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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I do not know how

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Speaker 1: wealthy educated socialite women get suckered into a sex cult,

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Speaker 1: I mean a sex cult that's bizarre, where young girls

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Speaker 1: are raped, forced into orgies, even branded, yes, branded like cattle.

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Speaker 1: In the last hours, a bombshell development in the case

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Speaker 1: against Keith Ranieri, the founder of Nexium sex cult. I'm

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being

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Speaker 1: with us. Keith Renier, and let me tell you he's

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Speaker 1: not much to look at. I do not know how

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Speaker 1: these women got sucked into his craziness to become part

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Speaker 1: of a bona fidei sex cult, but they did, and

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Speaker 1: this guy was the mastermind. In the last days, this guy,

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Speaker 1: Keith Renier, has been declared guilty on all counts including racketeering,

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Speaker 1: wire fraud, conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, and sex trafficking, now

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Speaker 1: facing life behind bars after a jury arrives at a

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Speaker 1: unanimous verdict after just four hours of deliberation. This after

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Speaker 1: six weeks of testimony in the case, during which multiple

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Speaker 1: women describing lured into the sex slavey group to recount

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Speaker 1: their experience as the jurars men and women were shocked.

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Speaker 1: Fornier it actually issued an order for these women to

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Speaker 1: be branded with his initials in an extremely painful process.

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Speaker 1: I mean, think about it. Taking a hot iron, burning

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Speaker 1: it until it's read, and then putting it on human flesh.

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Speaker 1: He described it in one recording as a sacrificial whatever.

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Speaker 1: That's what he said. Let me tell you something, A

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Speaker 1: lot of people are going to be on the front

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Speaker 1: row when he gets sentence September twenty five. Of course

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Speaker 1: he insists he's innocent, but all these women come forward

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Speaker 1: to describe what he did to them. Alexis Terreschuk joining

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Speaker 1: me from Radar Online dot Com investigative reporter. Alexis it's

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Speaker 1: a little hard for me to believe this. Start at

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Speaker 1: the beginning, Alexus Terrestrict. The police are saying is that

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Speaker 1: they spent years recruiting women around the country, around the

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Speaker 1: world to join what was supposed to be a female

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Speaker 1: empowerment club, you know, kind of like a yoga class extraordinaire,

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Speaker 1: and you would go and this man, Keith is so charismatic.

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Speaker 1: You want to be a part of this thing that

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Speaker 1: gives women power. Instead, they were turned into sex slaves

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Speaker 1: who were branded branded literally with a hot poker on

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Speaker 1: their bodies to become a member of this cult. And

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Speaker 1: there's not a better word for it. It's not a

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Speaker 1: women's group, it's not a tennis club. It is a cult.

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Speaker 1: Because these women were having to give when they joined

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Speaker 1: and professed their faith to this cult. They were having

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Speaker 1: they were blackmail. They had to give things like naked

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Speaker 1: pictures of themselves are the most compromising stories about themselves.

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Speaker 1: They had to give this to the leaders of the

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Speaker 1: group so that in case they ever left this begin

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a freaky, weird, felonious version of scientology

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Speaker 1: where you have to have be audited and tell all

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Speaker 1: the worst things you've ever done, the extreme in your life,

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Speaker 1: and then they have it to hold over your head. Guys,

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Speaker 1: hold on with me. As Alexis Jurez Chuck investigative reporter

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Speaker 1: with Radar Online dot Com but now joining us is

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Speaker 1: the journalist who originally broke the story of this cult.

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Speaker 1: It's real NXIVM pronounced nexium. It's found Keith Rainieri allegedly

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Speaker 1: subjecting women to humiliating sex acts and branding women and

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Speaker 1: their pelvic area with a series of initials. It had

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Speaker 1: a large basse, has a large bass in Albany, New York.

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Speaker 1: The guy who first cracked this story, journalist Frank Parlotto,

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Speaker 1: and the former Nexium publicist. You can find out all

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Speaker 1: about him and a lot of his work at Art Voice.

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Speaker 1: Frank Parlotto, thank you for being with us. This is

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Speaker 1: such a wildly fantastical story it's almost hard to believe.

