Nxivm 'slave master' Lauren Salzman gets time served for role in cult
New York Post/July 28, 2021
By Elizabeth Rosner and Tamar LapinJuly
Former Nxivm “slave master” Lauren Salzman got off with time served on Wednesday for her role in the upstate sex cult — capping a legal case that saw her turn on longtime ally Keith Raniere and help put the twisted leader behind bars.
The 45-year-old daughter of Nxivm co-founder Nancy Salzman had faced between seven and nine years in prison on racketeering conspiracy charges.
But prosecutors asked Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis to go easy on her, citing her “extraordinary” cooperation and testimony at Raniere’s 2019 trial.
Salzman’s attorneys argued for no jail time, noting that she was the first co-defendant to spill the sadistic group’s secrets — and the only one to testify.
During her four days on the stand, Salzman detailed how Raniere led a master-slave group within Nxivm called DOS, where women were branded with his initials and forced to sleep with him.
She described how the sick Svengali, with whom she had a 17-year relationship, was in the process of building a sex dungeon full of cages and BDSM equipment when he was arrested in 2018.
The ghoulish guru landed 120 years behind bars last year for his heinous crimes and was recently ordered to pay his slew of victims nearly $3.5 million in restitution.
Salzman, along with former TV actress Allison Mack and others, was part of 60-year-old Raniere’s circle of “first-line masters” who helped to command the group.
In a letter to the judge last week, Salzman apologized for her misdeeds — including locking a woman in a room for two years and threatening to deport her to Mexico.
“I wish I could go back. I wish I could take my participation back. I wish I had been stronger and seen things sooner,” she wrote.
Salzman, who was under house arrest while awaiting her fate, is the third of Raniere’s five co-defendants to be sentenced in the case.
Her mother, Nancy Salzman, 66, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 8. She has said she deeply regrets introducing her daughter to Nxivm and Raniere.
“Of all the regrettable things I have done with Keith and Nxivm, this by far is the one that gives me the greatest personal sadness,” she wrote to the judge. “I am responsible for Lauren being before you.”
Mack, 38, of “Smallville” fame, was sentenced to three years in prison last month, after prosecutors asked for leniency due to her cooperation. She had faced 14 to 17 1/2 years for working as Raniere’s right-hand woman to lure victims into DOS.
Seagram’s liquor heiress Clare Bronfman was slapped with six years and nine months behind bars last year, more than prosecutors had asked for, after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor an illegal alien for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification.
Longtime Nxivm accountant Kathy Russell, who has copped to charges of visa fraud, still awaits sentencing.
