2.Victim Impact Statements

CAMILA: During this trial I was advised by my lawyer not to speak with the Government and to stay invisible. But I have recognized the power I hold and I am ready to retain my voice and stand up for myself.

As for the individuals that I am here to speak about, it is difficult for me to utter his name. I will only refer to him as "he." I am rebuilding my life and I will not bring him forward into my future. This man that you are about to sentence had a deep invest in my life that I am not sure I can fully quantify or qualify.

It has taken me a long time to begin to process the trauma he caused by his attempts to control my mind and my world. He tried to replace my voice with his own, my thoughts with his self-serving ideas. He twisted my mind for so long that finding the strength and clarity to tell my story has been a slow and painful journey. And even now I realize that I still have a long road ahead of me.

I am here because I am someone's daughter, sister, and friend, and I know that if it was my own daughter, sister, or friend it would be completely unacceptable for her to have been inducted into that situation; therefore, I am standing up for that girl that was someone's daughter and I am saying it is unacceptable that she was in this situation. It is wrong that she had to live through everything she did, and it is unforgivable that it lasted 12 years.

You want me to believe that my only value came from having self-doubt. I now realize I am stronger than he ever allowed me to know I was. He tried to control me because he knew that the knowledge I had about him and his actions toward me made him vulnerable.

I met him when I was just 13, and from the start, I did not feel comfortable around him. I would even try to avoid being in the same room as him, but the adults around me would get mad at me for being rude and push me back towards him. This felt like a violation and a betrayal from the very people that were supposed to protect me.

The very first time I was left to have a conversation alone with him, we talked about how I placed second on my eighth-grade spelling bee contest. I continued to avoid him after that for some time, but years later, he told me how he knew I was special from the moment he met at 13.

He first had sex with me on September 18, 2005. He would expect me to celebrate September 18th as our anniversary together every year. That first time, which was my first time, I was 15. He was 45. This was after a few months of him asking me to go on walks in the middle of the night, which he would bring up topics of a sexual nature escalating in detail over time and asking me flippant questions about my sexual history, of which I had none. He told me keep it all a secret, immediately severing me from my family and friends and effectively making himself my only resource.

Beginning at that time, he would ask me to sneak -- sneak out of the house that I was living in to meet him at places where we were isolated as well as from everyone else so that he could have sex with me. He would often take me to his executive library where he would ask me to take my clothes off before coming up the stairs to the loft as he watched. During these secret meetings when I was still 15, he took naked pictures -- naked pictures of me. The experience of being photographed is seared into my memory. As a 15-year-old that is not something you easily forget. He would have with me some type of sexual contact during every meeting. The times he took a picture were no exceptions.

While he hid our sexual relationship from others, he explained it to me by telling me I was very mature for my age, and the flattering and the romance of hearing that when you're a teenager; I know now that it was false. I was a child. I also know that it was no excuse to rob me of my youth or to interrupt my life the way he did. He used my innocence as -- my innocence to do whatever he wanted with me, not just sexually but also psychologically. He manipulated me into what he wanted for his own reasons, for his own pleasure.

He was calculated and methodical in the way he tricked me into a relationship and the way he manipulated me for every second of my life. He groomed me in his eyes. He shaped -- he shaped my being to his liking, or mine, he said. Today I still have trouble identifying the lines between a normal relationship and an abusive one. Even the times with him that could have been perceived as smooth and conflict-free, I now realize were the other side of the abuse. I had to become good at figuring out how to stay in his good graces by pleasing him and doing exactly what he wanted me to do, and I did. I became the best. He had made himself my only lifeline and I was not going to mess with that. I learned that survival is instinctive, even in the most twisted circumstances.

He was involved in and controlled every aspect of my life. When I was 17, he directed that I overstay my visa. At the time I was too young to understand why he wanted this to happen, but I now realize why. I realize that he was using my status to strip me of all options, and in doing so, deprive me of my freedoms. I was not old enough to consciously consent or understand how he was taking away my rights. I regret listening to him and trusting him.

In 2011 he put me up in an apartment in the neighborhood. It was clear that just like our relationship, no one could know about it. He romanticized it by -- and told me it would be our home, but in reality, he spent almost no time there. He expected me to be available for sex all the time. He would come in the house, have sex, and leave.

As a result of my living situation and the secrecy surrounding it, I became even more isolated and withdrawn. My family and friends started describing me as mysterious, and while at first they were curious and inquisitive about my life and whereabouts, eventually they stopped asking. I became unreachable to my parents, my brother, and friends until I had no one that would worry about me, no friends to check up on me. I felt abandoned for the longest time. I didn't see it then, but he cut me off from anyone that could ever help me.

In addition to manipulating me for his sexual relationship, he emotionally and psychologically abused me. I battle with the effects of his manipulation to this day. He exerted an intense amount of pressure on me regarding my weight, which resulted in an eating disorder that has been a lifelong battle and has caused me ongoing health problems. When I was 15, I was a normal teenager who had a normal relationship with food and exercise, but he destroyed that. As soon as we started having sex, he started asking me my weight every single day, and this continued into my adulthood.

As you can see, I'm 5'5," and his goal for me was to weigh 100 pounds or less. Today I try not to think about my weight, but I still hear his voice in my head and it continues to be a daily struggle.

After experiencing threatening physical symptoms because of the eating disorder, some of which I have yet to fully recover from, I asked for outside professional help, but his answer was always, lose the weight first. These are words that -- these are words that were burned into my memory because of the desperation and the hopelessness that I felt being met with such a heartless response. He told me that he knew better than doctors anyway and always denied me any medical care. Now I believe he never let me seek medical attention to make sure our relationship stayed a secret.

Each attempt to distance myself from him was met with resistance, and the worst part started when I tried to break up with him. I wanted a normal life and to be in a normal relationship. I believed in what he said before, If you ever want to go, I support you. But when I tried to leave, I learned that was a lie. He had told me the only value I contributed to the relationship was my purity. I, therefore, thought that if I became impure inside, he would let me go, so I had another relationship. But he did not let me go. It only got worse. He punished me emotionally, psychologically, and sexually. I had no one to reach out to for help. He acted happy, loving, and caring when I started falling back in line, but as soon as I pressed it again and decided to leave, he would become a monster. He knew the things that mattered most to me and what I feared and used both to control me. He drove me to the point of a suicide attempt with his cold-mind games. That night when he finally, in a state of shock with blood running down my arms, one of the first things out of his mouth was, Do you know how bad it could have been for me if you had killed yourself? His first thought was always of himself and the potential exposure of his secret, even when I was in extreme distress.

He acknowledged that the right thing would be for me to go to a hospital and be placed under psychiatric evaluation. I would have welcomed that help and a break from his cruelty. Instead, he asserted his capability that he could help me better than any trained professional. He continued the mind games and did not allow me to seek outside help. I really thought he would let me go after that. Instead, he tighten his grip and brought in more people to keep me in check. It felt like I would never be free. There was no way out.

I hold scars on my body from him that can never be erased. They carry immense emotional and psychological pain. They are a reminder of his cruelty and manipulations. He knew exactly what he was doing. He even asked me at some point if having his initials on my body would keep me from being with other people. He drew pleasure from knowing he had marked me. I was his.

Even when I got up the courage to cover his mark, it has not been enough to disguise the pain and shame that it reminds me of. To realize that someone knowingly hurt your body and drew pleasure from it is a difficult thing to come to terms with; and maybe it's not something that is ever meant to feel okay. To brand someone you allegedly care for should never be normal.

I left in 2017 thanks to my sister. When I walked away I had the mind of a 15-year-old in the body of a 27-year-old. I missed out on the incredibly basic things people learn in their youth, so I was completely unarmed and unable to cope. Even after I left, I was still constrained by him. I was distrustful of almost everyone, including my own family; and sometimes had moments of confusion where I felt unsure I was -- that it was right of me to leave. I felt completely alone.

Because of him I lacked documentation of legal status, even in Mexico. Because of him I had no formal work experience and no higher education, which has really constrained my ability to find work. It's hard to explain to potential employers how I came to suddenly enter the workforce at 29 with such a limited résumé and no references.

It was not until a few months after his arrest that I begun to truly break free of his control. And even now, the effects of his abuse live on. While the emotional instability has finally ended, I continue to carry scars, physical and emotional and psychological to this day. Because he manipulated me into a sexual relationship, I carry the pain and shame of aborting a child at his direction, which is something that would haunt me every day and a wound that will never heal.

I also have cervical dysplasia, which is a precancer in my cervix from the HPV virus. Every step of the procedure has been traumatic because it reminds me of the way in which he violated my being. The lasting effects of his abuses of me include threatening my ability to have a family in the future in a normal manner and having to deal with long-lasting medical effects. I want to move on, but he has damaged me in so many ways.

