NXIVM | Sex, Lies, and Billionaires | 3

This episode contains descriptions and details that some listeners might find disturbing.

Listener discretion is advised.

It's March 2017 in Clifton Park, New York.

39-year-old Sarah Edmondson sits on the living room floor of a suburban home.

There are three other women beside her.

Sarah Fidgets, feeling the carpet rub against her bare skin.

She and the others are naked.

They're also confused.

They're about to be initiated into a sorority called Dominus Obsequius Sororium.

It's supposed to make their wildest dreams come true.

But now Sarah's having serious doubts.

Being naked in front of people she already knows is one thing.

But now there's a new woman here, Dr.

Danielle Roberts.

And she's plugged in some kind of medical tool to the wall.

The wire tip of the instrument grows red while Sarah's best friend, Laura Salzman, positions a massage table in front of the door.

Lauren's the one who told Sarah about this group, convinced her to join, then revealed that doing so made Sarah her slave.

She also said that joining meant Sarah would have to get a dime-sized tattoo.

But Sarah can see whatever this doctor's using, it's not a tattoo gun.

All of a sudden, Sarah's faith in her friend is wavering.

Even so, she stands up when Lauren tells her to.

One of the other naked women is ordered to lie down on the massage table, and the two others are told to restrain her.

Sarah's got the most important job of all.

She's going to film the entire thing on Laura's cell phone.

The woman lying on the table quivers as Dr.

Roberts brings the sizzling wire close to her skin.

She's ordered to stay still, and she forces herself to freeze in place, tears running down her cheeks.

Roberts positions the cauterizer just below her pubic bone, only a couple of inches from her genitals.

Lauren orders the woman to recite the magic words, making sure to speak directly to the camera.

Master, please brand me.

It would be an honor.

With that, Dr.

Roberts drags the red hot wand over the woman's skin.

She screams bloody murder.

Sarah watches as the other women use all their weight to stop her from flailing wildly.

Lauren yells for the victim to keep quiet.

It's only a little pain, she says.

It will be over soon.

This is for her own good.

Sarah shuts her eyes tight as the torment continues, praying that she'll wake up from what must be a nightmare.

But this is all too real.

And despite Lauren's promise that it will be over quickly, the ordeal just keeps going.

Dr.

Roberts moves the tool along the woman's pubic area for a full 30 minutes.

The stench of burning flesh soon filling the house.

Halfway through the torture, the woman stops struggling.

She seems to have dissociated, blocked out reality to escape the pain.

The only evidence that she's still conscious are occasional tremblings of her lips and sporadic tears.

They pool on the massage table, outlining her face in a watery veil.

At last, the ritual ends and the woman stumbles off the table like a newborn deer.

A pink, angry wound marks her flesh.

Lauren told them that the symbol represents the four classic elements, fire, earth, water, air.

But to Sarah, it looks more like a series of letters, K, A, and R.

Sarah's still holding Lauren's phone.

That's how she sees a text message come through, asking how the women are doing.

Sarah knows there are other members of this group, but it's still jarring to think that someone is aware of what's happening here, and is able to be so casual about it.

Who sends a text about something like this?

It makes her wonder who it is.

The contact isn't saved as a name, though.

Just a set of initials, K, A, R.

It has to be a woman.

Lauren was very clear that this group is a sisterhood.

With those letters, maybe it's someone named Karen?

Yes, that must be it.

Just a woman checking in on her new sisters.

That's all it is.

Sarah swipes the message off the screen and prepares to video the next branding, trying not to think about the fact that it'll be her turn soon.

She forgets about the text from K, A, R, and turns her thoughts back to the three words she's counting on to change her life.

Dominus obsequius sororium.

She has no idea that the group was actually founded by a man, a man who's calling all the shots and binding women to him by branding them with his initials, Keith Allen Raniere.

Sarah doesn't see it, none of them do.

But it's right there in the group's name, Dominus obsequius sororium, Master over slave women.

From Airship, I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and this is American Criminal.

At the end of the 1990s, Keith Raniere teamed up with hypnotherapist Nancy Salzman to create the Executive Success Program, a business that targeted vulnerable individuals.

The goal of their multi-level marketing-inspired scheme was twofold, money and power.

They drew in naive recruits with promises that they could improve themselves, overcome their trauma and make their dreams come true.

