into a devil that’s easy to blame everything on. With his sentencing coming up in three weeks, he wants his followers to find a journalist “who seeks truth over this exaggerated craziness.”
We cut to Nicki in her Brooklyn home. She and the loyalists are meeting with journalist Amanda Robb to see if she’s interested in telling their story.
An unsmiling, rather intimidating Amanda meets with the gang by conference video. I told you, journalists are tough. Nicki tells her they are hoping they can find someone to tell their story without “all of this bullshit” that has colored the narrative so far. “Like, what is a ‘sex cult’?” Nicki asks, as if the descriptor has no obvious meaning.
Bluntly, Amanda tells them the truth. “No one is going to buy the story you guys want to tell right now,” she says. What publications would be interested in is what they are going to do next with their lives. She’s willing to go on the journey with them as they figure this out, but that’s what it’s going to take. The gang look disappointed.
In voice over, we hear reporters say sentencing will be tomorrow. Nancy reads Camila will be making a victim’s impact statement in person. She’s shocked.
We cut to Nicki who has heard the same news. She, too, is shocked and also upset, “I imagine it’s going to be very damaging.”
Sentencing Day.
We hear voice overs of various reporters talking about Keith’s impending sentence. The camera cuts to various headlines, including one from Emily Saul’s paper, The New York Post, “GVILTY AS SIN.” I like that one.
The Victim Impact Statements precede the judges sentence.
We cut to Sarah at home in Vancouver. She reads the news report of Keith’s sentence, but it’s a such a surprise, she’s not sure she’s understanding it. “Nippy! It says 120! What does that mean?! …120 years! 120 years!” She’s in happy shock.
We cut to outside the courthouse. EXSPian Susan Dones says wryly, “120 years. Maybe he’ll get a few years off for good behavior, ha ha ha.”
Barbra Bouchey tells the press after 20 years, the book of Keith Raniere is finally closing.
I just realized Susan, Barbra and some others were in court when Keith was read his sentence. That must have been satisfying. It’s been a long ass time and justice has finally been served.
The loyalists speak to the press. Marc Elliot, “Today’s greatest victim is due process.” I cannot tell you how much that statement infuriates me. Keith had a team of some of the country’s top lawyers. Marc Agnifilo is internationally famous for defending notoriously loathed people and winning. The trial was by the book. The press attention was constant. Nothing could have flown under the radar. Such bullshit. My empathy flies out the window.
The loyalists are an articulate and attractive bunch of people. The very definition of “camera ready.” They’re no Sandra Good and Squeaky Fromme with shaved heads and Xs carved into their foreheads. People have given them plenty of platforms to have their say. They have no convincing rebuttal. They have to dismiss countless testimonies as lies as well as insist the prosecution was corrupt to make the case Keith is innocent. If you want to stand by Keith, no matter his crimes, that’s your choice, of course. But whining about him not getting due process is absurd.
We cut to Frank Parlato. He watches as Nicki and the others, visibly upset, walk down the street away from the courthouse and the reporters shouting out questions. Not without sympathy, he says he would like to see them realize the truth about Keith. “…he was a fraud. An exquisite fraud.” He could convince people he was a saint “but in reality, he is a deviant.”
We cut to Nancy at home reading about Keith’s sentence. She doesn’t seem remotely surprised. Her reaction is unemotional, though she seems to agree with the sentence. Or, at least, doesn’t have a problem with it.
She decides to listen to Mark Vicente’s Victim Impact Statement. It really upsets her and makes her feel defensive. She still believes Keith did good things for people. But she knows without having done good things, he couldn’t have done evil things. So, is Keith a mixture of good and bad or were all his good deeds just to enable his evil? I think the latter. Keith is pure predator.
I imagine all of Keith’s “good” deeds were completely self-serving. He may buy you an ice cream cone, but he’s doing it because, now or later, that will serve him. You know what I mean? Otherwise, what’s the point? The ESP tech was nothing more than a long con manipulation. Hurting people is just fun and games for this guy. Nothing more.
