Relevance: More on NXIVM. Extremely detailed article on the cult that confirms the grooming of underage girl. It also explains how the group kept evolving and changing its name and modus operandi to evade leaving a trail for authorities to follow.

This article was tweeted by An Open Secret:

https://twitter.com/AnOpenSecret

NEW - NXIVM cult leader's former girlfriend still skeptical about suicide being the actual cause of death, after her brother’s years of battling the group. “The last time I saw Keith in person, he said he would either see me next dead or in prison.”

I think this article gives a clear understanding of how innocents got suckered in in the beginning. It started out as offering discount priced goods to members. The more they recruited, the bigger the commissions. The group was evolving and changed over time. It sold healthcare products, skincare, executive training, etc.

Also in the article, Toni Natalie, girlfriend of Raniere, confirms the grooming of minors and that Raniere did read L. Ron Hubbard's book on Scientology. There's also the suspicious suicide death of her brother. You know how they go. I would like to know more about that though.

https://www.fitsnews.com/2018/04/27/shira-weiss-nxivm-sex-cult-leaders-girlfriend-speaks/

Not many women can say they were the live-in love of a cult leader for eight years. Certainly not a charismatic leader who began a multilevel marketing company that would give rise to an unexpected subsidiary, a sexual slavery sorority fronting as an exclusive women’s empowerment group. Toni Natalie is unique in that sense. She is the ex-girlfriend of NXIVM’s Keith Raniere. Pronounced like “the purple pill” for heartburn, NXIVM (Nexium) began as an Albany, New York based company devoted to professional and personal development. In recent years, the group offered courses similar to what one can expect at the Scientology Center in Los Angeles. It is alleged that Richard Branson was among the celebrities to take some of those courses. At its outset in the early 1990s, the group was called Consumers Buyline – offering discounts on goods and services for paying members. Similar to an MLM like Amway, Consumers Buyline members received commission for amassing new members.

Natalie says the name of the group would keep changing in an effort to throw off the media....

...When Natalie first met Raniere in the early 1990s, she was hesitant about getting involved with another MLM company following a prior negative experience with one that went bust. However, her husband convinced her that Keith Raniere was a genius with a 240 IQ and this time things would be different.

“It was a calling card that stands out,” Natalie told me about the much buzzed about IQ score. Only later would she hear that the method of how Raniere had obtained that score was dubious. She would also learn that Raniere had maintained a notably low grade point average in school. ...

...In the early days of her business involvements, Natalie was in charge of marketing a skincare division of the company with quality products developed by holistic wellness and beauty guru Susan Ciminelli.

“It was very successful,” she recalls, “Later on when Keith was asked by federal agencies to make changes to Consumers Buyline, he refused and the company crumbled as quickly as it had taken off. What happens with Keith is that it’s like he tries on a new, different skin. In the early days, he was this boy genius and would continually revamp what the business was and come up with a new way to position it.

What he was apparently doing in the background was grooming underage girls. When the company evolved into a different company, he was grooming new girls.”

Natalie said Raniere’s ability to hypnotize was magical. After he spotted her smoking a cigarette in their initial meeting, he offered to rid her of the nicotine addiction. She then spent two hours with him that felt like fifteen minutes and never touched a cigarette again. She jokes that that was the one good thing to come from Raniere who would ruin her life over the next two decades (following their eventual breakup) through “terrorism by litigation.” ...

... It is often advised that bedfellows avoid becoming business partners. In the case of the manipulative, mind-controlling Raniere and the insecure Natalie – who had been molested years before – this arrangement would prove disastrous. Natalie believed that Raniere was focused on professional development and self-actualization and that his high intellect would lead to great changes. Only later on would she fully acknowledge his alone time with young women as suspect.

As their relationship became tenuous, Natalie resisted intimacy and Raniere began to rape her while making justifications for the assault.

At this point, she sent her son to live with his father. When the breakup eventually happened, it was far from the end. Raniere would send his associates to ransack Natalie’s home, break into her mailbox and cancel her credit cards, all tactics to ensure she felt threatened and appear as if she was going mad.

Having read L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, he wrote Natalie letters calling her a “suppressive” and also quoted Paradise Lost. “There are so many parallels to Scientology,” Natalie confirms. ...

Notoriously litigious with his foes including members of the press, Raniere – with the help of the Bronfman sisters – repeatedly found ways to bring Natalie to court. Her brother attempted to intervene in order to “negotiate her release” and her mother would later incur the legal wrath of the group. Her brother would meet a tragic end – “suicide” according to the autopsy. Natalie is still skeptical about suicide being the actual cause of death after her brother’s years of battling the group.