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Speaker 1: And Frank, you broke the story. What happened, Well, initially

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Speaker 1: it began just called Nextium in nineteen ninety eight, and

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Speaker 1: on two thousand and two they achieved their first great recruit,

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Speaker 1: and that was Seagram's heiress Claire Brockmann. With her hundreds

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Speaker 1: of millions of dollars behind the cult, they were able

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Speaker 1: to recruits various celebrities such as Kristin Kruk, Grace Park,

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Speaker 1: and Alison Matt. Matt became a true believer, and in

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Speaker 1: time she elevated herself to nearly the top of the

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Speaker 1: cult and became Ranier's top recruiter of young, attractive new

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Speaker 1: Bile slender women or ranees invidious sex cults who wa wa, wait,

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Speaker 1: what did you say? What kind of women? He had

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Speaker 1: a type and they were young, slender, long haired, new

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Speaker 1: bile and attractive prosperably with a little bit of monch. Okay, sorry, Jackie,

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Speaker 1: we're out. Okay, we're not getting into they as as

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Speaker 1: they say, the unique human development and women's movement, that

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Speaker 1: is what Alison Matt, the thirty five year old star

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Speaker 1: of the hit series Smallville, had been tweeting and sending

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Speaker 1: notes to Kelly Clarkson and also to Emma Watson, trying

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Speaker 1: to lure them in. Luckily they're smart enough to stay

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Speaker 1: away from it. Frank Parlotto with me, the former Nexian publicist.

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Speaker 1: He's in charge of an incredible site called Art Voice

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Speaker 1: and the journalists that first broke the story. So it

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Speaker 1: all starts off with a fringe group that manages to

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Speaker 1: recruit an heiress from the Seagram's liquor dynasty, and she

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Speaker 1: pumps a lot of money into it. They according to

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Speaker 1: Frank solicit young. I don't believe I've heard anybody say

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Speaker 1: the word new bile in a long time. It's flashback

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Speaker 1: to Playboy in nineteen ninety. But okay, not judging Frank Young,

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Speaker 1: thin women, Okay, what happens? Then? It begins innocently enough.

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Speaker 1: The first meetings are surrounded with a group of women,

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Speaker 1: all of them already in the cult, who present a

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Speaker 1: picture of normalcy, a picture of a friendly, wonderful, kind

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Speaker 1: of lovely sorority. I think the term that's often used

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Speaker 1: in these kinds of cult like recruitment scenarios is love bombing.

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Speaker 1: A woman comes in, she's told that this kind of

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Speaker 1: program will improve her life, she'll get life coaching, and

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Speaker 1: she'll be mentored by other women who care about her.

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Speaker 1: That's the initial deception. Then what happens, So they have

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Speaker 1: the facade of normalcy. So you think you're joining a

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Speaker 1: women's group, Is that right, Frank Parlato. Yes, you are

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Speaker 1: elbow to elbow with stars like Alison Mack or Kristin Krug.

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Speaker 1: You're hobnabbing with Claire Brafman, who's Seagrim's heiress, and surrounded

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Speaker 1: by attractive women, all of them slender. Later you'll realize

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Speaker 1: why they're so slender. They're kept down restrictive diets. But

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Speaker 1: your initial impression is this is really quite an exciting

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Speaker 1: opportunity for me or whoever it is that's joining. And

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Speaker 1: then they begin be hypnotic induction. Okay, what's that? It's

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Speaker 1: a very carefully laid out plan and Keith Rinieri, the

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Speaker 1: head of Nexium, is a master hypnotist. This is his

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Speaker 1: art and this is his specialty. And you begin by

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Speaker 1: attending very long classes. They're very intense, high intensity classes.

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Speaker 1: They begin at seven in the morning and the end

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Speaker 1: of ten or eleven at night, and there is a

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Speaker 1: slow hypnotic process that goes on, very carefully laid scheme. Well,

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Speaker 1: what are the classes about, Frank. They purport to be

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Speaker 1: about new ways of doing critical thinking. In fact, it's

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Speaker 1: called rational inquiry, and they start to challenge the students

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Speaker 1: on various kinds of conceptions that they've long held as

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Speaker 1: their base of beliefs, such as what well, for instance,

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Speaker 1: they begin kind of innocently, they talk about the criminal code,

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Speaker 1: the social morays. They ask you, for example, to make

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Speaker 1: a list of all of the advantages that would accrue

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Speaker 1: to you if your boyfriend or husband should happen to die. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa,

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Speaker 1: whoa whoa right there, right there, it sounds to me

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Speaker 1: and Karen start with me, a New York psychologist, very

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Speaker 1: well known. That's exactly what happens. When you get brainwashed

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Speaker 1: your core beliefs. You're you're incouraged to start questioning them

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Speaker 1: until suddenly what you're doing doesn't same wrong at all.

