CNN
—
An attorney for Nxivm founder Keith Raniere on Tuesday asked for his conviction to be vacated, alleging in a court filing the FBI tampered with key evidence in the case against him and gave false testimony in his 2019 trial.
Raniere was convicted on seven counts, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and attempted sex trafficking. Raniere was sentenced to the remainder of his life in prison.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Raniere’s attorney, Joseph Tully, asked for Raniere’s conviction to be vacated, because of “the government’s use of false testimony and evidence.”
A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment.
Attorneys for Raniere are set to make oral arguments appealing his conviction Tuesday afternoon, as are attorneys for his co-defendant Clare Bronfman, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor people who were not in the US legally for financial gain, as well as fraudulent use of identification. Bronfman was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.
Raniere was accused of creating, a sex cult within the self-help group Nxivm, with an all-female group known as DOS, whose members served as “slaves” and “masters.”
Multiple women testified at trial they were misled about joining the group and were told it was a “women’s empowerment” group. They later found out they would become “slaves” who would be expected to have sex with Raniere, send him nude photos and have his initials branded onto their bodies.
In the filing, Tully asks for there to be an evidentiary hearing where attorneys can question multiple forensic examiners, FBI special agents involved in the case, two federal prosecutors, two witnesses and others. A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York had no comment.