His infliction of stress on me from his actions have made it hard for me to maintain a job. I still have heart palpitations. I still have scars on my body. I still struggle to have a healthy relationship with food, exercise and body image, and I still struggle to understand what a loving, healthy relationship with another person should look like. I still don't have a normal concept of family because of how he manipulated us away from each other. And because of the secrecy, he never allowed me to form real friendships.

I am working hard to live a normal life, but I feel the mental and emotional and physical consequences of his abuse every single day. I will never be the same. I never got to live like a normal teenager. I never went on a date until I was 29. I never went to college. I never -- and this is where I go blank because I missed so much of my own life, I find it difficult to even conceptualize what I have missed. As I stand here, the gravity of what he did to me becomes more and more clear, and I fail to understand it sometimes. He hid his abuse behind ideas and concepts of nobility, but there is nothing noble about abusing a child, abusing his authority, and taking advantage of me, my mind, my body, my spirit, my trust. He demanded loyalty, but was loyal to no one but himself. He left me weak, confused, and completely unarmed. He claimed to build me up, to love me selflessly, yet, he kept me blind and lost, controlling everything around me, including my perception of the world and myself.

You see, what everyone got to see was a soft-spoken charismatic man, but I've seen a different side of him. I know that other side of him. I know who he becomes when he's losing control of you. I know the manipulation, the obsessions, the lies, and how he blurred the lines of right and wrong to serve his own benefit.

There has been a difficult -- it has been difficult to rebuild myself but not impossible. I am and will continue to grow stronger than he ever allowed me to know I was. Even now, he continues to lie in an attempt to save himself. He talks himself in circles trying to redefine principles to justify his actions. But I think he really -- if he truly believed those principles he claims to live by, he would have honored those, and told the truth instead refusing to take accountability for the heinous crimes he has caused.

Your Honor, there is no outcome where I get the time back and the opportunity that's lost -- I lost, nothing that can be done or said to make me trust another human being the way I did before I met him. I believed in the goodness of people and giving them the benefit of the doubt, but that is exactly how he got away with so much. Respectfully, I ask the Court to take my 12 years of abuse and the effects of that abuse that I continue to experience today into consideration in sentencing him.

The hardest part of my story is over. Keith didn't break me. I stand here today, now I can do my story justice. I will not stand idly by. I will not let somebody else tell my story. That is why I am here, to prevent him from almost destroying someone else ever again.

Thank you, Your Honor.

SARAH EDMONDSON: This is not a victim impact statement. This is a survivor statement.

Keith, you tried to steal me from my husband. You tried to blackmail me. You tried to enslave me. You tried to ruin my life and the lives of my friends, but you failed. Your brand of your initials on my body is gone. I had it removed with plastic surgery.

But I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I spent my 30s in a legitimate organization; one led by a true humanitarian. Instead of a monster who demonstrated his entire life mission is to destroy as many people as possible.

You used the trust that people had in me and my bright light as a recruitment tool for your personal harem and your insatiable desire for destruction.

In a curriculum that you said taught personal responsibility, you have taken none. You are not a leader or a mentor or a guru. You are a liar, a parasite, and a grifter; all the thing that's projected onto women.

Despite what you tried to teach us in the curriculum, it turns out there is a definition of evil. It's you, what you have done and continue to do from prison and in this very moment. But your con has come to an end. The world sees your lies. And if there is ever any justice, the world will never see your face in public again.

Thank you to the Court for your time. Your Honor, you've saved many lives and my husband and I thank you very much.

IVY NEVARES: Your Honor, I'm Ivy Nevares. I'm speaking freely about my experiences with Keith Raniere.

I met him during my first ESP workshop in 2001. Although I was already indoctrinated, my instincts hadn't been worn away.

I didn't realize at the time that the course work showed his fascination with criminal psychologically; specifically swindling and sociopathy. He even created a worse class of sociopaths he called Suppressives, and later Luciferians for added drama.

He showed up for Q&A at the end of the fifth day. He asked him during that first encounter, 'You seem to know a lot about these Suppressives, how do I know you're not one of them?' He smiled coyly, 'Because they can't hold value, they can only destroy.'

I would normally have caught the black and white fallacy were not for the narrative that had been pushed on me by his adoring women already, who were already criminally bound. Like thousands of others I innocently believed him to be sincere.

Ten months and several workshops later, Raniere asked for a lifetime personal and professional commitment. I could be with no other men and work for no other person or company. I knew something was off early on. He spoke too much and too highly of himself and claimed to have mystical powers no one should question. I was too embarrassed to ask why he spoke of mysticism while publicly claiming to be a scientist.

One of his most preposterous claims is that he had to have sex constantly, lest the spiritual energy consume him to the point of death. I would like to ask him now, your Honor: You've presumably gone two-and-a-half years without sex since your arrest. How is it that you're still alive?

One of the cornerstones of Raniere's model is that ethical civilization can only be achieved, and I quote, "through mutually consented honest trade." The consent cannot exist along site honesty. And that right there was a loop hole he relentlessly exploited.

I consented to an intimate relationship with him, but I never consented to being lied to, manipulated or abused. I never consented to be being held captives by a dependence inducing system that he architected. I never consented to having his flying monkeys gaslight, exploit, harass, threaten and attack me around the clock under his direction simply because I refused to comply.

I would like to address Raniere directly. That fateful October you weren't asking for fidelity; you were asking for blind obedience. You weren't offering a type of marriage; you were opening the door to countless unwritten contracts whose conditions became ever moving targets, but whose penalties you and your women were quick to enforce.

You asked me what I wanted from you. And I said, to know true love. You instead subjected me to 17 years of indentured servitude and your own perverted monstrosities. Had I known all of this going on, I would have never followed you.

The force of Raniere's world rests on a flippant double-edged sword he wields to benefit those who shield and finance his criminal appetite and to cripple those who refuse to do so. He shunned me for the better part of eleven years and ordered others to do the same, because I could not or would not meet his extreme demands.

A decade before DOS existed, Raniere's already tormenting me with the practices the women would later take on. One year after I put myself through hell to weigh his desired 95 pounds, he shunned me because I had a handful of pumpkin seeds breaking my 400-calorie limit. That night he said his leaving me hurt him more than it did me.

Your Honor, the defendant you see before you today is a sadistic pathological liar.

Raniere said, and I quote, "Things are most maneuverable when they are most unstable." That is exactly how he managed to subject me and others to systematic abuses. He kept us sleep-deprived, blackmailed, exploited, traumatized, and malnourished.

One year I completed 45-day fast to prove to him that I cared about our relationship enough. What was his response? That I wanted to break the fast because I was weak and had no character. So he ordered me to extend it an additional ten days. And I did, with the best of intentions, but it was never enough. Nothing ever was. Many of us experienced PTSD from Raniere's so-called readiness drills. I found out where he came up with the idea during an SOP training. In a video he said a person close to him had lost a brother to murder. And that the body wasn't discovered until ten days after his death. That was my brother, Fernando. How dare you desecrate my brother's death as justification to torture countless women.

I come from a Mexican family. And Raniere knew that having children is important to me. So he bated me with promises of his first born child. I was very clear early on, I said, if you father a child with someone else I will not raise hell. I will not destroy you. I will simply slip away quietly. He agreed to be truthful about it. And instead he instructed the other women in the inner circle to lie to my face about his children for years even after he was arrested.

I'm relieved to know one of his youngest victims has finally denounced him. But it makes me sick to think he was raping a child and sleeping were her sisters when he was living with me swearing he wasn't sleeping with anyone else.

These very acts alone demonstrate his crazed misogyny. In February 2015, Kristin Keeffe, Raniere's long-time ally emailed me shortly after she defected with their son. She said Raniere was hoping I would commit suicide. When I sent him the e-mail he replead, and I quote, "Can you see she's not a bright light."

I spent several years contemplating Kristin's accusation because I refused to believe it was true. Recently I learned she said that on walks with Raniere he asked gleefully, "Do you think Ivy's going to commit suicide?"

When we first met, Raniere was intensely curious about my cutting myself and having suicidal thoughts as a teenager. I shared with him that in my early 20s I foolishly imagined that if my ideal partner left me, it would be best for me to leave this world. He used the first six years of our relationship to become that ideal man. He lived with me, lavished me with gifts and attention, much to the displeasure of the other women. One fine day he began shunning me, while he flaunted other women in public and barred me from walking on the same street as them.

I will address him again. You often cited that Ayn Rand quotes, "A viler or evil than to murder a man is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue." Was my potential suicide your ultimate experiment?