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Speaker 1: I've seen it in yangs. There's a whole us versus

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Speaker 1: them mentality that ensues, and they choose people that are susceptible.

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Speaker 1: And as that brainwashing experiences occurring that you just mentioned, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: what happens is that they become more and more open

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Speaker 1: to the suggestibility of the cult and they are actual

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Speaker 1: they're beginning to discover brain changes that occur. That starts,

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Speaker 1: it's like an overload of information that starts to happen,

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Speaker 1: so that the individual becomes more entrenched. And it's hard

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Speaker 1: to believe how convincing this new world becomes. But think

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Speaker 1: about Manson and all the girls that he was able

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Speaker 1: to attract to him, which when we're looking on the outside,

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Speaker 1: makes no sense. Crime stories with Nancy Grace welcome back.

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Speaker 1: I mean, see Grace and breaking news right now. The

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Speaker 1: leader of a so called sex called Keith Ranieri, and

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Speaker 1: this is a guy highly educated, has money, has a home,

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Speaker 1: has had very reputable jobs, ends up leading a sex

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Speaker 1: called Well, he's got plenty of time to think about it,

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Speaker 1: because a jury has just thrown the book at him,

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Speaker 1: guilty on all seven counts. But how does this happen

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Speaker 1: in the two thousands, Frank Parlotto with me former nexting publicist,

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Speaker 1: the journalists that broke the story and has a site

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Speaker 1: called art Voice. Frank, somehow this guy Ranieri, Keith Ranieri,

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Speaker 1: managed to brainwash, you know, powerful and educated and wealthy women.

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Speaker 1: So they're in these grueling classes about questioning their beliefs.

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Speaker 1: How does it go, Frank Parlato to getting branded with

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Speaker 1: a hot iron on your pelvic region. Well, you have

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Speaker 1: to consider that it took nine years from Ellison Mac's

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Speaker 1: first entree into the cult to the day she was

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Speaker 1: branded and began to brand of your women, nine long

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Speaker 1: years of hypnotic conduction. So to Alexas Treschut, investigative reporter

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Speaker 1: with Radar Online dot com, what starts as a women's

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Speaker 1: empowerment group with a facade of normalcy ends with sex

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Speaker 1: trafficking and literally branding women physically. And these women were

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Speaker 1: expected and I'm pressured by Alison and Keith into having

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Speaker 1: sex with Keith. And it wasn't just Alison, Keith was

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Speaker 1: all of the women and that's what and they were

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Speaker 1: they were told and the indictment revealed that they were

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Speaker 1: threatened with physical force and violence if they didn't submit

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Speaker 1: to this, that they would be physically harmed if they

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Speaker 1: didn't submit to have sex with Keith, and then the

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Speaker 1: brand name they were really lied to. These women were

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Speaker 1: told that joining this organization, you know, into the upper

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Speaker 1: levels of the of the club Splash Cold, that they

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Speaker 1: would just get a small tattoo. And the first woman

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Speaker 1: they came out and said, I had I was fine

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Speaker 1: with a small tattoo. But instead they were taken into

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Speaker 1: a room. They were placed on a massage table, the

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Speaker 1: face up. Three people held them. One person held each

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Speaker 1: leg and the other held their shoulders, and their arms

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Speaker 1: held them down, and these initials were carrized into their body, burned,

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Speaker 1: turned into their body, and it literally took between like

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Speaker 1: twenty and thirty minutes. One of the women who came

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Speaker 1: forward said, I disassociated. I felt like I left my body.

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Speaker 1: I wept the entire time because it was so awful.

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Speaker 1: What were the initials that were branded into the women?

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Speaker 1: Keith Ranier's initials are in this branding. It's a K

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Speaker 1: and an R design. And in fact he has said,

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Speaker 1: well what if if they were Bill Gates as initials,

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't care, but because their mind, you're upset about it.

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Speaker 1: It's horrific that these women were burned this way. Well,

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Speaker 1: I would care no matter who. Initials were branded into

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Speaker 1: my skin or my daughter's skin branded to Joseph Scott Morgan,

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Speaker 1: forensics expert and professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University.

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Speaker 1: Long story short, that is your prime forensic evidence right there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this is not something that's going to be going away.

