Former NXIVM cult member says she was ‘groomed’ and raped by leader Keith Raniere

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The group styles itself as a self-help programme focused on business success and female empowerment, but former members say it is a pyramid scheme where women were coerced into abusive relationships, branded, forced into doing unpaid labor, blackmailed, and served as sex slaves to their “masters,” including the group’s former leader, Keith Raniere. Over the course of seven years, she says she was progressively blackmailed, cut off from her family, and “groomed” to be a sex slave in Raniere’s inner circle. “When you're unaware it's so easy to be led astray especially by people who are masters at manipulation and these people were that,” Ms Oxenberg says in the interview. Former Smallville actress Allison Mack, who became a leader in the group and who Ms Oxenberg says was among those who groomed her, pled guilty in 2019 to racketeering conspiracy charges alongside.