These students were encouraged to share the deepest, most shameful parts of themselves in the name of growth.

But it just gave Keith the valuable information he could use to manipulate everyone who took one of his courses.

Within just a few years, Keith and Nancy's plan had worked better than they ever dreamed.

They had millions of dollars in the bank and legions of loyal followers.

But no matter how much they achieved, it was never enough.

Keith Raniere sought nothing less than total control.

And he would stop at nothing to get it.

Unfortunately, his powers of persuasion didn't work on everyone.

And even the people who he did manage to hoodwink often came to realize their mistake.

They fought back against his influence, threatening to topple his empire.

In response, Keith became more tyrannical than ever, stooping to the basis strategies to counter his critics.

Though his scorched-earth tactics worked for a while, they would eventually come back to bite him.

That's when things turned even more sinister.

This is episode 3 in our four-part series on Nxivm.

Sex, Lies and Billionaires.

It's April 2001 in Clifton Park, New York.

Without bothering to knock, Keith Raniere enters the home of his business partner, Nancy Salzman.

He walks through the kitchen where he finds Nancy's 25-year-old daughter, Lauren, washing the dishes.

Lauren's happy to see Keith and rushes to pull out a chair at the kitchen table for him.

Over the past few months, 41-year-old Keith's been doing all he can to get closer to her.

He acts like an uncle, positioning himself as a mature sounding board who can help her navigate young adulthood.

Sure enough, Lauren jumps right into her usual venting session as she cleans.

Recently, her mother has started charging her rent, so she's considering finally moving out.

Keith tells her that sounds like a good idea.

She'll finally be independent.

He doesn't tell her that he's the one who encouraged Nancy to charge her rent in the first place.

It's all part of his plan to bring Lauren into his inner circle, a group of women he has sexual relationships with and who he expects to do his everybidding.

Nancy Salzman has been part of the circle for the past three years.

Ever since she and Keith founded their business, the Executive Success Program.

Once the dishes are taken care of, Keith invites Lauren on a walk and the two of them stroll through the sleepy neighborhood.

He probes her about her various family and health issues.

Unprompted, he suggests that she go on a juice fast to lose weight.

He reminds her that he's one of the most intelligent men in the world and says that based on his calculations, a healthy weight for her should be about a hundred pounds.

Lauren nods along, believing he wants the best for her.

When they get back to her mother's house, Keith leads Lauren into the bedroom to tell her one last thing, something private.

The two of them sit on the squeaky mattress and he leans forward to whisper in her ear.

He wants the two of them to exchange sexual energy.

He claims it's crucial for her spiritual growth, but he warns her that she cannot tell anyone about it, especially not her mother and definitely not Keith's girlfriend, Barbara.

Lauren looks at the man who she's known and trusted for the past three years.

She's never thought of him that way.

His beard is speckled with gray and his aviator glasses make him look more nerdy than handsome.

But she trusts Keith as a spiritual guide.

He's helped her work through so much and maybe she just needs to have faith in him.

So she nods and does what Keith Raniere asks.

Lauren Salzman is one of at least a dozen women Keith seduces in the early 2000s, including her mother.

And all the while, he pretends to be in a committed monogamous relationship with the woman he calls his primary girlfriend, Barbara Boucher.

By 2001, 41-year-old Barbara has been dating Keith for over a year.

Over that time, she's had to steadily acclimate to his bizarre and controlling demands.

At his request, she wears only loose-fitting clothing and a shoes make up in public.

She diets to reach his preferred weight for her and even grooms her pubic hair according to his specifications.

Whenever she pushes back on any of his orders, Keith's inner circle rushes to back him up.

At first, Barbara believes they're all just innocent admirers.

His company, the Executive Success Program, is designed to help people realize their full potential.

So it's only natural he would have some committed followers.

But Barbara's got no idea what's really going on at ESP.

To her, it really is designed to help people be their best selves.

But with Nancy's help, Keith has transformed his business into a systemized program for recruiting and taking advantage of the vulnerable.

The plan is simple.

Make these targets, usually women, dependent on Keith and his program.

Then take them for everything they've got.

Money, influence and sex.

Barbara doesn't know that all these women constantly jumping to Keith's defense have been psychologically abused.

That they've been manipulated into becoming part of his secret harem.

That's why they've always taken his side.

Anytime Barbara has issues, they gaslight her into believing that she's the problem.