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Speaker 1: It's branded into the skin. It creates this this nasty

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Speaker 1: looking kind of keylloid scar. I've seen these on gang

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Speaker 1: members primarily, and it's really interesting, Nancy. You perilel held

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Speaker 1: this earlier talking about gang membership. One of the things

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Speaker 1: that some gangs and even fraternal organizations will will do

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Speaker 1: is take a h take a coat hanger, for instance,

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Speaker 1: and bend it into a particular shape, heat superheated, and

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Speaker 1: then branded in and um. And it's really interesting that

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Speaker 1: that the uh, these women are so beaten down at

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Speaker 1: this point mentally and emotionally where they get them to

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Speaker 1: this point where he, the leader obviously feels comfortable with

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Speaker 1: doing this to them and they allow it to certain

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Speaker 1: degree to be done to them because they're they're staying

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Speaker 1: within this environment. It's almost like it's like all norms

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Speaker 1: have been stripped away. Of course this is more Karen's area,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, yeah, it is. It is something. It is

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Speaker 1: a unique identifier that has left behind that will be

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Speaker 1: connected back to them, you know too. And Bremner, high

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Speaker 1: profile Seattle lawyer who has been at the forefront of

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Speaker 1: so many many renowned cases. And Bremner, in what universe

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Speaker 1: is it suddenly okay to hold a woman down by

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Speaker 1: force and brand her with a hot iron. I mean,

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Speaker 1: at any point didn't these people go, WHOA, this is

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Speaker 1: so wrong. I got to get out of here. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just so alarming and amazing. And you

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Speaker 1: know what these cults somebody does I think Karen mentioned

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Speaker 1: the Manson cult. I mean they went out and killed

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Speaker 1: for him, and I don't we don't understand it. You know,

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Speaker 1: at some point you say, I've got to get out

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Speaker 1: of here. Alison Max's bizarre blog, she had detailed life

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Speaker 1: and an alleged sex cult. And while she says, quote

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Speaker 1: it seems like it has been a lifetime in here already,

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Speaker 1: it's not going to matter as to her feelings about

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Speaker 1: if she wanted to get out because her actions belie

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Speaker 1: that she was taking part, according to the step, in

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Speaker 1: recruiting and using young girls women in a sex cult

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Speaker 1: where they were physically branded with a hot iron. I

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Speaker 1: want you to hear on ABC's twenty twenty a report

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Speaker 1: on this group, this cult, Nexium, and it's right here

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Speaker 1: in our country, and there are Hollywood stars and wealthy

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Speaker 1: educated women as part of it. Take a listen to this,

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Speaker 1: including former members as they describe being stripped, naked, blindfolded, tattooed,

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Speaker 1: and abused. Listen to ABC's twenty twenty five women summoned

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Speaker 1: to a house outside Albany, New York, one night this

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Speaker 1: past March. Sarah Edmondson says she was one of them,

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Speaker 1: willingly participating in a strange initiation ritual led by a

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Speaker 1: woman who told everyone to take off their clothes and

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Speaker 1: put on a blindfold. Let us in blindfold and sat

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Speaker 1: us in a semicircle fuck naked, no clothes on a

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Speaker 1: cheepskin rug Like, could you could that be any weirder? No,

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Speaker 1: it could not be any weirder. We were all you know,

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Speaker 1: my goodness, what's going on here? This is so weird

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Speaker 1: weird doesn't begin to cover it. Sarah told authority she

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Speaker 1: thought they were there to get tattoos. Instead, she says,

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Speaker 1: they found out they were all going to be branded.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a horror movie. It was a horror movie.

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Speaker 1: It was the most inhumane, horrific way to treat anybody.

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Speaker 1: What was that like? It was worse than childbirth. It

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Speaker 1: was worse than childbirth. It was imagine a hot laser

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Speaker 1: dragged to crash your flege for thirty minutes without anesthetic.

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Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace, Welcome back on Nancy Grace.

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Speaker 1: Keith Rainieri, founder of the Next FIM's sex cult, guilty

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Speaker 1: on all counts. The jury was barely out long enough

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Speaker 1: to get a drink, a soda and some snacks, and

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Speaker 1: they return a guilty verdict. I'm sure the prosecutors are

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Speaker 1: dancing up and down the halls. Mixed reviews from victims families,

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Speaker 1: The victory bitter sweet. Yes he's going to jail, but

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Speaker 1: think of what all these young girls have lived through,

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Speaker 1: so many lives changed forever. You were just listening to

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Speaker 1: ABC's twenty twenty and a report on NEXIM It's spelled

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Speaker 1: n x I the M and with me is the

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Speaker 1: former publicist for NEXIM who wrote the story, journalist Frank Parlotta.

