Jailed NXIVM leader says he’s prison ‘trophy target’

Published March 1, 2023 By admin with Comments 1

Citing the deaths of notorious inmates James “Whitey” Bulger and Jeffrey Epstein, jailed NXIVM leader Keith Raniere warned prison officials he is in imminent danger as a “trophy target” if transferred from his Arizona federal lock-up to a more restrictive facility.

“I am a high-profile political case. I am labeled as a sex cult leader of Hollywood actresses and an abuser of women,” the 62-year-old convicted sex trafficker from Halfmoon said in a handwritten administrative appeal to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

In the Feb. 17 letter filed in U.S. District Court, Raniere asked to be removed from the special housing unit of the Tucson federal prison where he  is serving a 120-year sentence for convictions that include forced labor and wire fraud conspiracy and racketeering with underlying acts of sexual exploitation, possession of child pornography and extortion.

Raniere was known as “Vanguard” within the Colonie-based personal growth organization, which has been the subject of national media attention and documentaries. He was arrested in Mexico in March 2018 and convicted the following year after a federal trial in Brooklyn.

Raniere, who recently lost an appeal of his criminal conviction and a suit against the federal lockup, said Tucson prison officials placed him and a cellmate in a feces-covered room. And he complained the prison officials purposely placed him with that same cellmate because the person was a victim of rape who has vowed to kill any sex offender jailed alongside them.

Content retrieved from: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/nxivm-leader-says-die-prison-bulger-epstein-17810579.php.