NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS) -- A jury has reached a verdict at the trial of the former leader of an upstate New York self-help group that prosecutors say branded women.
NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere,58, was found guilty on all counts on all counts of sex-trafficking and other charges accusing him of coercing women into unwanted sex using systematic shame and humiliation
The deliberations in the case against Keith Raniere started Wednesday morning in federal court in Brooklyn and took less than five hours to find him guilty and now faces life in prison.
Prosecutors have told jurors that said that Raniere's organization, called NXIVM, operated like a cult.
They said Raniere had some women branded with his initials and that he started having sex with one of his followers starting at age 15.
According to prosecutors Raniere took a series of nude photos of the teen and he kept the child pornography stashed in his private study as "a trophy'' of his sexual conquests.
The photos were shown at trial, one by one, to the eight women and four men who comprised the jury.
Raniere was arrested at a Mexican hideout in 2018 following an investigation his Albany-area group, that once had an international following with a foothold in Hollywood but was called a cult by critics.
His followers included TV actress Allison Mack, who is best known for her role as a friend of a young Superman in the series 'Smallville,'' and Clare Bronfman, Seagram's liquor fortune heiress.
One of the victims, whose name was withheld to protect her privacy, described that as punishment for showing interest in another man, Raniere ordered her to be confined to a bedroom for more than 700 days.
Another victim explained how Raniere lured her to a home when she was blind-folded and bound to a table so that another woman could perform a sex act on her; and the third recounted making up an excuse to leave the community so she could avoid completing an assignment from her "master"' Allison Mack to "seduce'' Raniere.
The sorority, sometimes called "The Vow,'' was created "to satisfy the defendant's desire for sex, power and control,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza said in closing arguments .
Lawyers argued that Raniere never had any criminal intent and was a genuine believer in unconventional means for self-improvement and that all his sexual encounters with female followers of his organization were consensual.
Mack and Bronfman, were named as defendants with Raniere in a federal indictment, pleaded guilty before they could go to trial with him.
They didn't testify, leaving a cooperating member of his inner circle and three victims from the secret sorority as the key witnesses.The cooperator described how female "masters'' forced "slaves'' for Raniere to give up nude photos and other material that would ruin them if ever made public as collateral in order to keep them in line.
Raniere listened attentively, but showed no visible reaction as he learned the verdict.
His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Raniere plans to appeal.