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Speaker 1: You can find him on art Voice online. Frank, I

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Speaker 1: still don't understand how women were brainwashed into thinking this

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Speaker 1: was okay. As now charges of sex trafficking are going down.

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Speaker 1: Where do those from? Where do those charges stand? World

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Speaker 1: two witnesses and there are others, but strictly speaking, the

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Speaker 1: Jane Joe one and the Jane Joe number two, both

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Speaker 1: of these were escaped slaves from the sex culture who

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Speaker 1: told their horrifying stories first to me, and then I

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Speaker 1: encourage them to go to the FBI to tell their

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Speaker 1: entire story, which they did. Their horror emanated primarily from this,

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Speaker 1: and this is a secret that many don't yet understand.

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Speaker 1: It just didn't start with Brandy. It began by the procurement,

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Speaker 1: the assiduous procurement by Wilson mac of blackmail worthy material.

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Speaker 1: So the slippery slope occurred where you began as a

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Speaker 1: women's empowerment, you were brainwashed. You gave blackmail worthy material

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Speaker 1: to Allison and Keith R. Neary, and suddenly you found

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Speaker 1: that what you thought was voluntary no longer became voluntary.

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Speaker 1: But of course, so let me understand this Alexus terres

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Speaker 1: Chuck Radar online dot Com investigative reporter, this sex called Nexium,

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Speaker 1: which allegedly forces women to have relations with its leader

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Speaker 1: and brands them, we believe with his initials and others

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Speaker 1: Alexis terres Chuck. As far as the sex trafficking goes,

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Speaker 1: what is the origin of the claim? So for sex trafficking,

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Speaker 1: she has been accused of recruiting these women from all

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Speaker 1: over and taking them to different places to have sex

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Speaker 1: with ring year And what they're saying is they used

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Speaker 1: either force or coercion. She excuse me, used forced or

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Speaker 1: coercion to make them have sex with him, and so

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Speaker 1: they traveled all over the world, this group did. And

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Speaker 1: in fact, when she the last video we saw of

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Speaker 1: Alison mac is, Keith was arrested in March in Mexico.

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Speaker 1: They'd been hiding out in a very very very high

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Speaker 1: end home in Mexico and the authorities captured him. Allison

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Speaker 1: jumps in a car and there is video of her

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Speaker 1: chasing the police and chasing the car that Keith is

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Speaker 1: in in hysterics. Basically, she is so upset that her

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Speaker 1: leader has been arrested and she is She's not somebody

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Speaker 1: who was like, oh, yeah, this is right, this is bad.

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Speaker 1: This guy's finally been arrested, thank goodness for me. No,

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Speaker 1: she is convinced that this guy is being treated unfairly,

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Speaker 1: and so she was chasing the police down as if

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Speaker 1: to try to rescue him from the cops in Wolco. Well.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, take a listen to Hollywood

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Speaker 1: store Alice mac as she is interviewing the alleged cult

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Speaker 1: leader about his program that quote helps actors be better actors. Okay, listen,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to talk a little bit about the Source,

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Speaker 1: which is the company that you've created for actors, artists,

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Speaker 1: people who want to get better at expressing in general.

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Speaker 1: Several years ago, when we first met, I had said

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Speaker 1: to you, would you be willing to work with me

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Speaker 1: and becoming a better actress, and you said, yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about it. And then several years later you

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Speaker 1: started working with me and a bunch of other people

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Speaker 1: to develop a curriculum specifically for actors. And I've been

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Speaker 1: talking to different people about it in like different actors

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Speaker 1: and things like that, enrolling them in the idea of

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Speaker 1: coming and participating and saying what you've created, because it's

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Speaker 1: been incredible for me. And a lot of the questions

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Speaker 1: that they ask is like, well, how is it different

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Speaker 1: than Meisner? How is it different than Stella Adler or whatever,

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Speaker 1: And a lot of what the answers that I've given

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Speaker 1: have been like, well, it's sort of, it's sort of

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Speaker 1: it's a partnership with that because it gives you the

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Speaker 1: foundation underneath all of the technical skills and all of

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Speaker 1: the kind of traditional approaches to acting that we've had

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Speaker 1: throughout time, Like it really gets to the core of

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Speaker 1: the actor so that you can work on the raw