I see now you exploited my dependence on a mate and suddenly marginalized me. Do you think that would have driven me to commit suicide? No matter the abuse, no matter the intensity of betrayal, I never came close to considering that option. The gift you have your ultimate betrayal to me was realizing that no man is ever worth losing my life over; much less a sick predator like you.

In our professional relationship Raniere violated every single work-related principal he preached. Specifically that work raises self-esteem only when it's justly remunerated; otherwise it's enslavement.

Yet it wasn't enslavement when it came to me. No one in the organization ever gave him as much time and resolve as I did. Yet he and his and lazy women claimed that I was the one who owed him.

Raniere was hiding in Mexico the day I found the courage to end our relationship. I asked Nancy Salzman to relay the breakup in person, but she lied to me and refused do so on three separate times. I want him to know I left him on January 15, 2018.

Alas, Raniere's day of reckoning has finally come. This is my last message to him. As a writer you cautioned me to use my skill honorably. And that with the stroke of a pen I could irrevocably affect the character of those I wrote about.

Your own actions have rewritten your character. There is no damage I can do in this respect. I do not speak as a jilted lover; on the contrary, I'm grateful my defiance created a distance between us.

I don't care that you had children with other women. I care that you lied to me about it. And I'm not brainwashed. I've come to these conclusions myself after uncovering the myriad of lies you used to entrap me.

The last sympathy I felt for the man I fell in love with died with your lawyer's sentencing memorandum. You have no remorse over what you've done. You blame your victims and direct your flying monkeys to create insults to legitimate social movements as you try to fight your imaginary injustice. We are as you and made justice blind our platforms to which your co-conspirators Nicki Clyne, Eduardo Asunsolo, and others commit professional and social suicide every day. They just don't know it yet.

It is with a very careful stroke of my pen that I say and mean every word here. You are and will forever be remembered as the most dangerous predator at all. May you live long enough in prison to know the hell you put me and others through.

TONI NATALIE: Thank you, your Honor.

Today is October 27, 2020. On October 27, 1999, 21 years to the day, I was forced to file bankruptcy because of you. God has a sense of humor, doesn't he -- or she. Then came years of relentless litigation, harassment, stalking, not just against me but against my family, and that didn't end until after your arrest. All I wanted to do was leave and be able to move on with our lives, but you don't know how to let go of anyone, do you. It was either fight back or die. I chose to fight, but at a very high price to me and my family.

Both my mother and father died weeks apart, thinking you were going to be putting me in jail. My brother John, you remember him don't you, he fought very hard to stop you. He was right, you are the boogeyman.

I saw you and your Prefect for exactly what the world sees you as today, evil. Your goal was to break me and you failed. I'm standing hear today to tell you, you didn't break me. I'm stronger than you are.

In your desire to destroy, you destroyed yourself. Your obsession to control and dominate women, look around, Keith, it's women who took you down.

My mother would say, in order for Keith to be with you he had to be normal, he had to try. Then you found Nancy, a person that checked all your Machiavellian boxes, your second in command. You're lazy, Keith. You always had to have around you to do your dirty work, you still do.

Your calling card, the smartest man with a 240 IQ, what a joke. But Nancy came with one of her own, the number two NLP expert in the world. Using her NLP skills to create your pandemonium. And she was willing to help you perpetuate all your ridiculous lies, such as you're a celibate monk. A lie you and your inner circle wove into the fabrics of people's beliefs for years. It's the lies and the Bronfman's money that created your cult kingdom.

Sending me gaslighting letters from Milton's Paradise Lost, begging me to come back. I was Lucifer, and you God. And when that didn't work, you created a module, The Fall. I was the suppressive you used by name as an example that needed to be destroyed, and what people feared the most they would become. You even stole that term from Scientology. There is nothing original about you.

It didn't work. They woke up and they reached out. You pointed them in my direction. I said a thousand times, he doesn't draw bad people, for the most part he draws good people that want to make a difference. No one joins a cult. As soon as they see the crack in the plate, they are gone. They are to be brave enough to look.

Everyone builds their own postulate world. For some people, it's a real heaven; for other people a real hell. What does your world look like right now, Keith?

A genius, what a joke. You are diabolical, small man, a master manipulator. And now that's over.

I ask this Court to sentence you to life in prison and put you in a place where you're not allowed to have contact with the outside world or anyone. You need to be locked away as they locked away Charles Manson. As anyone can see, you and your flying monkeys won't stop until you're gone.

The victims of your abuse should finally be able to have peace and closure. Do something decent before you die, Keith. Tell the Snyder family what really happened to their daughter.

You're dangerous and soulless. And it frightens me there are still people out there willing to do your bidding.

The last thing you said to me was, "The next time I see you, you'll be dead or in jail." You were wrong, again, you're in jail, and I pray to God that's where you will die.

I want to thank this Court for their time.

BARBARA BOUCHEY: Keith, hi, been a long time.

I read the glowing testimonials about you. I too could have written one for the many benefits gained from you in my days at NXIVM. However, what if a woman is married to a man deemed a pillar of the community and 85 percent of the marriage is good, but 15 percent is really bad. Within five months he cons her out of her life savings, vowing to pay her back, secretly abuses her, conceals his affairs with many women, and sexually abuses them too including a 15 year old. He then directs these women to conspire with him to deceive her and to spread negative propaganda calling her crazy. And any time she questions, they blame her and shame her for even daring to ask. All the while, he extorts her value, time and money to feed his selfish addictions and build his empire.

Finally, she cannot tolerate the abuse any more and she leaves him. He fears though that she will tell the truth about the abuse, and that she discovered that he's the wolf behind the sheep's clothing. So he lies to cover up his abuse. And to silence her, he hunts her like an animal, misusing the court's and the authorities relentlessly litigating her on trumped charges, has her passport removed so she cannot feel safe in her own country. And for what? Because she broke up with you and told the truth about it?

Keith, you claim to be the most ethical, honorable and noblest of men. Is it ethical to overlook the husband's abuse? No, it would not. That is why you were sitting here today. Being held accountable and facing possible lifetime in prison, which is what I think you deserve for what you did to me and to others.

I read your 96-page motion and declaration of innocence. You claim we do not understand your goodness and philosophy to help human kind, followed by your denigration of the witnesses here in this courtroom, stating that they lied, they rewrote history all for hidden agenda to extort money from the deep pockets of the Bronfman's.

Keith, why is it that I'm the elephant in the room? Never mentioned. Why aren't I not in the 96 pages? No where. Could it be because you know that you cannot claim those things about me? Or given that I'm not one of the eighty ex-members suing you. And with your decade-long attempt to wrongfully accuse me failed, that mentioning me would only further point to your obsessive lunacy.

It is you who has the bad intent who desperately lied about me, concealing that you are a wolf, a predator, and cleverly used good-intention people, like me, as your sheep's clothing.

When I left, Kristin said it was like a snap. You became obsessed with silencing me, lest anyone believe me.

Did you know that I listened to the audio, where you masterfully wove a fantastical tale to everyone about why I left? You claimed I tried to extort $2 million. Don't you think it's time to tell the truth, Keith? It was you who asked me to invest 25,000. And you who asked me to lend you 25,000 to test your mathematical formula on commodities. And you assured me I would not lose more than that. But you lied. And you margined it and you exposed me to risk. With the account in my name and you as the trader, I was forced to cover $1.7 million of your losses. You then feigned innocent.

And not knowing that this could ever happen, another lie. Which I learned after I left because you did the same thing with Pam's money. There you were crying, vowing to pay me back, saying you were responsible knowing that I never signed up for that.

You and Nancy promised me every year to pay me back. Your inner circle espoused you were a man of your word, and that I have no reason to worry. But there was always an excuse every year, wasn't there, Keith, for not paying me back. Then you shame me to asking for repayment of my own money, a loan now, because a true humanitarian would not be so selfish to ask for their money. You lied to the community and then claimed this was a gift. You then conned Claire with your lie and placed her on the NXIVM board two weeks after I left. Then you had to her go to my hometown, VA, to try to get me arrested, falsely saying that I tried to extort this money from her. When that didn't work, you launched an avalanche of litigation for eight years dragging into 14 lawsuits, four states, had me arrested, removed my passport, had Clare launch investigation on my Financial Planning Ethics Board with their 29 salacious allegations, including extortion. Additionally, you used other board members to file extortion charges against me in Mexico, having bribed a judge hoping to toss me into a dark prison never to be to be seen again.

BARBARA BOUCHEY: You bribed a judge in Mexico to toss me into a dark prison hoping never to see me again.