They tell her that her jealousy is out of control, that she's on this earth to help Keith in his mission to change the world.

And when they gang up on her like this, she always gives in.

Just another one of his victims.

As the years wear on, Keith revels in testing the limit of his control over his followers.

His claims about himself grow more grand and harder to believe.

He decides that he wants to be seen as a higher being, a guru above suspicion.

He already makes them call him Vanguard, and now he starts telling new students at ESP that he never has sex and that he doesn't own any material possessions.

As such an admirable figure, he decides that he needs to be celebrated more openly and starts hosting an annual 10-day celebration in August to honor his birthday.

V-Week, V for Vanguard C, is held at a YMCA in New York and features guest speakers, talent shows and athletic events.

Attending and more importantly, bringing friends becomes a key way recruits can rise to the ranks of the organization, which is central to ESP's draw.

Promotions come with colored sashes.

At the lowest levels are the students who wear white.

Above them are coaches and then proctors.

These proctors are allowed to make money by hosting classes, so that's the rank most people are working towards.

Once new recruits are firmly enmeshed in the company culture, the cream of the crop are encouraged to move to the Clifton Park neighborhood where Keith and his inner circle reside.

There are neighborhood volleyball games and block parties.

Eventually, the company even has a dedicated realtor whose job it is to buy up properties in the area and distribute them among the chosen.

It's a budding commune made up solely of those who believe Keith Raniere is God's gift to humanity.

So as bizarre and blatantly cult-like as these tactics sound, what's even more bizarre is how well they work.

Keith's making waves in the business world by spreading his own brand of self-improvement pseudo-science.

And his world views permeate everything he touches.

New advanced DSP courses are segregated by gender and see participants engage in intensive workshops supposedly designed to dismantle psychological barriers that are unique to women and men.

The curriculums lean on tired tropes about men being protectors and women being inherently non-committal.

Through it all, Keith gathers detailed information on his students so that he can more easily manipulate them.

By 2002, the company is on the precipice of extreme growth.

It's even recently opened the first international ESP center in Mexico City, helmed by one of their most successful recruiters, Edgar Boone.

With business booming, Keith has more than enough cash to live comfortably, but that's not the same as building an empire.

He wants more.

He believes everyone should know of his brilliance, that people across the world should know his name.

But to do that, he'll need a lot more money.

So he directs his recruiters to seek out the wealthiest new students they can find.

In October of that year, he finds what he's looking for in Claire Bronfman.

Having just turned 25, Claire is looking for some direction in her life.

She's the daughter of billionaire Edgar Bronfman, and is one of the heirs to the Seagram Liquor Dynasty.

But throughout her privileged life, she's been confined to the background.

She feels like a bit player in her family story.

It's not only her father's shadow that dogs her, but also her beautiful, successful older sister Sarah, who makes her feel like she's always second best.

Claire's friends know she's dealing with some deep-seated insecurity.

So when a couple of them attend an ESP intensive, they suggest she do the same.

They hope it will help her grapple with her issues and find her own way in the world.

And that's exactly what it seems to do.

ESP's courses encourage Claire to get over her hangups.

Before the classes, she struggles to look other people in the eye.

But afterwards, she becomes more confident.

She finds the experience so rewarding that she even puts aside the jealousy she feels for her sister to get her on board too.

When Sarah starts flirting with Keith Raniere's protégé, Edgar Boone, Claire tries not to view it as a grab for attention like she might have in the past.

Thanks to ESP, she doesn't think that way anymore.

Besides, she's not interested in Boone.

By 2003, Claire is completely in Keith Raniere's thrall.

He manipulates her just like all of his victims, using the intimate details she shared in ESP courses to play on her psychological issues.

She tells him she wants to use her family's wealth to have a positive effect on the world, and Keith is happy to help her with that, as long as she pledges to serve him, for eternity.

Ah, and to lend him $2 million.

Claire can't write the check fast enough.

From Keith's perspective, things are going better than he ever could have hoped.

The Bronson sisters have both taken the bait, and once they're both on the hook, their happiness becomes a top priority for ESP.

Other students notice that Claire and Sarah get preferential treatment during seminars, and that they enjoy privileges beyond their low ranking.

That's because Keith has big plans for them, or rather for their money.

And he doesn't want anyone standing between himself and either sister.

That's why he convinces Sarah to break up with Edgar Boone.

