The compensation to 21 victims includes payments to remove brandings of Keith Raniere’s initials that were seared into some women’s skin.
The clandestine branding ceremonies at a suburban town in upstate New York were intended to leave scars that served as permanent pledges of loyalty to Keith Raniere, the leader of the cultlike group Nxivm.
Women who joined a secretive sect within Nxivm called the Vow, or D.O.S., were held down on a table as they recited the words “Master, please brand me, it would be an honor.” Then, another member of the sect would cauterize Mr. Raniere’s initials into their skin.
But some women may now be able to get rid of those scars. At a federal restitution hearing on Tuesday, a judge ordered Mr. Raniere, who was convicted in 2019 of offenses including sex trafficking and racketeering, to pay a total of more than $3.4 million to 21 victims, with some of that money allocated to women to have brandings removed.
“Virtually all low-ranking members of D.O.S. were victims of a conspiracy” involving forced labor, the judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis, of Federal Court in Brooklyn, said on Tuesday, adding that D.O.S. members were also directed to perform sexual acts by “higher-ranking members.”
Mr. Raniere was not present in the courtroom but attended by video from Arizona, where he is serving a 120-year prison sentence.
The sometimes contentious proceeding on Tuesday resolved a process that had mainly been hidden from public view. A series of letters to the court related to restitution have been filed under seal, part of an effort to protect the privacy of the victims, including some who became part of D.O.S. — an acronym for a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions.”
D.O.S. members, known as “slaves,” were required to provide to “masters” sensitive or embarrassing personal material called “collateral,” according to court documents and testimony in the case. That material was then used to coerce compliance with orders, including some to “seduce” Mr. Raniere.
About 100 people had submitted requests for restitution totaling about $33 million, Judge Garaufis said. They included D.O.S. members, a business consultant who worked with Nxivm and members of a family who had fought a nearly 15-year court battle with Nxivm.
At one point prosecutors had recommended that the court award restitution to 25 people.
Judge Garaufis determined that 17 people deserved restitution under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which applies to crimes including forced labor, sex trafficking and document servitude. Those victims are entitled to restitution for legal counsel they retained in connection with the government investigation and Mr. Raniere’s criminal proceedings, the value of unpaid labor they performed within D.O.S., and medical services, including mental health care and brand removal.
Another four people are entitled to restitution under a second law, the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act of 1996, which applies to crimes including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.
Among those to whom Mr. Raniere is being ordered to pay restitution is Sarah Edmondson, one of the first people to speak publicly about the brandings. In 2017 she told The New York Times that she wept as she endured that experience and “disassociated out of my body.”
Other recipients include a woman identified only as Sylvie, who testified during Mr. Raniere’s trial that she was ordered to have sex with him and described life within D.O.S. as “lies and deceit and darkness,” and a woman identified as Daniela, who testified that Mr. Raniere became jealous when she rejected him and caused her to be kept in a room for two years.
The largest restitution amount, $507,997, was awarded to Daniela’s younger sister, Camila. Mr. Raniere began sexually abusing Camila when she was 15, according to court records. Judge Garaufis said on Tuesday that there was information that “the defendant induced her to submit to pornographic photography sessions.”
Judge Garaufis also said lower-ranking D.O.S. members “are statutorily entitled to the return of their collateral” and directed Mr. Raniere to assist in that effort. But that order was stayed until Mr. Raniere’s appeal of his conviction is exhausted.
While restitution cases with a single victim and perpetrator — and one clear-cut crime — can be straightforward, Mr. Raniere’s case appeared to be particularly complex, said Paul G. Cassell, a former federal judge in Utah and professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, who has written about crime victims and restitution.
“Here we have both issues of who is a victim, and once that’s sorted through, what are the compensable losses,” Professor Cassell said. “Given the breadth of the charges and the number of people involved, this is one of the most complicated restitution cases I think I have ever seen.”
The restitution process could be further complicated by the fact that Mr. Raniere has long presented himself to the world as a “renunciate” who shunned material possessions, and he may not have the means to pay whatever he is ordered to hand over.
In a memorandum to the court before Mr. Raniere’s sentencing, prosecutors wrote that he had reported an interest in the $8 million estate of a deceased former partner and told probation authorities that he also had earnings from Nxivm and from another organization he founded called Executive Success Programs.
Prosecutors also wrote in the memo that they would ask that “forfeited funds” be used for restitution.
Throughout the proceeding Mr. Raniere was visible on a screen, wearing a dark-colored shirt and taking notes on a legal pad. At one point, after Judge Garaufis asked if he had any comment, Mr. Raniere declared that he had no connection to the personal materials provided by D.O.S. members.
“I have never handled the collateral,” he said. “I know nothing about it.”
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