I was driven into filing bankruptcy defending against your lies, which took me until two years ago to pay off.

And so, Keith, shall we summarize the facts, or data, as you call it?

I got every one of your vexatious litigations dismissed with no wrongdoing cited. I got my Financial Planning Board's investigation closed with the overwhelming evidence that I provided proving Clare's salacious allegations were false. I got that criminal charge dropped.

And there was never any extortion charge or investigation started in the United States because authority realized it was complete bogus.

However, you did get that bogus charge filed charged in Mexico. And I'm sure that you would be surprised to know right now that your ex-Mexican board members have come out of the fog. And right now, as we speak, they are arranging to have those criminal charges dropped.

And so, every devious plot and plan to destroy me and falsely accuse me has failed. Where you did not fail was to assassinate my character with a non-stop headline news stories that reported your lies portraying me an unethical financial adviser, criminal extortionist, unfit to manage my own financial affairs let alone that of my clients.

I took the brunt of your -- I took the brunt of your vengeance for eight years, being bludgeoned, because I was unwilling to go quietly into the night. No matter how much you terrorized me, I did not surrender. And I never gave up trying to expose you had and hold you accountable and bring you to justice this day.

A terrorist is defined as a person who uses unlawful of violations of intimidation in pursuit of their own aims. That's who you are, a terrorist. A wolf, a predator, a criminal, and unethical human being. You no longer can hide in plain sight and are now being seen for the predator that you are.

There was a time when I once loved you, and dearly, thinking you were my soulmate. I thought we shared common goals of empowering others in making a difference in the world. I gave you everything that I had my life, my work, my efforts, my resources for what I believed was a mutual vision. Often you would tell me I was your greatest risk. Never made sense to me at the time, but it does now. I'm your black swan. That rare person causing the extreme event that would have severe outcomes that cannot be predicted beforehand and can cause catastrophic consequences.

Keith, you may have broken my heart, irreparably damaged my once impeccable reputation built over decades, emptied my bank account once valued at 5 million, decimated my career. Once was I an esteemed leader in my industry, you drove me out of my hometown where I was once a pillar of my community to seek refuge in another state because of my town folks shunned me, unknowingly believing your lies. Then you forced me into hiding, where I had to live anonymously in fear of what next plot you can get away with in acting upon me. I was alone, isolated and afraid.

Today, I may only own a 13-year-old car and my furniture, but you were never able to diminish my spirit. And I still possess the depth of my character. I have and always have and will uphold the truths and my integrity. I stand here before you a stronger, resilient, more encouraged women. I'm a better person today. My understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and empathy runs deep within me like a river. I've been filled with grace after going to hell and back many times.

I've had many dark nights of the soul not knowing if I could survive another day or false headline news story. Many years I had to choose between needed medical care, paying attorneys, or rent, uncertain if I could support myself. You may have destroyed everything that took me decades to build, but you did not destroy me.

I forgave you a long time ago for your unspeakable betrayal, deceit, lies, manipulation, extortion of my value, intent to destroy me because I believed that right now you are not of sound mind, you are delusional and unable to see the evil intent that is within you.

I will pray for you and your soul every day. May God help you find your way back to your soul. May you spend the rest of your life in prison, and hopefully maybe you'll reflect or journal on all the damage and abuse you inflicted upon me and others. As for me, like a butterfly after it struggles to survive the war zone of the chrysalis, it emerges to spread its wings now having the strength to fly. And so do I.

Thank you, your Honor.

SUSAN DONES: Thank you, your Honor, members of the prosecution, the defense team, and Keith Raniere for hearing my statement.

My name is Susan Dones. I was number of ESP/NXIVM from December 2000 to April 2009.

Where do you start with a man who calls himself innocent but his entire adult life has gotten away with a great deal of criminal activity. Raniere calls him a humanitarian but has done so many inhumane things to people.

Raniere calls the justice system as one of the most important things about our country but has spent years using it as a weapon in an attempt to destroy his enemies who dares to tell truth about his repulsive and criminal activities. Now when he's about to face his sentencing, he's pulled out all the stops in an attempt once again get out of trouble by using his believers to wreak havoc upon court by crying wolf about a fair trial and evidence tampering.

I have suffered from night terror dreams for years after leaving NXIVM. I also suffer from PTSD and anxiety. My night terrors mostly stopped within a few months of you being arrested. My night terrors started back up when your group of believers started an attempt to get your sentencings delayed and get you a new trial. We deserve our closures and to have you sentenced.

Keith you have been pampered by a group of mostly women who attended to your every need. You have treated them as slaves for food, clothing, money, covering your gambling debts, criminal activities, pimping women for you, just to name a few. Then you turn around and abuse them physically, emotionally and spiritually. You have entangled them into your web of mind-bending abuse, and if they dare to break free you send your pack of wolves in to gain control over them, do your dirty work, and keep them in line.

If they leave quietly, you smear them within the NXIVM community, a thief, an extortionist, et cetera. If they dare to speak out, a lawsuit or two awaits them. This shows others to keep their mouths shut or else.

Each passing year when you are not stopped by authorities your behavior got worse until finally you created DOS, which was the final tipping point at stopping you with your reign of terror.

Keith, you're an evil man. Who put together an army of powerful soldiers to keep your prisoners in line. The fact that you've had access to your believers while at MDC is beyond me. This needs to be stripped from you from this day forward. Who knows what you will create next using them as a weapon of destruction.

Your victims, us, should not have to worry. About what -- should not have to worry. We need to be safe and not worry about what you will do if you have the ability to continue to use them.

I have a video from our three-day meetings that we had with you where you have stated that you have had people killed for your beliefs. I have been afraid of that. Will I be one of them?

I came in to ESP during the early years. There was just the 16-day program. Back then there was no Google to search who you were; had there been, I would have walked away just because of the CBI days, where over 25-plus U.S. attorneys came after you for your Ponzi scheme and that New York state shut you down.

There was a reason you were not the owner of NXIVM, you had been barred from running anything close to an MLM, but NXIVM was another Ponzi scheme set up like an MLM.

Everyone knows you ran NXIVM. It was you, Keith, no one did anything without your approval. But you set it up as if Nancy Salzman was the owner and ran it.

At the time I took my training, ESP was brand new. I took the second 16-day company offer, training offered by the company. It was looking for people to open up satellite centers. I was with an entire group from another training program who had come to learn about the so-called new technology and this new business adventure. I opened the first offsite center in Tacoma, Washington, not knowing you were running a Ponzi scheme. It was very cleverly covered up. I don't think your entire staff knew it was a Ponzi scheme. Only those closest to you in your very inner circle, maybe only those who had been with you for years at this point knew.

You got your entire leadership, your wolf pack, to lie to you -- lie for you. You were sleeping with students and your entire executive board, gambling in the commodities market, borrowing money from students long before the Bronfman's came in, for your margins call. All the while having everybody telling us that you were an ethical man. This is not ethics in most people's opinion, not mine. Had I known the truth, I would have walked out day one.

When I started to catch on to things were not right, I started to ask questions. In return I got emotionally abused; but not by you, by your wolf pack. You're not even man enough to come to me directly. You were too busy enjoying your women and sleeping off late night volley ball. You sent your women after me while you lived your pampered lifestyle.

Luckily for me I lived in the Pacific Northwest and I had a strong enough sense of myself. That was my saving grace for me not to fall prey to your mind-bending games. I know that pissed you off.

I was deeply in debt from setting up my center and I loved training the 16-day program. I had enough control over my center, so I stayed. I took the beatings and I worked to get out of debt.

But that wasn't enough for you. I was asked to take more and more trainings; and if I didn't, there were stiff consequences. My different sources of income would get cut off and my debt grew. You got more and more abusive by sending in more wolves.

You knew I didn't like you, trust you, and that you would never be my master. What you did like was my work ethic and my ability to get things done, so you used me until you could replace me in the Pacific Northwest.

I started to find out more things on the Internet, asked too many questions. Your thirst for women was clear, and I became a problem for you, and the abuse got worse.

You set up to poison the people closest to me that I had anger issues and I might be a suppressive. You and your wolves created problems at my center where there really wasn't one. I saw you do the same thing with Barbara Bouchey in Albany at the same time that she was questioning things about you too.

SUSAN DONES: My final straw with the company is when Nancy Salzman had a meltdown in front of me at her house. She told me everything, as if I was her priest. She told me about the NXIVM cartel, the cash of millions coming over the border from Mexico and that you were not going to pay taxes on that cash which only leaves money laundering, as Mexico was NXIVM's cash cow. That day I knew two things had to happen. I had to figure out my escape plan as I was not going to support NXIVM's illegal activities. And that by leaving and knowing that I knew this information I was going to end up in trouble. I figured that you were either going to come after me with a phoney lawsuit as you had done so many times with other people or, worse, that you were going to kill me. I was scared for my life.

