Original subtitles

You look like you need a rest.

Truthfully, my branding story isn't nearly as bad

as some of the other stories that have emerged.

I am desperate.

I don't know what else we can do at this point.

I've decided to go on the record and expose this.

The New York Times is the last attempt

to just blow this thing open.

The greatest fear that everyone was expressing

was the fear of legal retaliation.

NXIVM is trying to get me arrested on three fronts.

Putting myself out there and being the face of this is terrifying.

I was the first significant person

in the entire organization to ever leave.

Buckle your seat belt. They're coming for you.

Mommy, can I have a waffle?

- For breakfast? - Yeah.

Yeah.

Hello?

Hold on. Let me look for it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a sec, Troy.

Mommy! - Edmondson: Wow.

Mommy!

You know the "MeToo" thing, right?

Mm-hmm.

If this Harvey Weinstein story had broke

and I hadn't experienced what happened in ESP,

I would be this equally not supportive.

Or like, not as compassionate, apathetic,

because I'd be like, why, why wouldn't they just leave the room?

You know, if anybody's ever been in an abusive relationship,

it's no different.

You spend most of your time defending yourself.

Oh, my God.

Look at the Bill Cosby thing.

Look at the Harvey Weinstein thing.

There isn't a place in our culture right now

where women who have these abuses happen to them

can go and get taken seriously.

Unfortunately, you have to use the media to do that.

"Waking up this morning

"to almost every woman friend of mine with this status

"moved me to tears, and then rage.

"I used to think that these things never happened to me,

"but it has.

"In England at a rave. In Israel in a bathroom.

"And most recently in Knox Woods,

"Clifton Park, New York.

"Naked, pinned down, mutilated, and videotaped."

"Me too."

I just got a notification.

- A - notification about what?

- Really? - It's, like, popping up.

- Holy shit! Holy shit! - You just got it? Let's see.

- Look! - "To join the self-help group's inner circle,

"some women provided compromising material about themselves.

Then they were held down and branded."

It's happening.

Wow, no, this shit's about to explode.

It's front page of the "New York Times."

- This is what we wanted! - That's very good.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

With the "MeToo" shit, this is going viral.

Holy fuck. Nip!

I'm front page of the "New York" fucking "Times."

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Wow. -

- Shit, Sarah. - Oh, my God. There's a picture of my brand.

"Albany, last March, five women gathered in a home near here

to enter a secret sisterhood they were told was created to empower women."

"A copy of a text message Mr. Raniere sent

"to a female follower indicates

"that he knew women were being branded,

and the symbols designed incorporated his initials."

"If it were Abraham Lincoln's or Bill Gates' initials,

no one would care."

That's what he said to somebody?

"Several former members have asked state authorities

"to investigate the group's activities,

but officials have declined to pursue action."

Yep.

Fuck you all. Shitheads.

Hold on. Mark's calling.

- Hi. - Holy fuck.

My phone has just been going, like I'm literally,

- phone call to phone call to phone call. - Oh, my God.

Like, I gotta go. Here's Mark. Gotta go. Here's Mom.

- Gotta go. There's a reporter. There's the... - There's my chiropractor.

There's my chiropractor. I missed my chiropractic appointment.

In some ways, this is like, like another beginning now.

Yeah, no, the fireworks are gonna start.

There's a certain, like, unloading

- of emotion going on. - Yeah.

I love you, Bonnie.

I love you, Sarah.

No, seriously. I really fuckin' love you.

- You were so brave. - I love you, too.

We're having a moment.

You were the bravest, first one.

That must have been scary as fuck to try and leave when you did.

It's just... This is crazy.

This is gonna be a roller coaster.

It's gonna have inertia going one way, inertia going the other.

But I think it's a steady climb,

- towards, whatever. Justice. Whatever. I mean... - Absolutely.

What are they gonna do now?

What is the worst-case scenario they're gonna do?

Yep. Agreed.

Love you. Bye.

Barry, it's Catherine Oxenberg.

I just finished reading the article,

and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This is gonna help save my daughter.

I'm so incredibly grateful.

- Hi! - How's it going?

Welcome to the "New York Times" party.

The party's gettin' started.

Hi. Just to let you know, you're on speaker.

There's a bunch of ex-ESPians at my house.

We're having a "New York Times" party.

- Hey, guys. - Hey.

Everyone's on their phone, texting, tweeting.

Sending it to people who are still in,

making sure the right person sends it,

so we don't trigger their pride.

We're a little, we're a little, we're a little...

Oh, someone's trying to...

Barbara Bouchey is trying to call me right now.

- Oh, my God. -

Should I answer that?

Some people say, "I'm too busy!

I can't squeeze anything in!"

You're exactly the type of person that needs the program.

You know why? Your life is obviously controlling you.

- Sarah? - Hi, Barb.

Yeah. I think that was very smart.

And I posted the "MeToo."

You should go on my Facebook and check it out.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So, I just...

No. You're not alone anymore.

You guys already know this from Mark. Barbara was my field trainer.

Barb taught me... taught me everything.

- Everything you know? - Everything I know.

- That was, that was her? - That was her.

You told me that story, but I didn't know it was Barbara Bouchey.

- I guess her name was blacklisted back then. - Yeah.

- Now you're back. - Now you're back.

Well, I'm hoping perhaps the authorities will take another look.

So this is it.

These are the old... VHS.

I haven't seen them in ten years.

And so, we're gonna be watching them for the first time.

April 2009,

myself and eight key women resigned.

We thought that people would wake up at NXIVM,

that we could get the government involved, and hold Keith accountable.

This needs to stop.

It's manipulative and deceptive,

and not transparent, and you don't know that.

Of course, it didn't do anything.

Yes, and I decided to surprise Keith.

His father gave me some videos when he was a little kid,

and so I compiled that.