And once Keith's sure that both women are completely committed to him, he gives them a challenge.

They need to bring their billionaire father into ESP.

Yeah, Keith knows this is a gamble.

The Brotman sisters have a complicated relationship with their dad Edgar.

He's a typical hard-nosed business type who's also named Edgar.

Who knew that was such a popular name?

I imagine we'll be looking at the name Cody the same way in 30 years.

Anyway, knowing about the family dynamic, Keith suggests that Claire and Sarah Pitch ESP is an opportunity for the three of them to bond.

When approached that way, Edgar jumps at the opportunity.

He'd love to check out the group the both his daughters are so passionate about.

Since Keith prefers to deal with women, he sends Nancy Salzman to take point on reeling in this big fish.

She books Edgar for a five-day VIP intensive, where she does her best to win him over.

Initially, Edgar's into it.

He really wants to grow closer to his daughters, and he likes what Nancy has to say about drive and self-improvement.

He likes it so much that after the initial course is over, he invites her to his home for a series of private consultations.

But Nancy overplays her hand.

She moves in for the hard sell, and Edgar balks.

When she pressures them to recruit some of his wealthy contacts, he realizes what she's really about.

His daughters might have fallen for this nonsense, but he's not so easily taken in.

He knows when someone is only after his money, and he has Barbara to leave.

He'll have nothing more to do with her organization, he tells her.

When he hears about this fumble, disappointment shakes Keith.

But he consoles himself that he still has the Bronfman sisters firmly on his side.

Always an opportunist, he uses the chapter to drive Claire and Sarah further away from their father.

He knows that Edgar could become a problem, and wants to counter his influence over his daughters before that happens.

So probing their issues with Edgar becomes a key focus of Claire and Sarah's private sessions.

Though this keeps the sisters committed, their blind love for Keith means they don't realize how off-putting he is to most other people.

It's a fatal flaw in Keith's design, and thanks to the sisters' high profile, it's a flaw that has catastrophic consequences.

In late 2003, Claire and Sarah sit down for an interview with Forbes magazine.

They're hoping to advertise the organization as a positive life-changing force, and they extol the virtues of both ESP and Keith Raniere.

But the journalist Michael Friedman doesn't just take their word for it.

He also interviews their father, who obviously feels differently.

Edgar describes how he was almost duped by Nancy Salzman, and straight up says he believes ESP is a cult.

With a single quote, Edgar Brontman's narrative steals the headline.

All of a sudden, what was supposed to be a puff piece to bring in new followers becomes an unexpected exposé of the executive success program.

And the fallout will threaten the core of Keith Raniere's empire.

So, the origins of American Criminal, a dream.

A dream that turned in to this podcast.

You are listening to it today.

Taking your business to the next level is a dream lots of us share, but too often it remains just a dream.

We hold ourselves back, thinking what if I don't have the skills?

What if I can't do it alone?

Turn those what ifs into why nots, and help your business soar with Shopify.

Shopify's point of sales system is a unified command center for your retail business.

It brings together in-store and online operations across up to 1,000 locations.

Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient.

Endless aisles, ship-to-customer, buy online, pick up in-store, all made simpler so customers can shop how they want, and staff have the tools to close the sale every time.

And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that gives marketing teams a competitive edge.

In fact, it's been proven.

Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the markets that surveyed.

Turn those what-ifs into why-nots and keep giving those big dreams the best shot with Shopify.

Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/americancriminal.

Go to shopify.com/americancriminal.

shopify.com/americancriminal.

The summer is heating up with Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four.

Light them up, Johnny!

On July 25th.

Time to save the planet.

What's the plan?

Trust me.

I hate that plan.

It's a bad plan.

Come on.

That's a stupid plan.

Prepare for fantastic.

We will face this together as a family.

Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four, First Steps.

Only in Peters, July 25th.

Made PG-13.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Get tickets now.

It's October 2003.

43-year-old Keith Raniere paces back and forth in his New York home, clutching the latest issue of Forbes Magazine.

Claire Bronfman, now 26, sits on the couch before him and hangs her head.

Keith tosses the magazine on the floor in disgust.

The cover story is titled The World's Strangest Executive Coach.

A subheading follows.

Keith Raniere's rich and famous clients pay thousands of dollars, bow, and call him the vanguard.

Claire fixes her gaze on the magazine, not daring to look Keith in the eyes.