When I left NXIVM you pressed criminal charges against me for extortion because I asked for my commissions and my book of business that I created in the Pacific Northwest, the value that you got paid on for nine more years until NXIVM got shut down. You inherited Barbara Jeske's book of business when she died. That was part of my book of business. Mine, it just disappeared into thin air as if I had done nothing for nine years and that profit went into your pocket.

Then you abused me more by filing a lawsuit against me and my wife in our bankruptcy court. All of that debt was NXIVM's debt. It took two years of my life, because I couldn't work a full-time job because I was a pro se defendant. So I picked up work on the weekends because court is closed on weekends. You and your Legal Aid person filed over 230 claims against us and Clare Bronfman paid for seven attorneys against two pro se defendants. You deposed everyone in our case that were defectors against NXIVM claiming that it was a conspiracy, which was a projection on your part.

Keith Raniere, you are a dangerous man. You formed an army within the MDC. You were caught with several burner phones. You set up a Ponzi scheme under Nancy Salzman's name. You were then found guilty of horrible crimes and your disgrace of humanity smacks of a man that's not fit to be in society ever. My hope is that this judge requires that you are cut of all ties of anybody that has ever been in NXIVM. This is the only way that I believe that your believers that still follow you will ever have a chance of having a final -- or will ever have a chance of having a normal life because they will not get the daily dose of their master and the rest of us can finally live in the peace that we deserve, for many of us. You have a saying that those that have the most joy win. Let me tell you today that we here are winning.

Thank you, Your Honor.

KRISTIN KEEFFE: Your Honor, my history with NXIVM began when I was in my late twenties. I was one of the original five students enrolled by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman.

At first I thought it was great and I loved it, as Keith and Nancy introduced what they said was a revolutionary intellectual process for students to remove negative reactions to adverse stimuli in their lives. They called it exploration of meaning, EM. What I didn't know at the time was the EM methodology was an extremely sensitive and psychologically invasive psychotherapeutic practice, which Keith and Nancy developed by culling from various modes of psychotherapy and hypnosis.

As a child, I suffered a traumatic neck injury and an appendectomy that went horribly wrong. I was acutely ill thereafter for many years. As an adult, these experiences didn't impact my life other than the occasional feeling of existential isolation. Upon starting EM sessions, these childhood memories came up significantly as the foundation of all EM's is the revisiting of painful childhood memories. What I didn't know was reliving a childhood trauma over and over again, hundreds of times over several years with unlicensed, improperly experienced or educated therapists, such as Keith and Nancy, could be so deeply damaging to every aspect of my life. As Doreen Tehrani, an occupational health and counseling psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress explains:

"If a trauma victim is debriefed in a state of high emotion, the process can increase the arousal to the point of overload trapping the sensory impressions of the trauma in the brain."

After starting EM sessions, I began to experience extreme anxiety, alternating with feelings of depersonalization and derealization in my day-to-day living. I had night terrors and what seemed like overnight I developed a horrible eating disorder and gained a lot of weight. I had inexplicable chronic pain that grew worse and worse as days wore on. I was experiencing symptoms of psychological abuse in the therapeutic context resulting in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Making me relive these childhood traumas over and over again, with no relief, was cruel and inhumane. It made me extremely vulnerable to predation by Keith, Nancy, and later Clare Bronfman. Before that, I was an otherwise happy-go-lucky person. I was hardworking and kindhearted. I didn't have lofty goals. I was never very materialistic. I studied Buddhism, I meditated every day. I just wanted to do something good with my life and I was very trusting.

These monsters got their hooks into me and did everything they could to wreck my peace of mind and sense of wellbeing. To make me their slave. Keith is such a good liar and so manipulative and cunning, I couldn't see what was happening to me.

There is no question that people benefited from NXIVM trainings and the EM process. Keith can help people when he wants to, that's part of his cruelty. He does good things for a select few and then points to their successes as a way to cover for torture of others, especially women.

Keith singled me out as a target early on and I witnessed Keith target other women for torture, too. Once he jokingly said, instead of Executive Success Programs, Inc., the company should called Shattered Souls, Inc., and he laughed. It took me many sorrowful years before I could see what was happening with Clare and Nancy always looking to cement their power and status, and there was no amount of harm they weren't willing to perpetuate or look the other way on, for Keith. Always pointing to the latest wealthy person, or actress or doctor, who was giving NXIVM an endorsement. "Look how successful they are. They love us. Look at the good results they're getting."

"The problem is you," they would say.

Then behind my back, they would tell lies and disparage me throughout the community and cut me off at my knees so I couldn't protest.

Your Honor, you need to understand. Keith and Nancy, they were our therapists. We trusted them and in that role they had so much power over our lives.

To the people who are supporting Keith now, I say this: For every person who benefited, how many were harmed? Have you asked yourselves that or is it just that you got what you wanted so screw anyone who didn't. Your Honor, I can't possibly go through all the atrocities that were done to me or what I witnessed in ten minutes. I have submitted a much longer statement describing my history and the harm. I will just touch on a few more things now. I was hired by Keith and Nancy to assist with NXIVM's legal affairs. As part of my job, I had to weigh at or below 128 pounds, a size 2 in pants, and there was always enormous pressure put on me to be in Keith's good graces which meant sex and 100 percent obedience to his every wish. Sometimes, to shame me, he would make me report how much I weighed publicly. What kind of employer does all of that?

When Clare Bronfman joined NXIVM, she and Keith spent eleven years, eleven years, trying to prove her father Edgar Bronfman was behind an illegal conspiracy to destroy Keith and NXIVM, and anyone close to him, including me. Every problem Keith had, large or small, was always Edgar Bronfman's fault somehow. For a long time I couldn't see it for what it was, a lie they told, a manipulation to instill fear and control me. It infected every area of my life and all of my decisions. I watched Clare give Keith tens of millions of dollars a year, pretending she was making loans to cover the expense of her investments, when in fact, Keith and Nancy were using Claire's money to offset his expenses so they could stockpile cash for themselves with Claire's blessing. At one point, Nancy showed me two and a half million dollars in cash in a safe in her house, "for Keith" she said. Money she never reported or filed taxes on. The stockpiling of cash went on the whole time I was in NXIVM and they still have this money stashed somewhere.

Keith and Nancy make outrageous claims about the health benefits of Rational Inquiry and the EM process. NXIVM should have been should down for this alone. When I began to feel very sick myself, Keith and Nancy took turns telling me my symptoms were because I needed more EMs, I was a hypochondriac, I didn't eat properly, I didn't want to work my issues, it was all in my head. I almost died for a massive hemorrhage. I was pregnant with Keith's baby and I had cancer, and they were telling me my symptoms were all in my head. At one point I literally had only minutes to live because I hadn't gotten proper medical treatment. I was living with Keith, with all of his degrees and all of his intelligence, and you think didn't know I was sick? Or Nancy? Of course they knew. They wanted me to die. When I didn't die, they threatened me that Mr. Bronfman and Keith's enemies would harm my baby so no one could no he was the father. I was so brainwashed into being terrified of Mr. Bronfman, I agreed to this. It was all a lie.

One day Nancy said to me, "Let's face it, your son Gaelyn doesn't have a father," so I wouldn't pursue making Keith pay child support. Imagine me sitting in Nancy's house, where she had millions of dollars squirrelled away for Keith, which I had seen, and she gaslit me into accepting it was okay for Keith to take zero responsibility personally or financially for Gaelyn. While I was battling cancer, no less.

Not long after Clare ruthlessly followed suit. Even with all of my compliance they were never satisfied. At one point, Clare informed me she would no longer pay me my full salary and instead took control of all my finances. I would have to ask her permission to buy food and household items like I was a child. And God forbid I disagreed.

One time I got into an argument with Keith about Clare and NXIVM's continued litigation of Barbara Bouchey. I said it was wrongful and I was fired and shunned by the community. They put so much pressure on me to be submissive and never object to anything. Eventually Clare threatened me into accepting my job back, accepting a much lower pay of $13,000 a year and no benefits. I couldn't live on that and she knew that, and I couldn't say no, I was her prisoner.