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Speaker 1: material and then everything else that they produce is affected

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Speaker 1: by that. But I don't know, Like I'm curious to

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Speaker 1: know what your perception is of the curriculum that you

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Speaker 1: created and where it came from. And well, it comes

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Speaker 1: from a mix of human behavior and philosophy and also

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Speaker 1: really technical communication. You know, acting is all about a

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Speaker 1: type of communication and being not only more aware, but

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Speaker 1: more congruent in your communication. So you want people to,

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Speaker 1: if you will, to be a bit common in what

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Speaker 1: I say. You want people to buy your character right,

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Speaker 1: and the way they buy it is they find it

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Speaker 1: congruent and authentic the questions. I mean, if someone could

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Speaker 1: be totally congruent in a character and express authentically through

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Speaker 1: that character, so they could do any sort of a

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Speaker 1: scene or whatever, certainly that actor could do anything. So

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Speaker 1: the question is, how do you achieve that? How do

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Speaker 1: you achieve congruents? How do you achieve authenticity? And I

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Speaker 1: think there are many roads to do this. The thing

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Speaker 1: that I think makes the source a bit unique is

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Speaker 1: I come from a non acting background. You could say

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Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm talking about, So that's good

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Speaker 1: and bad. The good aspect is it comes from a behaviorist,

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Speaker 1: humanist sort of practical and philosophical background, dealing with communication

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Speaker 1: with all sorts of things relating to the psychodynamics of

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Speaker 1: people and humans. As you hear Alison mac interviewing the

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Speaker 1: cult leader, compare that the dichotomy of these victims describing

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Speaker 1: being strip naked, blindfolded a tattoos. Sarah says she devoted

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Speaker 1: twelve years to Nexium, recruiting hundreds of new members, rising

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Speaker 1: through the organization, even opening and running a center in

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Speaker 1: Vancouver along the way, becoming best friends with Nancy Saltzman's

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Speaker 1: daughter Lauren, who was made of honor at Sarah's wedding.

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Speaker 1: She's like my therapist, and in the ranking system she's

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Speaker 1: also above me. Then in March, after all their years

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Speaker 1: together in Nexium, Sarah says, Lauren approached her about a

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Speaker 1: new and mysterious opportunity. She said, I want to avoue

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Speaker 1: you to something that totally changed my life. It was

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Speaker 1: a secret sorority for women only, life changing, but top secret.

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Speaker 1: And the first step is making a valve obedience to

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Speaker 1: her as me being a slave and her being my master.

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Speaker 1: Again she used the word slave, of course, yeah, and

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Speaker 1: objected every stage of the way, and she said, it's

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Speaker 1: just a it's a metaphor, it's a guru disciple. Then

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Speaker 1: came the night that Sarah says she and four other

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Speaker 1: women submitted one by one to being branded by this woman,

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Speaker 1: she says, doctor Danielle Roberts. And then the woman on

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Speaker 1: the table screamed out in pain, you know, twisted and

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Speaker 1: turned and yelled, and the woman I was with, holding

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Speaker 1: her legs down, we looked at each other and we

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Speaker 1: just wept. Why did you let go and run out

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Speaker 1: of there, even naked? It didn't seem like a choice

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Speaker 1: at the time, She points. Two years of Nexium training

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Speaker 1: and all the indoctrination, all the years of women are weak,

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Speaker 1: women have no character. Now is the time to prove

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Speaker 1: I can do it, and I said. Sarah gives another

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Speaker 1: explanation for her obedience. Before she joined the Secret Sorority

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Speaker 1: and got branded. She says, Laurence Saltzman had demanded highly

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Speaker 1: compromising collateral. You need to provide something to me that

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Speaker 1: I'm going to hold forever, just to confirm and to

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Speaker 1: solidify that you'll never share the secret. So what did

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Speaker 1: you give her? So? I gave her a written confessional,

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Speaker 1: and she says, for her and some others, the price

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Speaker 1: of admission to the secret group also included providing nude

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Speaker 1: photos of themselves. So understand when women do that, it's

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Speaker 1: very difficult to say no, I'm not doing this because

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Speaker 1: the person has something of you with them. Instantly, all

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Speaker 1: my alarm bells are going absolutely So why did you

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Speaker 1: do it? I did it because I trusted her. That

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00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: was from ABC's twenty twenty report on Nexium Crime Stories

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Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. I mean, see Grace, this is crime stories.

