By SYDNEY MANNING
Contributing Writer
A phrase that is often used, and just as often ignored, is the phrase, “behind closed doors.” What goes on behind the closed doors of the many properties owned by NXIVM, in my neighborhood, is infuriating.
For my entire life I have lived in a quiet, suburban neighborhood. There had never been any trouble, until NXIVM moved in. It was in 2005, that Robert Romano sold his house to Veinte-Seiz LLC for $399,000. Veinte-Seiz LLC is a front for Nancy Salzman, the co-founder of the cult NXIVM.
Prior to moving in, they had many townhouses in Knox Woods, in addition to the four houses in my neighborhood, they still own the townhouses, so we weren’t strangers to their odd behavior. Keith Raniere and his “followers” would walk around at all hours, usually having a different group of women in tow. According to a resident of the neighborhood, “There had been NXIVM people walking and talking at all hours of the day and night for years before they moved in.”
When I would wake in the middle of the night, I would look out and see Raniere walking with his followers. Followers of this cult call Raniere “Vanguard,” and Salzman “Prefix.” Raniere created the group in 1998 and claimed that it was a “self-help” group, designed to improve people’s lives, both professionally and personally.
When they moved in, the neighborhood was full of young kids, who naturally, played outside when it was nice. Something that was always prevalent with NXIVM was the cars. For much of the time they were here, cars would be speeding through, and running stop signs all the time, on their way to Salzman’s. When I was in elementary school, there would be so many cars, 20-30 at a time, that the school bus was not able to get through.
As children, my neighbors and I were always told to keep a vigilant eye for people speeding, and driving recklessly. Melissa Lacijan, a resident of the neighborhood said, “There were issues right from the beginning when Salzman moved in: cars parked all around her house, late-night departures from meetings and the sound of cars zooming around our corner and out of the neighborhood back to Knox Woods.” As kids, we loved to play wiffle ball and kickball in the street, because of the way our neighborhood is set up. Kids would constantly yell, “Car, Car, C-A-R, stick your head in a jelly jar,” to alert others that a car was coming.
When I was seven or eight, and I saw Raniere with his posse of women, I would always lie and say I had to use the bathroom. What I was actually doing was sprinting into my garage, and hiding from them. I would wait until they were out of sight until I would come back out. From eavesdropping on my parents conversations, I concluded that Raniere was a very scary man, and that I should never go near him. As a child, I should not have had to feel like I should do this.
Many people had mixed feelings about this group. There were many people who saw what NXIVM wanted to see. According to a different neighbor, “That’s what’s probably the scariest part: normal seeming people who were manipulating vulnerable insecure people by treating them well initially then pulling them so far in they couldn’t get out, for financial and sexual gain.”
Melissa Lacijan, a resident of the neighborhood, went to an informational meeting, “…just to see what it was all about.” Lacijan stated that, “My skin was crawling pretty much the entire time. There was something so manipulative about the way the speaker addressed the group, it was Barbara Bouchey, – really found a way to touch upon vulnerabilities. Then they hand out the packet of info for signing up for the course which costs $5,000 for five days, and this was back in 2002 or 2003.”
Because of this experience, the neighbor was,”Never happy, or even neutral about their presence. I always warned my kids not to talk to strangers walking by the house, but I was particularly emphatic about them avoiding any contact with Raniere or his followers. My kids were scared of him and the women who walked with him, black-clad, especially when he started wearing what he said was a weighted vest, but we believed to be a bullet-proof one, that’s just my speculation, no proof there!”
One reason that this group was able to survive, was because of Sara and Clare Bronfman. According to Vanity Fair, they are the Seagram heiresses, having given an estimated $150 million of their fortune to help fund and keep NXIVM alive. I believe that if the Bronfman sisters were not such big financial backers, NXIVM would not have achieved as much as they have.
Recently, NXIVM has been in the media for branding women, along with showing women images and videos of other women being dismembered, and recording what effect the images had. The women being branded were apart of a secret society within the group, which some have called a sorority. In the Frank Report, the name of the “sorority” is Dominant Over Submissive, or DOS for short.
According to, “Part 1:Inside DOS:How to get “First Collatera,” it says that in order to learn about DOS, a woman has to be invited by a woman who is already a member. The DOS member cannot simply tell a nonmember about DOS. She can only hint at it. In fact she can’t even mention it by name but only that there’s a wonderful women’s group that can change her life.
If the woman expresses an interest in learning more, she is told that in order to learn the secret she must put up “collateral.” The secret teachings are so worthwhile that it must be protected from the profane and vulgar people of the world. If, after the woman gives the collateral, and she hears about the women’s group, and she doesn’t want to join, nothing happens. The collateral is kept though, just as insurance, that she never tells the mighty secret that only few women in the world know.”.
In regards to actions taken by state and local authorities, nothing seems to be getting done, even with the myriad of media coverage from the branding scandal. For years, multiple neighbors complained about the absurd amount of traffic in the neighborhood, only to be told by the town that Salzman was being warned.
The same neighbor who talked about the issues with Salzman right from the beginning had called the town and sheriff themselves, and “I was always told they were never doing anything strictly illegal, so there was really nothing the town could do other than watch and wait.” NXIVM’s biggest tactic in order to get people to stop sharing secrets or information, was intimidation; which included suing people who left the group, they’d call those individuals “defectors.”
The FBI claimed to be “looking” into them, but nothing was done for years. It was not until March 26, 2018 that Raniere was arrested near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on charges of sex trafficking and forced labor that something was finally being done. When news broke of Raniere’s arrest, neighbors that I came in contact with, were over the moon and ecstatic that justice was finally being served to our neighborhood, myself included.
According to Brendan Lyons on Twitter, “#NXIVM leader Keith Raniere waived hearing on extradition and will be returned to Brooklyn to face federal criminal charges.” On March 27, 2018, the FBI raided Salzman’s home, finding more than $520,000 in cash, kept in shoeboxes, one shoebox contained more than $390,000, envelopes and bags.
Also taken was, “numerous computers, data-storage devices, cameras, various mobile phones and BlackBerrys, and small amounts of Mexican and Russian currency, the records indicate.”
According to the Albany Times Union, Raniere was, “being held in the custody of U.S. marshals without bond on a federal complaint charging him with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Raniere will be in custody at least until he makes an initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in Brooklyn, where the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York is leading the grand jury investigation of Raniere and NXIVM.”
They also stated, “Raniere’s arrest sent shock waves through NXIVM and has led numerous people to quietly leave the organization, while others have rallied to garner support for their embattled leader…”
It’s said that a petition letter was passed around by supporters of Raniere to NXIVM associates. The petition was a “one-page document that described allegations against Raniere as ‘antithetical to his philosophy and values.’” As of now, when this article is being written, Raniere has been indicted on federal charges for sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.