She's the one he's decided is to blame for the bad press.

While both she and her sister Sarah sat for the interviews, Claire is the one who committed the worst sin.

She told her father that she'd given the executive success program a $2 million loan.

In Keith's words, that's an ethical breach.

Financial matters between the two of them should be strictly private, even from family.

Claire nods and stifles a sob as Keith berates her.

She feels lower than she ever has.

She's a traitor to the man who changed her life, breaking his trust is a crime she's not sure she can ever make up for.

But Keith is determined to make sure she does.

One way or another, she's going to pay.

Keith leaves the house that day with a new mission fixed in his mind.

Go on the offensive.

It isn't just Forbes he has to contend with.

Lately, multiple journalists have been asking for comments on stories they've heard about ESP.

The company's finances, which Keith sees as his own personal piggy bank, are being scrutinized.

They're the same kinds of questions that sank his first business, Consumers Byline, back in the 90s.

This time, he pledges things will be different.

The first step is to complete a rebrand Keith's been contemplating for a while.

He's decided that executive success program sounds a little stuffy, and a name change might help shake the bad press.

He settles on Nxivm, spelled N-X-I-V-M.

Exactly where that name comes from isn't totally clear, but it might be a reference to an ancient Roman system of debt bondage known as Nxivm.

Given Keith's fixation on money, sex and power, that would make sense.

Far as rebrands go, it's pretty weak sauce.

Cause not much changes about the company other than the name.

As usual, Keith doesn't believe in adapting his behavior based on feedback or criticism.

Instead, he believes his energy is better spent aggressively targeting his critics.

And to that end, sometime in the early 2000s, he appoints Kristin Keefe to be his designated fixer.

Since joining Keith's inner circle a few years ago, Kristin's been eager to please.

With light brown hair, pale skin and a soft voice, she fits in with the other women in Keith's orbit.

But she's also a bit heavier than them.

A fact Keith takes pleasure in exploiting.

He makes Kristin report her weight in front of the other women to embarrass her, which, surprise, causes her to develop an eating disorder.

But her loyalty never wavers.

Though she's been with him since his early days, she's never been the main object of his affections.

So now, when he gives her this important new role, she's determined to make him proud.

Once he puts her in charge of silence and critics, Kristen dives into the deep end.

Keith invents a new position for her that he calls a legal liaison.

It sounds official, but really, she's just coordinating harassment campaigns against its critics.

And one of her first targets is a cult specialist named Rick Alan Ross.

In mid 2003, Rick gets a tip from the concerned parents of a Nxivm member about the group's manipulative practices.

Rick looks into it and publishes his findings on his website, which are picked up by a local newspaper that October.

Kristen gets wind of this, and just days after the article, Nxivm sues Rick for $10 million.

The suit is completely frivolous and gets tossed by the judge.

Undeterred, Nxivm appeals and then refiles the suit multiple times.

The motive appears to be to wage lawfare, to drain Rick of his time and money for having the gall to criticize them.

On top of these suits, Kristen employs a small army of private investigators to dig up dirt on any would-be critics.

This goes beyond simply threatening journalists with lawsuits.

She has detectives tail Rick and others like him to make them feel unsafe.

She even makes an attempt to lure Rick into a compromising situation with a Nxivm follower so she'll have something to blackmail him with.

But Rick doesn't fall for it.

Kristen will do anything and everything to protect Keith.

She even allegedly hires a firm to try and hack into the bank records of judges and politicians who get too close to uncovering Nxivm's misconduct.

Of course, all of this is costing the company an arm and a leg, but for Keith Raniere, it's money well spent.

By this point, he's got hundreds of regular students scattered across the nation, all of them laying out thousands of dollars for classes.

And thanks to his experience in multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes, he doesn't have to lift a finger anymore.

His curriculum is taught by dozens of people in the senior proctor positions.

And it's bringing in millions every month.

Keith is living large, but the richer and more powerful he becomes, the more he needs to satisfy his greed and his ego.

He's totally delusional, convinced that he's infallible.

So naturally, he turns to gambling on stocks, firmly believing he can beat the system.

Spoiler doesn't work.

In less than six months, Keith loses over four million dollars in the commodities market.

The worst part is that he opened the trading account using Barbara Boucher's name, meaning she's responsible for all the debt he's racked up.