We cut to Marc Agnifilo in his office. He explains that the defense team was able to find “hundreds of people” from various countries who had positive things to say about Keith, but none of these people were willing to come to Brooklyn and take the stand. A commenter on Reddit said that was Marc’s discreet way of saying nobody could defend Keith in court without perjuring themselves.
Marc sticks to the defense of, “I think Nxivm was legitimate and helped a lot of people.” But… “After Keith’s sentencing, I said, you know Keith. This was a fascinating debate and maybe even a debate that we win until you have allegations of underage sex and pornography. And then you don’t get to be a participant in the debate anymore.”
That’s as far as Marc can go. I also read on Reddit, defense attorneys are not allowed to speak badly about their former clients. Code of Ethics. Part of the Standard of Defense.
Nancy.
We cut to Nancy, at home, having a video session with cult expert and counselor, Diane Benscoter. I heard a podcast interview with Diane that discusses how she became involved in working with victims of cults. It was really interesting.
Nancy tells her she believes the ESP “tech” was good, it’s just Keith that was bad. Diane gently tries to explain the manipulation was built into the program. Nancy’s expression and attitude is like, nahhh, I don’t think so. You can tell confronting this is a bridge too far for her right now.
After she gets off the call, Nancy admits she feels “resistant.” She doesn’t want to believe ESP might have been harmful. She doesn’t know how she’s going to deal with that if it’s true.
She’s still at the feeling defensive stage of the process. Breaking down, she says when it came to dealing with Keith, she doesn’t feel she had a choice. It’s kind of amazing this is coming from a woman who for 20 years, taught (and shamed) people that in all things they are responsible for their choices and circumstances. Crying, Nancy says Keith was always sending her in to deal with his various women and all the drama. He manipulated her by making her feel guilty by crying about his health and whatnot.
Keith really was an incredible drama queen when it came to playing sick. From reading trial transcripts, I learned he’d say pretty much anything: He was coughing up blood, his energy was draining and his life force was slipping away. Death was looming. Just whatever nonsense. Nancy tells us she was just trying to keep it together. She was all alone and had no one to talk to.
She feels guilty because she couldn’t do better. Gesturing towards a book of photographs of the old days at Nxivm, she cries and says, “These people are going to come to my sentencing and maybe I should go to jail because this is what I did!” She and Lauren “didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t manage it.” Lauren’s like, Hey Mom, did you not see me testify? I owned my shit.
Susan Dones said in an interview (I think this is it) Nancy would confide in her now and again. Susan described her as having frequent meltdowns behind the scenes. And from what Susan said in the interview, Nancy very much knew illegal shit was going on. I think she knew Keith was bad news earlyin their partnership. I bet Keith enjoyed watching her sell herself out over and over again, too. I think the more she sold herself out by ignoring his shit, the tighter the grip she had on “the company.” That’s what she was selling herself out for, right?
And I really do believe she had a death grip on Nxivm. She wasn’t going to give that up, even for her own daughter. She knew Keith had preyed on Lauren and she chose Nxivm. Not because she doesn’t love Lauren, but because she was already in the pattern of rationalizing Keith’s behavior if not completely denying it.
We cut to Barbra Bouchey. She tells us she has known Nancy since 1988. Barbra trusted, admired and cared about her. She sums up what led to Nancy becoming so ensnared. “Keith put Nancy on a stage and gave her what she wanted the most. That sense of belonging and being revered and being able to do what she thought was her life’s work. And… she lost her way.”
Yeah, sure, but she deferred to him from their first meeting. Who spent 20 years counseling people to help them overcome their problems? It wasn’t fucking Keith Raniere. Before Nancy and ESP, Keith spent 20 years of his life trying to rip people off in pyramid schemes. Yet, Nancy gave him authority over her.
I’m aware Keith had connections. Cons can be good networkers. So, he did have assets that enabled the two of them to build Nxivm together. But Keith was constantly taking people’s talents and handing them back like he just gave them a present. Nxivm would not have existed without Nancy. That’s a dubious honor, but I’m not really talking about Nxivm or ESP. I’m talking about the dynamic between them. He was her boss? Bitch, please. That is insane.