For years I subconsciously normalized this abuse, which I understand now is common trait of abuse victims. It's a survival mechanism. It was hard for me to break free. Finally, one day a thought broke through my mind, What if this isn't about me? I reevaluated all my experiences objectively and I quietly investigated the companies. I discovered some degree of fraud happening at every level of the organization and I was horrified. Every level. I thought this is a RICO action waiting to happen. I tried to be brave. I went to the New York State police barracks to report everything to an investigator I knew. I told him about the crimes that were happening, including Daniela's imprisonment and the Canaprobe Investigation. I begged him to check on Adrian and Camila to see if they were okay. As I was giving my statement NXIVM's attorneys called the investigator and said, "We know Kristin is there." He was spooked and I panicked, I could barely think straight. Keith and Clare must have bugged my phone, or my computer, and tracked me there.

There I was at the police and they knew I might provide evidence of a real, indisputable, pattern of criminal activity and I did. I said to the investigator, "I can't ever go back there now." He agreed. He said they're like the mafia, but worse. Gaelyn and I ran away and went into hiding. We had to abandon our small home and our beloved pets. I don't even have any baby pictures of Gaelyn.

Despite my best efforts, mysteriously, the State Police didn't pursue their investigation into NXIVM. I never dreamed in a million years they would happen. I underestimated Clare and the NXIVM's attorneys' corruptness and their willingness to lie and discredit me as a witness, or to intimidate the State Police investigator, or both.

Without State Police support I was unprotected and powerless. This was a terrifying and extremely distressing time for me, and hard on my son, but what else could I do? I would not let Gaelyn become a shattered soul and I could not associate in any way with Keith's criminal activity. Keith had tried to kill us once. I was afraid. We traveled to south Florida, managed to save up for a year. One night I started receiving a barrage of frightening text messages from an unknown person, stating they knew my real identity and threatening to expose me to Keith. I felt like I was having a heart attack. I called several friends for help, including a couple named Mike and Julie who said, "Why don't we come and pick you up and get you out of there?" I said, "Yes, please." My desire to run was strong. I told Gaelyn we were going on vacation and my friends picked us up. I had to quit my job and abandon our apartment. Little did I know, Mike and Julie were working for Clare Bronfman and were paid by Clare to infiltrate our life and cause us harm. Their colleague Michelle had sent me the threatening text. Clare paid the investigator's over $400,000, plus attorneys' fees, to find me. Keith didn't want Gaelyn, he and Clare just wanted to harm me, him and me, in retaliation for going to the police. I later learned they hacked my bank account, my medical records, my IRS records, all of my on-line accounts, everything. They attempted to infiltrate Gaelyn's school and Clare filed false criminal charges against me, pretending I had stolen a computer containing NXIVM trade secrets. Eventually, we managed to give Mike and Julie the slip, but I was never the same after that. I dare not have a phone, computer, car, health insurance, bank account, anything in my name which made our survival difficult.

I tried to continue to do the right thing and I cold-called various attorneys specializing in mass tort litigation to represent NXIVM victims, even though I wasn't in contact with any victims yet. I met Neil Glazer from Kohn Swift, and after a year educating him about the crimes of NXIVM, he agreed to represent NXIVM and DOS victims pro bono. When the EDNY opened its investigation, I shared everything I knew up through two weeks before trial. If EDNY hadn't stepped in, God knows what have happened to Gaelyn and me. I will be forever grateful. In March of this year, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, I attempted to enter into a private settlement agreement for child support with Keith Raniere once and for all. I have -- with my underlying health condition, COVID-19 would be a certain death sentence if I catch it. I and my son are worthy and deserving of child support from Keith and we were always worthy and deserving. I have been able to make a new life for my son, but overcoming all of this adversity I have faced has been really hard. I tried to settle this privately with Keith to the avoid the pain of all of this. As to be expected, despite six months of promises by Keith saying he would pay the child support, he has made no attempt to pay. And because of Keith, Clare and Nancy are still up to no good, comitting tax evasion and lying about Keith's money, there is little I can do than ask this court for help.

I hope and pray, Your Honor can see the totality of the damage Keith Raniere has wreaked on me and my son. I can never get back the 20 years of hell he has subjected me to and my mind and body are forever scarred. My son will never get back the years of childhood spent in hiding because of all of Keith crimes. We and all of Keith victims deserve justice.

Thank you.

INDIA: Hello, Your Honor.

I'm going to address you. You stole seven years of my life from me that I will never get back.

Yet, just last night, I bolted up from sleeping as I do most nights since leaving the cult, gripped with fear of your words, the unwanted touch. The horror of healing -- the horror of hearing his voice in the darkness, telling me to wait naked until he would appear, unwanted, uninvited, I was totally frozen, leaving my body so I didn't have to be with you when you would rub your fingers across my brand, me not knowing it was your monogram and you would gaze and smile at it. The unimaginable shame of waiting naked, like a piece of meat, a branded, brainwashed sex slave as I have been known in the media because of you.

Will I always feel like this? I don't know, but I do know I have wanted to end my life numerous nights since leaving, believing your words that I was weak, without substance, no sense of self. I have been left with little to no self worth for a while, wondering if anybody would even miss me or if I mattered at all. But I also know I will be a victim of Keith Raniere for the rest of my life, but I don't need to live as one.

I am here because you exploited me. You have coerced and manipulated me, sexually, financially, physically and mentally. You tried to destroy my family by turning me against my own mother, telling me in your own words that did she was a psychopath, pulling me back into hell that was painted as sanctity. You are a sexual predator and you raped me, forcing me to engage in sexual acts with blackmail compounding over me.

When you touched me, I recoiled, blaming myself like I was defective and broken. I felt obligated to engage with you because of the blackmail and saying no to your advances meant consequences and punishment from Allison Mack.

Forced stays in Albany turned into permanent relocation and restriction of my travel and autonomy.

You are cruel and you are racist, coming up with nicknames for all of us women, referring to Michelle as the N-word and laughing as you instructed Allison Mack to refer to her as the N-word as well. One of the most cruel acts I've ever witnessed, encouraging Allison to punish any of us who stood up against her, every action orchestrated by you. A woman who once desired a career in social justice now happily refers to herself as your slave.

The brand. You are a liar and a sadist, getting pleasure from watching on our skin burn with your initials while we innocently accepted your lives. Lies of love, bonding, rising above pain for a greater good. No, you are just a deviant, trying to mask yourself as a lamb. Just let's call it what it is because everyone can see it now.

I trusted you. You told me you had my best intentions, but you hurt me. There are some of the ways -- here are some of the ways that I was affected during my time in NXIVM and in DOS. I was put on a restricted-calorie diet for over a year. I was permitted only limited sleep. A constant mix of praise and verbal abuse became my normal life. I was instructed to be 106 pounds and needed to lose 20 pounds without any consideration for my health or wellbeing.

You played doctor and I was your human science experiment. This caused me to lose my period, threatening my ability to reproduce because I became so thin. I still suffer from medical issues because of this, all because you wanted me to look like I was twelve years old; a girl, hungry, weak and easy to manipulate. I had no idea of these perverted desires of yours and would often just put myself to bed because I was in extreme hunger pains.

I was making little to no money the entire seven years I was in NXIVM. A time when many others would be building a career or getting an education, and I spent nearly a hundred thousand dollars on your curriculums and related expenses.

I was branded with a cauterizing pen. This extremely painful procedure lasted 30 minutes and took months to heal. I may have to live the rest of my life with Keith's initials seared into my flesh and I'm not sure if I will ever be able to put that fully behind me. I don't need to look at the brand to remember the abuse, I just have to close my eyes to remember. I hear yours and Allison's words.

I was also instructed to write damaging documents against my own mother from Clare Bronfman and Nancy Salzman, who instructed me to sue my mother. I was also required to recruit other women into DOS and I was punished if I did not. I was also instructed to seduce Keith as a test to my loyalty. Supposedly, this would show me I was willing to push against my fears and experience what it feels like to be rejected. This is how they manipulated me into thinking it was for my own growth. This turned into dozens of sexual encounters with a man I was not attracted to. I would never have consented to this if I wasn't being blackmailed or threatened with my collateral if I did not obey. I did not join ESP to be abused and enslaved. I was gaslit and coerced.

I still hear yours and Allison's words: "Everything I do for you is for your own good." "You're a bad master." "You are weak." "You let people walk all over you," when I wouldn't punish the people I was forced to recruit.

"You are an entitled little Princess. You don't know who you are, you have no sense of self, and if you don't do this you will never grow." "You are good at being a slave, those skills come naturally to you."

I experienced emotional humiliation from people who said they were my friends, and psychological punishment if I could not complete what was being demanded of me by Allison and Keith. I was also physically isolated and instructed to stay in Albany for months at a time. Although they told me I was free, I could not actually go home when I wanted because of the all the consequences if I did so. This caused great strain on me and my family and my friendships at home. I was estranged and being told that it was for my benefit to stay in Albany and return home. After leaving this group, I've experienced both physical and mental damage including panic attacks, extreme anxiety, digestive issues, as well as physical pain in my body that amplifies with stress and suicidal thought.