Keith gives her no choice other than to drain her life savings, 1.6 million to soften the loss and legal liability as much as possible.

The rest of the money comes out of loans from Keith's most committed followers.

And this whole time, he continues to insist he's just one trade away from cracking the market.

But eventually, his inner circle persuades him to maybe give up on the stocks, at least for the time being.

Thankfully, he's pulled back from the brink, but the only lesson he learns is that he needs even more money.

So he turns to Claire and Sarah, demanding more cash from their fortune.

They buy him a private jet and fund several ill-fated construction projects, including the Los Angeles development deal that costs a staggering $26 million.

Despite the fact that Claire and Sarah have already forked over tens of millions of dollars to Keith, he decides that he needs a final show of loyalty to trust them again.

He wants a contribution so that everyone will know that Nxivm's flush with cash.

It's soon decided that Keith will set up a charity called the Ethical Humanitarian Foundation.

Then, at the V-Week celebration in August 2004, the sisters hand Keith a giant $20 million novelty check.

Now no one can doubt his might.

With a steady cash flow and his most vocal critics inundated with lawsuits, Keith Raniere feels more secure than ever.

For the next two years, he continues growing Nxivm.

Thanks to referrals from the Bromfmans and Barbara Boucher, he steadily makes connections with an elite, wealthy clientele across the country.

Some of the money these people bring in is reinvested to expand Nxivm's international reach.

Keith builds a second campus in Mexico that he uses to scout more candidates for manipulation.

He promises underage girls that they're special and can help them change the world.

He flies them to New York, puts them to work and grooms them for sex.

But no matter what he does, deep down, he's still not satisfied.

Wealth alone isn't enough to grant him the total control he desires.

He wants to become one of the truly elite, known and respected around the world.

To do that, he needs fame.

In late 2006, around the same time that Keith's reckoning with his new dreams, 24-year-old actor Allison Mack signs up for a weekend retreat with Nxivm.

For the past three years, she's played Superman's high school best friend in the TV show Smallville.

The role has catapulted her to a new level of fame, which is as scary as it is exciting.

It's a lot for a young adult to handle, and Allison hopes Nxivm's counseling can help her navigate her newfound status.

When Keith hears about Allison's interest in the program, he sees an opportunity to gain a foothold in Hollywood and grab some clout for himself.

Though he'd love to take the lead on recruiting her, the retreat she enrolls in is specifically geared towards women.

That means Nancy Salzman and daughter Lauren will have to be in charge of the recruitment.

Still, Keith makes sure he has as much influence as possible over the proceedings.

He urges Sarah Brontman to sign on as an attendee as well, along with much of his inner circle.

He orders them to treat Allison as a VIP.

He then deploys the same tactics he used to win over Barbara Boucher years earlier.

The women are hyper-affectionate, encouraging and accommodating towards Allison.

The aim is for at least one of them to hit it off with her and use the new friendship to reel her in.

Lauren Salzman is the one who succeeds, which makes Keith very happy.

But although he wants to devote all his attention to bringing Allison into the fold, he's soon distracted by an unexpected development in his personal life.

In October 2006, Kristen Keefe goes into labor.

The baby is Keith's.

But she hid the pregnancy from him because she knew he would pressure her to get an abortion.

Now though, he's a father, and there's nothing he can do about it.

It's hard enough for Keith to accept this new reality, but for Barbara Boucher, who's been dating Keith for years, it's a gut punch.

All this time, she's ignored the signs of his infidelity.

But when Kristen gives birth, she can't lie to herself anymore.

No matter how Keith tries to spin it, she knows the baby is his.

And Kristen is clearly expecting him to take responsibility.

Acknowledging the simple fact that Keith has been cheating on her seems to finally break the spell he has over Barbara.

After all this time, she can see that he's been using her as a tool to get what he wants.

And she's not going to put up with that anymore.

Have you heard about Slayer Rules, aka Slayer Statutes?

These are legal provisions that prevent people from inheriting property or benefiting from the estate of a person they murdered.

One of the things they protect is someone getting killed for their life insurance policy.

Makes you realize how valuable life insurance is, doesn't it?

It's good to know that at least my life insurance policy isn't a reason to kill me.

Plus, it only costs me about the same as one of my streaming services each month, thanks to SelectQuote.

If you're new to life insurance, you're not alone.

Thankfully, there's SelectQuote.