Sentencing Day.
We cut to outside of the courthouse. We hear the voice of Judge Garaufis reading his sentencing statement. He says Nancy was Keith’s 2nd in command. For 20 years she helped him consolidate his power and shared it. She went to extreme lengths to protect Nxivm which safeguarded and enhanced her own status within the group. In 20 years she never rejected Keith and though the door was open, she never left.
The judge acknowledges she was the first to plead guilty. He also describes her as a loving caretaker to her elderly parents. But, he says, she lured Lauren into Nxivm when she was just out of college. As a result, Keith was able to take advantage of and manipulate Lauren for 20 years. The sentence is 42 months.
We cut to Nancy, who clearly has been crying, in her hotel room with her friend, Carmen Gutierrez. Carmen is sympathetic. She thinks the judge doesn’t understand. Nancy is a combo of shocked, outraged and hurt the judge blamed her for what happened to Lauren. “He blamed me for that! The judge said, you could have left at any time! How could I enroll my daughter in something that’s so- I love my daughter! …there’s nothing more important to me than my children!” Crying hard she says, “And I’m that??”
Judge Garaufis really paid attention and understood what the prosecution was laying down. I’m not confident all male judges would. As soon as I read Keith got 120 years, I was like, whoa! I was so impressed. And grateful, too. Obviously, I became very emotionally invested in this case. “The Vow” series was really well done. Plus, writing these recaps, I was paying extra close attention to many details I might have normally missed. As journalist Emily Saul said, I came to loathe Keith in a way that feels personal.
Keith preyed on everyone, but he mostly was about preying on women. It’s to the benefit of all society when courts take predators like Keith- -leaving out gender politics—and the crimes they commit seriously. So, I do feel gratitude the judge understood how dangerous Keith is. And I think he was fair with Nancy. He chose his words to her carefully.
In her hotel room, Nancy talks to Lauren on the phone. Lauren is very sweet and supportive. Nancy is lucky to have her. Though I’m sure they have a lot of shit to work through between them, I’m glad Keith was not able to break their bond. Nancy tells Lauren she just wants to go to her mom’s house (her dad passed away shortly before she was sentenced.) She is devastated.
As we watch various clips, we read about the sentences of Clare Bronfman, who stands by Keith and Allison Mack, who renounced him.
We read Lauren received many letters of support, including from Sarah and Daniela, asking Judge Garaufis for a lenient sentence. Back in Vancouver, Sarah reads Lauren received five years probation which makes her cry with relief.
Back to Nancy who is relieved for Lauren, too.
Nippy and Sarah have two sons and they also gave birth to a podcast called “A Little Bit Culty.” I have listened to pretty much all of their interviews pertaining to Nxivm and others as well. They were all really interesting. It’s a good podcast.
Vero earned her masters in psychotherapy. She continues to act as well.
Mark and Bonnie have continued with their film careers. Bonnie is on a television series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and Mark is in post-production for a documentary called “Empathy Not Included.”
Keith got new lawyers, appealed his sentence or his conviction? not sure which, but got turned down. I’ll get the details for my wrap-up post if I ever get to it.
Lauren drove Nancy 16 hours to Hazelton, West Virginia where Nancy served her sentence. Judge Garaufis granted her an early release after 20 months. The administration at her prison failed to give her follow up care after an abnormal mammogram. “It’s not supposed to be a death sentence,” he said.
We close out with Nancy’s final thoughts. “I think most people look at this story and say, that could never happen to me.” In Nancy’s opinion the whole Nxivm saga had many similarities to decisions people make in every day life, just exaggerated. “People trade away the things they really want, because they don’t want to create a catastrophe, or they don’t want to end a marriage or quit their job” Making trade after trade, people end up losing themselves. “So, I think it’s not so strange of a story as one might think.”
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Want more Nxivm? India Oxenberg’s doc series Seduced “Hooked” episode 1
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