Keith Raniere is without remorse. I know that, despite everything he might say now, he is not capable of changing. I see this clearly now, as he instructs his loyalists to defend him from prison. To me it is only fitting that he gets a permanent sentence as his damage is permanent on me and so many others. It's bad enough to be physically raped, which he did, but Keith is also the type of predator who targets and degrades the entire fabric of his victims' lives. He takes everything that is good and destroys it. I would like to never have to live in fear of Keith Raniere again, and know that no other man or woman will be able to be victimized by him or his cohorts. Your Honor, that is why I am asking for life, a permanent sentence. Thank you.

JANE DOE: I am very grateful to have the opportunity to be heard. I was enrolled in Executive Success Programs in 2007 to join an Organization for the Development of Human Potential, and I was led to believe this was the ultimate humanitarian community.

I met Keith Raniere during my first time in V Week. I came to V Week for nine years in a row. In 2009, the World Ethical Foundation Consortium took place in downtown Albany. And I flew from Mexico to experience a truly outstanding even where international figures spoke through their expertise about different world difficulties and we spent days trying to figure out possible solutions to these issues, like the violence in Mexico, or how to empower women, to mention a couple. Literally we would end up around 3 in the morning working up ideas to make this world a better place to live. And the cherry on top, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had flown all the way to Albany to give tribute to Keith's ethical teachings. It was just a bliss.

During ten years I was a coach teaching ETHOS classes twice a week, coming to all Albany for all the second-level trainings available. I took Family Values, Anatomy of Mind and Body, Breaches, Mobius, Characterization, Human Pain, Ascension, Jness 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 --

JANE DOE: Thank you.

During ten years I was a coach teaching ETHOS classes twice a week, coming to Albany for all the second-level trainings available. I took Family Values, Anatomy of Mind and Body, Breaches, Mobius, Characterization, Human Pain, Ascension, Jness 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. I paid for 11, but I didn't come anymore. Society of Protectors 1 and 2; Ethicist 1, 2 and 3; The Source, and I became a source trainer; The Knife of Aristotle and I was an analyst for almost two years; Platform 3/4, later known as Reverence. I trained myself to perform EMs, taking the EM tech training many times. Actually, some of these trainings I took even five times. I came to Coach Summits, supported, personally and economically, projects like In La'Kech in Mexico, which was an organization designed to end violence in my country. Along with more coaches, we trained a six-month ETHOS program designed specifically for IBERO University in Mexico City. The reason why I mention all this is because I want to make clear the level of commitment that I had. By the way, I never received a dollar for my work, just the number of what I was going to receive. But that money never reached my pocket.

In retrospect, I can see a pattern of close people to Keith like Loreta Garza telling me that Keith wanted to train me personally to become an enrollee for philanthropists to sponsor his projects, or Clare Bronfman wanting me to come to Fiji for a training, or to Albany for a few months to take Keith's trainings, which eventually I ended up doing.

In December 2012, right after Ascension training was over, Nancy Salzman approached me saying that Keith wanted to meet with me the next day, to which I said I couldn't because I had a booked flight. Just a few hours later, Laura Salzman called me saying that it was truly an honor that Keith wanted to spend time with me, that people flew from all over the world to see him. And I knew this was true; His Holiness the Dalai Lama was a perfect example. So I stayed, and we became closer. I felt very privileged.

In V Week 2015, Keith asked me to stay for a few days after Coach Summit was over. I did, and we began an intimate relationship. After that, he would text me hearts and I love yous, and I would gladly correspond. I was deeply in love very fast. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I felt special and honored. He was incredibly sweet and kind. He told me that what he wanted the most for me was to take away my suffering and my ignorance so I could be as joyous as possible. He asked me to be discreet about our relationship, which I understood and upheld. I had no clue by then, he had other relationships.

Just a month after, during the last day of Jness 7, Daniela Padilla, who was the person that had EMed me for years, and therefore was aware of my strengths and weaknesses in a very deep way, approached me and invited me to what was Keith's ultimate creation and input for humanity, the purpose of all his previous work. This circle was just for a few truly committed women. But in order to know more about this, I needed to get collateral, to state that I would keep a secrecy vow about what I was going to find out, and that this collateral, which had to be sexual content, only made me stronger.

Just both of them were going to see it and I was in a relationship with him, so I did. And so she explained to me that this circle worked with a master-slave dynamic with the purpose of getting rid of our female pride through obedience, that it was a lifetime vow and a commitment to my personal growth and ethics. It was edgy. But I was so in love, and Keith's techniques have always been edgy, so I made this uncomfortable feeling my personal issue, as I had always been led to believe in ESP.

Later that same month, during Society of Protectors 2, Keith asked me if I wanted to have a child with him. He told me I was the perfect woman to bear his child because I had no attachments of motherhood with my personal value, which I knew was true, and so my fantasy of becoming a mother strongly began. He also asked me to keep this affair private, which I did. I always knew he was the grand master of this women's vow, it was never hidden from me. The ultimate knowledge never came. Only the request for more and more collateral, and the ever-growing uncomfortableness of absolute obedience. Daniela Padilla told me that the next time I was in Albany, I was going to be tattooed, just like every woman in this circle, a small tattoo that symbolized four elements. I told Daniela I didn't have tattoos and I didn't want one. Her answer was "it's not a question." Before I came to Albany and get what I now know to be a branding with Keith's initials, Daniela Padilla used my collateral to thwart me, I had been blackmailed. This was the worst night of my life.

My choices were to stay in DOS, uphold my commitment to the Vow and obey someone that had just blackmailed me and therefore I couldn't trust anymore, leave DOS having my collateral released and causing irreversible damage to people I love and admire the most and absolutely lose my life the way I had built it, or just end my life. There was no choice I had that wasn't a horrifying nightmare. So the next day I quit DOS. My collateral wasn't released, but the fear of knowing any given moment it would was truly hell on Earth. My professional career is public, which made it even worse. And although I believed it was the right decision to leave, I was so scared, I didn't want to piss anyone off, because I didn't want my collateral out. From this point on, a silent feeling of shame and guilt began growing.

I still truly believed Keith was noble and innocent from Daniela's dark intent. I just couldn't see the truth. It was so well hidden, it was impossible for me to see. For months, he tried to convince me to come back to DOS, but I didn't, which meant that Daniela could release my collateral to make me uphold my word. He said he didn't believe she would release it, but the vow was all about upholding one's word, and the consequence of leaving was having your collateral released. I felt I was living on a minefield. It was daily terrorism.

Eventually, I left the Stripe Path, too.

A few months after, I was invited to a radio show to talk about differences between women and men. And as soon as it was over, I received phone calls from two Mexican senior proctors telling me that Nancy Salzman was in Mexico City and she needed to talk to me, so I came to see her. She said that it was only because she knew that I was special to Keith that she hadn't called her lawyers on me, that I had just breached my contract speaking about ESP tech, and that it was illegal. I never mentioned neither ESP nor Keith nor anyone in the interview. But she said that if I wanted, she could train me personally to become a spokesperson for the company. I declined the offer, because it felt like a trap.

It wasn't until the New York Times article broke about the branding that I realized slowly the whole entire truth. By that time I was having panic attacks during the night, a lack of meaning of my life, and trust issues that still haunt me.

I am speaking today because if no one had ever spoken out, I would have stayed silent for the rest of my life, in a dark place with the fear of any given day having my collateral out. I was used and manipulated for ten years, ten years that I just can't recover. My innocence and my strong will to better things in the world was used against me. Keith used the highest virtues of humanity as weapons against ourselves.

I'd like to address Keith directly now.

From a spiritual level, I feel so much compassion for you. It must be so dark and lonely, and I feel truly sorry for you. From human to human, you abused me tremendously. You played with my motherhood, my love, my passion and my desire to do good, and with my loyalty to my highest values. You are an abuser and you deserve to be in prison. If you had it your way, I would have been your prisoner forever. You used to tell me that freedom and slavery are irrelevant as one gains a sense of self beyond one's decisions and that both are actually the same. That is why to reach higher levels of awareness, of living awareness, have always required absolute obedience, that even total devotion to a stranger or false guru, if done completely without pride, leads to enlightenment, and the antidote for pride is humiliation. The most productive humiliation is obtained through obedience and it leads to true freedom. Well, now you have that opportunity in your hands, and it seems there is no choice left for you.

Thank you for giving me this time to speak.

ADRIAN: Your Honor, I'm Adrian. I'm Cami's and Daniela's and Mariana's brother.

