Where All the Major NXIVM Players Are Today

After more than two years and many high-profile trials and sentencing in the world of NXIVM, HBO's The Vow is back for Season Two.

While last season focused on the inner-workings of the multi-level marketing scheme turned sex cult, this season (which premieres October 17 on HBO, continuing to air on Monday nights through the end of November), focuses on the criminal proceedings that have followed. Here's where all the major players in the organization are now, and the details of their sentences.

Clare Bronfman

In July of 2018, NXIVM financial backer and Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman was indicted on several charges including racketeering, identity theft, and money laundering along with Keith Raniere, Allison Mack, Nancy and Lauren Salzman, and Kathy Russell, NXIVM’s bookkeeper. Bronfman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain, as well as fraudulent use of identification. If she had gone to trial, she could have faced up to 25 years in prison, but her plea deal brought her projected sentencing guidelines down to 21-27 months. Still, the judge informed prosecutors and Bronfman’s attorney in December of 2019 that he was considering an “above guidelines sentence” for Clare, meaning he could impose more prison time than would normally be given under sentencing guidelines. Bronfman remained loyal to Raniere throughout, writing in an August 28 letter to the judge that “Many people, including most of my own family, believe I should disavow Keith and NXIVM, and that I have not is hard for them to understand or accept. However, for me, NXIVM and Keith greatly changed my life for the better.” The first of the defendants to be sentenced, she received six years and nine months in prison after nine former members of NXIVM testified against her on September 30, 2020. Bronfman is imprisoned at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, and her attorney told CNN that “She intends to mount a vigorous and immediate appeal."

Allison Mack

Smallville actress and DOS first-line master (meaning she reported directly to Raniere within the “women’s only” secret society) Allison Mack was charged in 2018 with crimes including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and forced labor conspiracy. She pleaded guilty to the least salacious of those against her—racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges—in order to avoid trial. Sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 14 to 17 years for Mack, who on June 30 2021, received a light sentence of three years in prison, three years of supervised release after serving her prison term, plus a fine of $20,000 dollars.

Nancy Salzman

The finale of Season One of The Vow contained a brief interview with Nancy Salzman, the “Prefect” of NXIVM, where she appeared at home, confined on bond, with a tracker on her ankle. The clip was something of a preview of Season 2, which will feature interview footage of Keith’s co-founder, who has since publicly disparaged him. Along with Raniere, Bronfman, Mack, and Salzman's daughter Lauren, the co-founder was arrested for an array of crimes in 2018. She pleaded guilty to only racketeering conspiracy, and was the first out of Keith’s co-defendants to accept a plea and break her allegiance to Raniere. She faced a sentence of between 33 and 41 months and a maximum fine of $250,000, and on September 8 2021, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. “I am horrified and ashamed that I promoted... him,” she said in court about about Keith Raniere, calling him a “narcissistic sociopath." Salzman is currently serving her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Hazelton in West Virginia, and is expected to be released in December 2024.

Lauren Salzman

Nancy’s daughter Lauren Salzman, a first-line DOS master along with Mack, was also arrested on racketeering conspiracy charges including trafficking, forced labor, and extortion in 2018. Lauren was responsible, along with Raniere, for trafficking a victim and confining her to a room for almost two years as a punishment for having feelings for a man that was not Keith. Salzman threatened that if the victim left the room, she would be sent to Mexico without any identification documents. The younger Salzman pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering charges so as to circumvent trial. She was the only co-defendant of Raniere to testify against him in court, where she detailed hellish conditions of DOS life and spoke of his plans to build a “dungeon” in an Albany “sorority house” in order to hold and punish slaves. On July 28 2021, Lauren received a sentence of no jail time.

Keith Raniere

“Vanguard” Keith Raniere was arrested in Mexico and extradited back to the United States in February of 2018. He was charged with crimes including racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy. Raniere was the only defendant to plead not guilty, and he was convicted by a Brooklyn jury of all counts against him in less than five hours during his June 2019 trial. He faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years imprisonment and up to life in prison. As The Vow shows, Raniere awaited his sentencing in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where a group of supporters allegedly danced outside in support of him every night. On October 27 2020, he was sentenced to 120 years in prison, after many emotional hours of victim statements from fifteen former NXIVM members and victims of abuse. He is currently serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Tucson in Arizona.

In addition to this, another lawsuit was filed against NXIVM leadership in January of 2020 by over 80 ex-NXIVM plaintiffs, many of which filed under pseudonyms. This civil suit alleges that Raniere, Salzman, Clare and Sara Bronfman, and Allison Mack, among others, conspired to systemically abuse, manipulate, and extort members of the organization.

You Might Also Like

• The 40 Best Hoodies to Wear Anywhere and Everywhere

• The Dirty Martini Deserves Legend Status

• This Eli Manning Sketch Is the Best Thing You'll See All Week