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| Nxivm: Sex cult leader Raniere found guilty in New York | Nxivm: Sex cult leader Raniere found guilty in New York |
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| Leader of sex cult Nxivm Keith Raniere has been found guilty of all charges against him in a New York court. | Leader of sex cult Nxivm Keith Raniere has been found guilty of all charges against him in a New York court. |
| Jurors issued the verdict against Raniere, 58, after a six-week trial in Brooklyn. | Jurors issued the verdict against Raniere, 58, after a six-week trial in Brooklyn. |
| Prosecutors accused him of overseeing a "slave and master" system in his group. | |
| He was charged with crimes including racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and possession of child pornography. | He was charged with crimes including racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and possession of child pornography. |
| Raniere, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, could face life in prison. | |
| During the trial, the court heard how female recruits in the group were branded with his initials and coerced into having sex with Raniere. | |
| Raniere maintained that Nxivm (pronounced nexium) was a self-improvement organisation, but investigators said it was a sex-trafficking operation disguised as a mentoring group. | |
| Recruits were told it was an all-female group and were asked to hand over compromising materials that were later used to blackmail them, prosecutors said. | |
| Raniere was arrested by the FBI in Mexico last year. His defence team said the alleged sexual relationships were consensual. | |
| When the verdict was read out in court, former members of Nxivm gave the prosecution team a round of applause. | |
| What is Nxivm? | |
| On its website Nxivm describes itself as a "community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human". | |
| Based in Albany, New York, the group was founded as Executive Success Programs in 1998 and says it has worked with more than 16,000 people. | |
| Members of the group are reported to include the son of a former Mexican president and Hollywood actresses. | |
| According to the group's website, it has suspended enrolment and events because of the "extraordinary circumstances facing the company at this time". |