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Speaker 1: Keith Rneer, the founder of a bizarre sex called Right

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Speaker 1: under Our Noses, including wealthy, educated, socialite women, I mean

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Speaker 1: famous women as part of this sex cult. Just had

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Speaker 1: the book thrown at him, and frankly, I can't wait

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Speaker 1: till he's sentenced. I hope he gets the maximum on

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Speaker 1: every account to run consecutively, one after the next. But

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Speaker 1: you gotta wonder. Yes, while I'm happy and relieved, more

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00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: relieved at the guilty verdict, I just gotta stop and

414
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Speaker 1: try to figure out how this happened. I mean, this

415
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: is going on right under our noses. How this is

416
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: how the whole thing works. I'm Former members of the

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00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: cult claim the Hollywood star Mac would lure young ladies

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Speaker 1: into joining the cult cult and then demand they turned

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Speaker 1: over quote collateral. The collateral would be compromising photos or

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Speaker 1: their personal assets, money belongings, car titles. That collateral was

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Speaker 1: then used by Mac to control the women who were

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Speaker 1: transformed into branded sex slaves. Now the founder, Ranieri was

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Speaker 1: arrested the way Alexis Reschuk just told us in Mexico,

424
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: the States said that during the past twenty years, Ranierie

425
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 1: established a series of self help programs. Self help programs.

426
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 1: They had centers, so they were getting a lot of money.

427
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: Funding in the US Mexico, Canada, South America, and it

428
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 1: was a pyramid scheme. The courses cost thousands of dollars

429
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: and the people that took them were then encouraged to

430
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: pay for other classes and recruit other people to take

431
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: the classes so they could rise up within the ranks.

432
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 1: It's like it's a pyramid scheme. And Bremner it's like

433
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: a Ponzi scheme. And Bremner Seattle lawyer explain what I

434
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: mean by pyramid. Basically, it's like Amoy or any of

435
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,719
Speaker 1: these kinds of things that you just keep building membership

436
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: by using your members to go out and get to

437
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: the people, and just keep building that pyramid. There's a

438
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: lot of financial ones like that too, But this is

439
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: human trafficking and it's just self perpetuating. So what would

440
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: happen Frank Parlotto with me, the former Nextium publicist, the

441
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: journalists that first broke the story. You can find him

442
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: at art Voice. What would happen if someone try to

443
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: stop and leave the cult? Well, they threatened them with

444
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:52,680
Speaker 1: the release of their quote unquote collateral. It all exploded

445
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: their own May of two thousand and seventeen, when the

446
00:31:55,360 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: secret part of Nextium they call it dust In that

447
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 1: stands for dominos, obsequious serrium, or the master over. The

448
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 1: slave women became revealed to the external group of Nexium,

449
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 1: the women who had not yet been branded, and that

450
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: caused kind of a chaotic explosion with the Nexium and

451
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: a rapid exodus. Ellison stuck with the group, as did

452
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 1: the core slaves, and even when the women's were threatened,

453
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: some of them, like Sarah Edmondson, decided to leave any

454
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,239
Speaker 1: way and risk the collateral being released. Wow, it's just

455
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 1: amazing that this is happening right here under our own noses.

456
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. According to promotional materials, even

457
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 1: as a child, Ranieri was destined for greatness, speaking in

458
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: full sentences at age one, reading at age two, judo

459
00:32:55,960 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: champ and concert level pianist. At thirteen, I was told

460
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,120
Speaker 1: that he was one of the smartest men in the

461
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: world and just an incredible man. With that, I'm going

462
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: to pass the microphone over to mister and Neery. So incredible.

463
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: It seems that an ordinary name just won't do. Participants

464
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 1: say they're taught to call Ranieri Vanguard. Vanguard. Yes, Vanguard

465
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 1: is the name that we referred to Keith as because

466
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: he is a leader of a philosophical movement. The second

467
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: highest ranking member of Nexium is a woman named Nancy Saltzman.

468
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: Former members say she is known as Prefect so Keith

469
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,479
Speaker 1: and Nancy Vanguarden Prefect. At the heart of Nexium training

470
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,960
Speaker 1: is something called intensives, which former members say are like

471
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,520
Speaker 1: group therapy, running as long as fourteen hours a day

472
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: for up to sixteen days. Edmondson says she attended her

473
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 1: first in two thousand and five, when she was twenty seven.

