6 years in prison for heiress Seagram at the trial of the Nxivm sect

Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman on September 30, 2020 upon her arrival in court in New York.

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Until the end, she refused to deny a man who kept sex slaves: Clare Bronfman, heiress of the Seagram spirits empire, was sentenced Wednesday in New York to more than six years in prison (81 months) after having pleaded guilty in the sex trafficking scandal of the Nxivm sect.

The sentence, which also includes a $ 500,000 fine, is heavier than that requested by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who requested five years in prison for the 41-year-old heiress.

The daughter of the late billionaire Edgar Bronfman pleaded guilty in April 2019 to credit card fraud and to having hidden an underground individual on behalf of the Nxivm organization created by Keith Raniere, found guilty in June 2019 of having maintained several years during a harem of 15 to 20 sex slaves.

Bronfman was not accused of a direct connection to this slavery, but prosecutors had argued that she had provided Keith Raniere, with his fortune estimated at $ 210 million, irreplaceable financial support.

"Ruined" lives

"There is little doubt that Raniere could not have committed the crimes for which he was convicted without powerful allies like Ms. Bronfman," they said in a document before the hearing.

Nine women victims of the organization testified Wednesday, sometimes in tears, pointing out that Clare Bronfman, who was paying lawyers to silence critics of Nxivm, had "ruined" their lives.

Defense lawyers had hoped to save him jail, asking for three years on parole.

According to them, the heiress knew nothing about the sexual abuse committed by Keith Raniere, perpetrated through an organization parallel to Nxivm, "DOS", which included "masters" and "slaves".

To believe them, she only knew the good side of the organization, based in Albany, New York, namely its training that promotes personal development: training that she had discovered in 1983 and which had allowed this woman, ill at ease, to overcome her anxieties.

"I cannot turn my back on these friendships"

Until the end, Clare Bronfman refused to disown Keith Raniere.

“During my many years at Nxivm, I began to appreciate life, to feel accepted, loved, happy,” she wrote to New York judge Nicholas Garaufis at the end of August.

“A lot of people in this community have become a bit of my family, and I can't turn my back on those friendships, nor deny the profound impact Keith and Nxivm have had on my life,” she added.

This refusal undoubtedly contributed to increase his sentence.

She “wrote to the judge to say that Nxivm and Keith Raniere had changed her life for the better.

She will have more than six years to contemplate this feeling, and decide once and for all if it's as easy to accept as she thought, ”reacted after the hearing the head of the New York FBI, William Sweeney.

Sentence on October 27 for the guru

Of the six people charged in this scandal, revealed in March 2018, Clare Bronfman is the first to know his sentence.

Keith Raniere, who has always said his sex was consensual, is expected to be sentenced on October 27.

After a six-week trial, the man who was considered a guru was found guilty of all seven charges against him, including sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl, extortion and criminal conspiracy.

The four other defendants pleaded guilty, including actress Allison Mack, of the

series

, to two counts, for extortion and criminal conspiracy.

The Nxivm affair has already been adapted twice for the screen: a docu-series,

"(HBO), which emphasizes the non-sexual side of the organization, and a Lisa Robinson film,

(2019), around the testimony of a mother who tried to get her daughter out of the organization.

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