For over 40 years, SelectQuote has helped more than 2 million Americans understand their options and get the coverage they need.

Over $700 billion in coverage and counting.

As a broker, their mission is simple, to find you the right insurance policy at the best price.

SelectQuote takes the guesswork out of finding the right life insurance policy.

You don't have to sort through dozens of confusing options on your own.

Instead, one of their licensed agents will find the right policy at the right price for you, comparing plans from trusted, top-rated insurance companies to find the policy that fits your health, your lifestyle and your budget.

SelectQuote works with providers who offer same-day coverage, up to $2 million worth, with no medical exam required.

And, and this is important, you're not out of luck if you have pre-existing health conditions, because SelectQuote partners with companies that offer policies for people with conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease.

SelectQuote makes life insurance simple.

Even if this is your first time thinking about it, head to selectquote.com and a licensed insurance agent will call you right away, with the right policy for your life and your budget.

Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today.

Get the right life insurance for you, for less.

And save more than 50% at selectquote.com/americancriminal.

Save more than 50% on term life insurance at selectquote.com/americancriminaltoday to get started.

That's selectquote.com/americancriminal.

On WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages, whether it's a voice call, message or sending a password.

To WhatsApp, it's all just this.

So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat, we're trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast.

Your personal messages stay between you, your friends and your family.

No one else, not even us.

WhatsApp, message privately with everyone.

It's January 2008 in the conference room at Nxivm's headquarters in Clifton, New York.

48-year-old Barbara Boucher sits down in a plush leather office chair.

She's the last to arrive.

The other seats are already taken up by Keith and the rest of Nxivm's executive board.

Four women and one man, Edgar Boone.

Of everyone here, Edgar's the only one who doesn't have a sexual relationship with Keith.

That's one of the big problems Barbara has with the company and the main reason she's come to the meeting.

When they're called to order, she stands up to make an announcement.

She says she can't condone the way Keith's running the company, so she's stepping down from the board.

It's not just the sex, she explains, though that certainly doesn't help.

The entire business model has started to worry her.

Existing students aren't being promoted as promised.

In the nine years she's been with the company, only around 20 people have made it to the coveted proctor level.

The people right below that, the ones called coaches, number in the hundreds.

But they aren't allowed to make money leading classes on their own.

Though Barbara has profited financially from her own high ranking, she's concerned that most of Nxivm's loyal customers are getting the short end of the stick.

When she's finished talking, Barbara doesn't wait for Keith to respond to what she said.

She just turns and leaves the room.

She's done listening to him.

Barbara's sure she left Keith reeling, but resigning from the board is only one step of her plan.

She understands enough to know her value at the company.

She's one of their top recruiters, and she intends to stop enrolling new students until Keith agrees to change us with Nxivm.

She's also going to end their romantic relationship, even if he addresses her concerns.

She's had enough and she's coming at him with everything she's got, confident she can rein in his increasingly tyrannical behavior.

Unfortunately, Barbara underestimates Keith Raniere.

Her mistake is imagining that he has a conscience, or the good sense to run his business rationally.

But she's wrong.

Keith responds to every critique of his behavior, large or small, with the same scorched earth attitude.

From the moment Barbara publicly disagrees with the vanguard, she becomes a pariah.

The inner circle spread vicious rumors behind her back, claiming she's mentally ill.

Worse than that, they brand her a suppressive, a dangerous, hateful critic.

None of it makes Barbara back down, though.

She's determined to use her financial expertise and position to change the company for the better.

Eventually, about a year after she leaves the board, Keith does promote some new members.

But it's more of the same.

Appointees were blindly loyal to Keith.

People like Claire Brontwin finally redeemed six years after the notorious Forbes hit piece.

One of Claire's biggest accomplishments is securing the Dalai Lama to speak at a conference hosted by one of Keith's charitable foundations.

The announcement sets off a media firestorm in January 2009 with dozens of critics writing to warn the Dalai Lama that Nxivm is a cult.

The pressure causes the Dalai Lama to cancel at the last minute, at which point Keith, Claire and Nancy fly their private jet to confront him in person.

After a lengthy negotiation, he agrees to speak at a smaller event they're also sponsoring.

In this lecture, the Dalai Lama urges Nxivm to admit to any crimes they've committed and submit to a third-party investigation.

Not the best thing that's ever happened.