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to share my statement in today's hearing.

I arrived to the Albany NXIVM community from Mexico with my parents and my little sister when I was 15 years old. She was around 14 years old at the time. My older two sisters had already been part of the community for a few years.

From the beginning, Keith was sold to me as a teacher, a leader and basically was perceived as a flawless man by his community. I looked to him as a mentor, someone who could help me achieve my goals.

At that time, I had no reason not to believe him, I was so young. If I had any doubts, questions or hesitations, he had a group enablers, his inner circle, who helped him blur the lines between the truth and lies. The lies allowed him to portray this fake persona, one that pretended to be a genius, a scientist a humanitarian that cared deeply about people. He lived in that blur.

I supported him loyally, dedicated my life to his vision, defended his character. I worked countless hours filming him so that the world could see how good of a person he was. He seemed to be so misunderstood by the media and his perceived enemies.

I saw him as a friend. With the help of his never-ending and highly expensive trainings, he knew everything about me. He knew my fears. He knew my mistakes. He knew my desires to be a businessman. He knew my family is everything to me. He knew I trusted him. But most importantly, he knew how naive I was. He used my truth against me in a way that I can only describe as cruel and just plain messed up.

He played me for 16 years. The whole time, abusing my sisters and other community members right under my nose.

Keith Raniere began to prey on my 14-year-old sister as soon as she arrived to his community. Immediately, she was given special attention. He gave her his personal phone number so that they could talk in private. She was allowed to go into his houses and spend one-on-one time with him. With the help of his inner circle, like Nancy Salzman, Pamela Cafritz, Karen Unterrainer and many others, she began to be sexually groomed for Keith Raniere. She was asked to keep it a secret.

He began separating her from her friends and family so that she no longer had a support system outside of him. She became guarded and private: Always busy, always broke, never having time for family, always on call, and always on diets.

Growing up, we were very close. Towards the end of my time in NXIVM, we barely spoke. Even though we lived in the same neighborhood, we barely saw each other. Until this day, I don't know where she lived while she was in Albany.

I've learned that Keith had sexual relationships with all three of my sisters, sometimes during the same time frame.

One of my biggest regrets in life was supporting Keith Raniere in upholding what he called my sister "ethical breach plan," which lasted years and culminated in a cruel and heartless punishment of being locked up in a room for about two years.

I was told by Keith directly that she was a psychopath and that she just liked to play games. I thought I was helping her. At times I begged her to continue with her plan. I was told to leverage our relationship because family was all she cared about, so I threatened to cut off my relationship with her if she didn't stick with the plan, it was so important that she healed her breach with Keith.

It wasn't until years after that I found out what her actual breach was. All of this waste and torture because she liked another man.

He tried to break everything that she cared about. He turned her own family against her, labeled her a suppressive and a psychopath. He tried to take away every resource that she needed to succeed or even survive in life. Her own family and friends completely shunned her for six years. Some continue to shun her.

I was told to keep her situation a secret from the community because people wouldn't understand. Most members outside of the inner circle never found out what happened to her. For them, she just vanished. But in reality, she was sent back to Mexico with little to no money and no papers. After my mom left NXIVM, I shunned her for three years. Even if she tried to contact me, I wouldn't allow her to come back into my life, all because she no longer supported Keith and his teachings. His enablers would tell me how honorable I was being for supporting Keith in this way, reinforcing his indoctrination. Throughout my time in the community, whenever I would have a reaction or if I was asked to do something that didn't feel right, I would direct it towards getting an exploration of meaning. I realize now that it detached and desensitized me to my gut feelings and my conscious.

Chaos follows Keith everywhere he goes, but he spins it to make himself out to be a victim, a martyr. All of his charades during and after his trial are prime examples of how he tries to dodge any responsibility for his actions. He continues to show no remorse whatsoever towards his victims.

Keith Raniere has negatively impacted my life in so many ways.

Before being part of NXIVM, my family was close. He destroyed my family. For three years, I didn't speak to my mother and for six years I didn't speak to my sister out of my support for Keith. I will never be able to get that time back with them. Now my father and oldest sister have shunned me for about two years. They continue to believe his lies. My family hasn't been whole in a long time.

I've gone into debt taking his intensives; a lot of my work was either underpaid or never paid.

I've lost so much time, especially when I was asked to go into hiding for about a year. The Albany Times Union wanted to interview me because they were trying to expose Keith, so I was told to go into hiding. At the time I was afraid because I no longer had a legal immigration status. I had lost my status because they told me not to go back to Mexico to renew my visa. They promised me they would take care of it if I stayed. That turned out to be a lie. They knew I was here illegally and they used that to their advantage. I was completely dependent on them. My time in isolation was a dark time. I was very depressed. I felt like I had no life whatsoever. I considered ending my life.

My entire four years of marriage have had an undertone of him; navigating, surviving and trying to love each other through the trauma. The guilt and the shame of being a part of his experiments, the wasted time, the triggers that we both carry, the concerns of being able to pay for things, trust issues, getting rid of NXIVM's indoctrinations that was drilled in us for so many years. It's a lot.

I want to express my gratitude towards the government, the prosecution and everybody involved for giving me a chance at a normal life. I know it doesn't sound like much, but after so many years of chaos and abuse, I look forward to being able to move on and rebuild my life.

In conclusion of my statement, I want to read a quote to Keith. "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid."

Keith, your time has come. You deserve to lose every ounce of freedom and luxury you have stolen from others. I look forward to the day your name will be forgotten.

Thank you, Your Honor, for your time.

ADRIANA: Your Honor, my name is Adriana. Thank you for the opportunity to read this letter to Keith Raniere.

Excuse me.

Keith, your trial and the verdict handed down by the grand jury where you were found guilty all of charges are a triumph of true love, a love that you do not know, a love that surrounded you for years and you never touch it.

The greatest crime that a human being can commit is to hinder, stop, manipulate and influence in a negative and deceptive way the spirit, the development and the expansion of the consciousness of another human being.

In your case, the majority of your victims are women. In this way, you raped and denigrated my three daughters, lying, manipulating and deceiving them as well as me, my son and their father. You have consciously committed this hideous, scandalous and inhumane crime and will consciously live accordingly.

Some time ago, I was afraid to leave my own existence. Immature and fragile, out of my center, is that I came to you in search of answers. I found with that even imagining myself, lies, deceptions, manipulations, blackmail, perversions, malevolence disguised as empathy, compassion, consideration and true knowledge.

You wanted to eliminate me and my family. You separated us. You deprived me of my experience of being a mother. I was not there for my children, and I am really sorry. It is impossible that you can think about my pain of losing my family in life. You will never be able to restore it. It was required that I die in life to my fear and be reborn in love and truth in life to realize the monster that you are.

Also, it is true that in biology we are alike. There is a great difference between us. The difference that exists between those of us who believe in family, justice, love, evolution, development and you is that you do not harbor a minimum awareness of the self. But on the contrary, inside you only harbor violence, lies, fear, loneliness and emptiness with an intense impulse to destroy all the beauty that surrounds you. You, you are part -- only part of the beast. And that beast against justice that we, the human beings of this new humanity, enforce. You are the antithesis of love.

Now you are who you have chosen to be by your actions. Even if you close your eyes, there is a justice and God exercises it through the Honorable Judge Nicholas Garaufis, representative of society, the prosecutors and the law. How many years, Keith? 20? 30? Maybe you will spend your whole life in prison. Maybe.

Listen carefully to what I am now telling you, Keith. I, Adriana, being a human being, being a woman, a daughter, a mother of this new paradigm shift of planet Earth, I tell you that no matter how much they dictate to you, your sentence has no proportion to the damage you have caused to my family and dozen of other families. The true proportion will come with time, when you totally disappear from our lives, from our thoughts, from our interactions with friends and strangers, when someone mentions you and remembers you as the beast of darkness that you are and the pain of your actions will no longer exist in our hearts. Maybe generation will pass.

I already told you once, it is not from me that you have to ask for forgiveness. I already forgave you in my forgiveness. It is to them, my children. My children. And if you ever realize how you damaged them, you will fall to your knees and beg for forgiveness, each one. And maybe in this way you will find the return to your soul.

Three of my children have found the way back to their essence, as I have. My heart knows that the father of my children and my youngest daughter will one day be themselves again and she will bring her son into the family if she wants. I am certain that consciousness surpasses genetics. In this way, her son will be fine.

And in that consciousness, it is true that along with us, some women and men who experienced themselves in your hell will become more and more luminous in the action of living a more loving life with ourselves, that whenever we make a conscious decision to know who we are and what we want for ourselves, death does not exist.

Thank you, Your Honor.