Supreme Court declines to hear convicted sex cult leader Keith Rainere’s appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal from Keith Raniere challenging his conviction on racketeering and sex-trafficking charges in connection with his leadership of the NXIVM sex cult.

The decision leaves in place an October ruling from a federal appeals court panel that upheld the verdict and a decades-long prison sentence that was handed down in 2020.

A federal jury in New York found Raniere guilty on seven counts in June 2019, following a six-week trial that centered on allegations that he operated the secretive group as a criminal enterprise that engaged in forced labor, as well as the exploitation and abuse of young girls.

Raniere founded NXIVM in Albany, N.Y., in the early 2000s as a purported self-help organization that offered expensive workshops based on his teachings in centers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

He created a secret society within the organization called DOS, or “The Vow,” that separated women into “slaves” and “masters,” intended to promote Raniere’s ideology and recruit new members, according to prosecutors.

They said Raniere, who went by “Vanguard,” controlled his followers by collecting “collateral,” such as explicit photos or embarrassing information, that he then used to manipulate them into forced labor or sexual acts with him.

In some cases, DOS “slaves” were branded on their pelvises with Raniere’s initials. The group also held a woman captive in a room for nearly two years, according to prosecutors, among other crimes.

Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison and ordered to pay a $1.75 million fine. More than a dozen victims offered personal testimony at his sentencing hearing, including a woman named “Camila” who was sexually abused by Raniere at the age of 15.

He has sought a new trial on the grounds that FBI agents fabricated evidence of child pornography that was used against him at trial. He alleges that nude photographs of “Camila” were planted on a hard drive and camera memory card that were seized from his townhouse and certain information was withheld from the defense.

Raniere’s repeated attempts to overturn the conviction have been rejected at both the trial and appellate court levels. The U.S. Supreme Court also turned away an earlier appeal in 2023.