In fact, you might call it an unmitigated PR disaster.

But Nxivm's dedicated followers see it differently.

To them, having the Dalai Lama speak at one of their events is evidence of Nxivm's prestige.

Doesn't matter what he actually said on stage.

In the heat of all the controversy, Barbara Boucher makes her final and gutsyest move.

She's gonna head back at Keith for his smear campaign to expose him as the predator he is.

On April 21st, 2009, she arranges a closed door meeting with Keith.

Only when he turns up, he finds a group of nine women staring him down, ready to ask him some very pointed questions.

And they're filming the entire thing.

So he has to be on his best behavior.

They keep him on the hot seat for ten straight hours, grilling him about his shady business practices, as well as his sexual manipulation of women.

Usually, this is the kind of environment where Keith thrives.

He tries his usual strategy of exhausting his audience with long-winded rambling answers.

But it's not working this time, and eventually his temper flares.

Barbara brings up the pyramid scheme accusations that brought down consumer's byline.

That's when Keith becomes furious and warns her that he's had people killed before.

What or who he's actually referring to here remains a mystery.

Could be a reference to a specific event, but maybe it's a veiled threat of a desperate man.

Either way, the meeting ends without the women's concerns being addressed.

All nine of them officially resigned from the company.

Following this confrontation, Keith is irate.

He calls his lawyers and focuses on damage control.

He tells anyone who listen that the Nxivm Nine are suppressives, and implies that they're criminals who are trying to extort him.

His attorneys send the women threatening letters.

But there's another problem he has to deal with too.

Barbara's videotape of the meeting.

She could distribute copies of it at any moment.

If that happens, Keith knows there's no hiding from the accusations against him.

So he calls a town hall and apologizes to his employees for some of his misconduct.

In a speech full of hedging and contradictions, he admits that he lied to them.

He isn't the celibate anti-materialist he's claimed to be.

He confesses to having sexual relationships with board members and pledges to do better in the future.

Meanwhile, in private, of course, he continues his revenge campaign against Barbara.

He orders all members of Nxivm to cut her off completely.

He spreads rumors about her to her friends, family and former co-workers.

Then he swamps her with multiple lawsuits, accusing her of extortion and slander.

Her bank account ends up drained, her credibility wrecked, and her career as a financial planner is ruined.

A year after her resignation, she's got nothing left and files for bankruptcy.

Even after dealing with Barbara, Keith is desperate to keep control of his cult.

From his perspective, the biggest problems so far haven't stemmed from his abuse, but rather from the women who've escaped it.

First, it was Tony Natale, now Barbara Boucher.

He can see now that members of his inner circle are the most dangerous threats to his authority because they know the true extent of his manipulations.

Again, though, instead of changing his behavior, Keith's answer is to double down.

Kristen Keefe, the mother of his child, is among his first targets.

He quashes any talk of the baby he had with her, a son named Galen.

He has one of the other members of his inner circle adopt the boy.

The adoption isn't legal, but it helps give credibility to the story that Galen isn't Keith's.

And Kristen's choices are to take her son and run, or go along with Keith's orders.

So, she stays.

With the baby out of Kristen's custody, Keith puts Galen on a special, untested diet and tightly controls his social interactions.

He comes up with an absurd curriculum he insists will result in his son growing up speaking seven languages.

But all of this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The other women in his orbit are next, and he decides that psychological abuse isn't enough to keep them in line.

He starts demanding collateral from them, blackmail material that will ensure their loyalty.

And his sexual demands become more extreme and exploitative.

By this point, the mask is off.

Keith Raniere no longer calls these women consorts or any other euphemisms.

Now, they're his slaves, and he wants more.

From Airship, this is episode 3 in our series on Keith Raniere and Nxivm.

On the next episode, Keith's cult reaches its final form.

But just when he believes himself to be at the peak of his influence, it all comes crashing down.

We use many different sources while preparing this episode.

A couple we can recommend are the program, Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of Nxivm by Tony Natale and Chet Hardin.

And Don't Call It a Cult, the Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of Nxivm by Sarah Berman.

This episode contains reenactments and dramatized details.

And while in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said, all our dramatizations are based on historical research.

American Criminal is hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Jeremy Schwartz.

Audio editing by Christian Peraga.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrum.

This episode is written and researched by Terrell Wells.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive producers are Joel Callen, William Simpson and Lindsey Graham.