NXIVM Leader Keith Raniere Ordered To Pay $3.4 Million To 21 Victims

NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere has been ordered to pay $3.4 million to his victims.

Twenty-one victims will receive portions of the money – part of which will be used to remove Raniere’s branded initials from their skin.

The women involved in the cult were members of a specific group within the cult, called the Vow, or D.O.S., which is an acronym for a Latin phrase that means “lord/master of the obedient female companions.”

The women who joined this group were physically restrained and branded by members of the Vow while they chanted, “Master, please brand me, it would be an honor.”

The women in the Vow were referred to as “slaves,” and were there to provide “collateral” material – which was used to coerce obedience when Vow members were given instructions from their “masters,” including engaging in several sexual acts – to the “masters” of the cult.

Sarah Edmonson was one of the first cult members to speak about her experience in NXIVM. Edmonson, as well as women who identified as Sylvie, Daniela and Camila claimed to have suffered through the branding process, where they were sexually assaulted and placed in solitary confinement.

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ordered Raniere to pay his victims $3.4 million on Tuesday, in response to approximately 100 requests to compensate the victims, as well as the prosecutors’ recommendation to pay 25 victims. Garaufis decided 21 victims’ were eligible to be paid, basing his decision on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and the Mandatory Restitution Act of 1996.

Raniere is currently facing a 120-year-sentence in a prison in Tucson, Arizona.

Smallville actress Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison in June for abetting Raniere’s activities in the cult.