Seagram’s heiress Clare Bronfman was sentenced Wednesday to over six years in prison for her role in the alleged Nxivm cult.
Federal judge Nicholas G. Garaufis handed Bronfman a sentence of 81 months after he accused her of using her money to silence victims of the alleged cult, according to the New York Post.
Clare Bronfman, a Seagram’s heir, was sentenced to more than six years in prison for her role in Nxivm, a cultlike group that coerced women into sex. https://t.co/I0BemiwpB7
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 30, 2020
Bronfman “used her incredible wealth and attempted to use her social status and connections not only to support Nxivm’s work, but also as a means of intimidating, threatening, and exacting revenge upon individuals who dared to challenge its dogma,” the judge said, the NYPost reported.
Bronfman pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to conceal and harbor an illegal alien for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification back in April of 2019. Bronfman copped to committing credit card fraud to help out alleged cult leader Keith Raniere. (RELATED: Allison Mack’s Wife Says It’s ‘Unfortunate’ That ‘Nxivm’ Is Now Synonymous With ‘Sex Cult’)
Prosecutors also claimed Raniere wouldn’t have been able to run his cult without access to Bronfman’s fourtune, the NYPost reported.
“For years, Bronfman leveraged her colossal wealth to recruit individuals, often women with no legal status in the United States, into Nxivm-affiliated organizations,” prosecutors Tanya Hajjar and Mark Lesko wrote, according to the outlet.
“Although she claimed to award ‘scholarships’ or present employment letters with the prevailing wage of a professional position, Bronfman had no intention of providing her victims with a living wage,” the lawyers added. “Instead, she secured a work-force of individuals desperate to earn a living and dependent on her and on Nxivm and [cult leader] Keith Raniere for their continued legal status in the United States.”