474
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: I left my five day, my initial training, as if

475
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: a veil had been lifted and I could see things

476
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 1: more clearly in my life. I could communicate better with people.

477
00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:08,360
Speaker 1: That sounds fantastic, Yeah, it was great. Classes are invitation

478
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 1: only and they are not cheap. A five day intensive

479
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 1: will run you three thousand dollars, a sixteen day is

480
00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:20,360
Speaker 1: seventy five hundred. In promotional videos and materials, it claims

481
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: more than sixteen thousand people worldwide have taken Nexium courses.

482
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: Many testify to its effectiveness. I learned through the tools

483
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 1: that there was a different way. Sarah was recruited into

484
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 1: the group by filmmaker Mark Vicente. What was it that

485
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: was so compelling to you, just a wait it to

486
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: break down and understand certain things in my life in

487
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:44,880
Speaker 1: a way I never had before. Ranieri is fiercely protective

488
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:49,840
Speaker 1: of his teachings, requiring participants to sign confidentiality agreements. Everyone

489
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 1: signed it, and if you didn't sign it, you couldn't

490
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: take the curriculum. We do know that Nexium has its

491
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 1: own LINGO. Students are taught about overcoming disintegrations to be

492
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: become more potent and less suppressive, and avoiding people termed

493
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 1: parasites or luciferians, you know. To Karen Stark, New York Psychologists, Karen,

494
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:14,239
Speaker 1: when you're in so deep in something, I guess it

495
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:17,520
Speaker 1: seems normal to you. It seems normal to you, and

496
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: it seems normal to the people around you. And maybe

497
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: for people who are vulnerable for the first time, they

498
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,880
Speaker 1: get a strong feeling of belonging to something. It always

499
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 1: involves a charismatic leader, so that you're enticed and you

500
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,879
Speaker 1: feel like you're getting the special attention. She talks about

501
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,400
Speaker 1: Alice and at the fact that he was her mentor

502
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 1: that he mentored her in acting and the skills of acting,

503
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 1: and they made it all sound very legitimate. You took courses,

504
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 1: There was a curriculum. It became extremely enticing to be

505
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 1: a part of this group, particularly because there were so

506
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 1: many people who were celebrities or who had a great

507
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: deal of money, and you begin to question, well, estate,

508
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:05,399
Speaker 1: why would they be a member of this group if

509
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:09,120
Speaker 1: it were not legitimate. We are talking about a cult

510
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 1: that started in Albany, New York, Upstate New York, with

511
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,719
Speaker 1: connections all over the world. Now it poses as a

512
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 1: self help organization to empower women, and it rides the

513
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: coattails of girl power. It ends up in the spotlight

514
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: when the New York Times investigation exposed that the women

515
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: in the group were referred to as slaves and subjected

516
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: to ritual humiliations. They starved themselves. They were forced to

517
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 1: starve themselves to achieve the cult leaders beauty ideal and

518
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:54,240
Speaker 1: to have repeated relations with him. To Frank Parlotto, former

519
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:59,319
Speaker 1: Anxium publicist, founder of Art Voice and the journalists that

520
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:04,360
Speaker 1: broke the story, Frank, how did you become involved with

521
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 1: Nexium as their publicist? But I was originally retained to

522
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:13,720
Speaker 1: work for them by Claire Broffman, the Seagrim's heiress who

523
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 1: funds the entire operation of Nexium. She funded all of

524
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:23,600
Speaker 1: the branding and the cult network, and I was retained

525
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:27,000
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and seven to try to help

526
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: them get a better public persona. Even at that time

527
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 1: people in the media were labeling this group as a cult. Well, Frank,

528
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: how did you get out of it? Why? I had

529
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: uncovered that Keith rugh Neeri, the head of the cult,

530
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 1: he had embezzled or swindled Claire Broffmann out of one

531
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:52,560
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. And I approached Claire and I told

532
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 1: her that her money was missing and that Keith was

533
00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 1: in charge of that money. One hundred million disappeared, and

534
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 1: she didn't really want to accept that finding, which you

535
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,719
Speaker 1: know later wound up being proven to be true. She

536
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 1: was contented in swindling herd on of one hundred milks.

537
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 1: Anti Ranieri fired, Wow, I just wonder what jail he's

538
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 1: going to. I can only think about what may happen

539
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: to him behind bars. Not that I approve vigilante justice.

540
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: Of course, we wait as justice unfals. Nancy Grace crime story,

541
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,240
Speaker 1: signing off, good bye friend,