This was his song that he would play for me all the time,

by Led Zeppelin, that says "thank you."

So, of course, I put it in there, 'cause, you know...

I'm a romantic.

- That's me. So... - Why'd you make this tape?

It was his birthday.

And, you know, I... At this point now, was in love with him.

So, yeah, so I started the trend of creating tribute videos.

I did one for Nancy for her birthday.

Okay, are you ready?

Who is Nancy Salzman to you?

Nancy Salzman, I met in the late '80s.

Nancy was a therapist, and I was referred to her for stress management.

My mom died when I was eight. My dad was a severe alcoholic.

And, uh, I would get stressed out about things,

'cause I needed to control my environment.

So Nancy, she helped me a lot,

and we became friends.

And around the year 1999,

um, she, uh, tried to convince me to take a workshop.

She and Keith had formed the company at that time called Executive Success Programs.

It was the first time in my life

that I visited those wounds,

and that childhood trauma.

There's a part of our existence

that is indescribable.

Like, for example, the experience of pain.

You could say, "Well, you have nerves that fire and go up into your brain."

Those are signals. That's not the experience of pain.

Because there are certain aspects where you really like pain.

Ever have someone hit the volleyball at you fast?

Really hard, and you receive it?

Doesn't it feel neat when you hit it?

You know that's pain.

Good pain, though.

Let's go! Ooh! Aye-ya! Oh!

Get it, get it, get it, get it!

Good. Oh! Uh-oh! Up. Good!

Oh!

The last thing I needed was a boyfriend,

and I didn't find him attractive.

But after taking the program,

I began to admire and respect his mind.

Thank you so much.

You take my balls... You take my balls and go home?

Wait a minute now!

- I mean, that's a nice offer, I guess. - Like, I say that...

Oh.

Keith began flirting with me and pursuing me.

Do you want to take my balls?

But it wasn't until months later

that I actually started dating him.

And he would say...

"You are not like anybody else."

'Cause I was business woman, and I was all self-made.

I could match him in a way that other people couldn't.

Keith told me that we would work together

to help make a difference in the world.

Hello, everyone. It's, uh,

it's an honor to be on this call this evening.

I was 40 years old,

and had a highly successful financial planning firm,

a couple million dollars in the bank,

and my business was worth a couple of million,

and one could say I had it all.

But I didn't.

And I gave up making millions

to help build the company.

I was the first board member

on the very first executive board.

I created Vanguard week.

...They had no sales or marketing material.

And, you know, they didn't have any professional image.

Do you feel like a supermodel yet?

So that's my business sense that I brought to the table.

During my time there,

I was personally responsible

for probably enrolling hundreds. Maybe a thousand.

So, 24 messages since I last looked at Facebook.

I'm looking at Twitter now.

Generally, the overall is,

"Holy fuck, I'm so glad you're out. You're so brave."

Every now and then I'm getting a,

"What the fuck? How could you let that happen?"

It makes me sound stupid, but whatever.

You don't...

People don't understand that, though.

You don't, you don't get to be neutral.

You're gonna get praised and punished for it.

"I don't feel sorry for them at all.

"These people in the Vancouver chapter were aggressive,

"cliquey, and downright abusive in some of their recruitment tactics

"of people within the Vancouver yoga and acting communities.

Predators."

Holy shit. - Wow.

"Why would any woman subject herself to a tattoo

after being made to say, 'Master, please brand me. It would be an honor.'"

Sarah? Sarah?

"It's so shockingly sad that these women felt so lost

in their lives."

"No red flags were flapping?

No one thought, 'Wait a minute? What?'"

"I know we're not supposed to blame victims, but come on."

- No, no, no, no! - It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

It's okay. Come here. Come here, come here.

This is my life in general, but it's way worse right now.

I want Mommy!

Okay, but, but she's busy right now,

so you gotta give her five minutes, and then she'll come...

No!

Troy, Troy, look at me.

Barb?

The comments on the "New York Times,"

I'm really recognizing specifically how

the main thing that Barry missed

was the steps into getting involved.

And the psychology behind the coercion. So...

Yeah.

Yep.

Someone just sent me a link.

"Shocking allegations about Capital Region calling group a cult."

Let's, let's play it together.

The report out today says that

some female members have been branded

with the founder's initials.

- What? - Channel 13's Dan Bazile

digs deeper into the underworld of cults...

Oh, my God.

Does that mean nobody wants to talk to me?

They shut the door on us,

a sure sign they didn't want to say a word

about some serious allegations

in the "New York Times."

What is happening, essentially...

Jesus.

These are pictures of me, by the way.

...your lack of a self.

The person who joins the cult

and the person who invents the cult,

they kind of suffer from the same disease.

This kind of fragility, or narcissism.

So, I'd say best-case scenario is

there's enough public outrage

for law enforcement to go, "Okay. We got it from here."

- Yeah. - Look, the branding and all that,

is the headline. Right?

And that's the physical manifestation

of multiple abuses,

primarily in the emotional realm,

which are harder to quantify, and harder to prove.

It's very important that that's the narrative of what's being told.

The Union... "Times Union" guy?

- Yeah, I think so, too. - Yep.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah. -

So, what was left on the cutting room floor

- for you, when you thought... - Yeah. A lot.

A lot. And, you know, they broke the story, but you can, um,

you can... you can do the rest.

They left out the nuances of how the recruitment was done.

If they had said, "Hey, do you wanna get Keith's and Allison's initials

branded on your vagina?"

I definitely would have said no.

Um, but it was step by step by step by step.

You know, people's boundaries and conscience

are being messed with here.

Keith assumes this moral high ground that he just doesn't have,

but he's convinced an insular group of people that it exists.

And then, they don't take in any more information from the real world.

And also, they left out that with the women at the top,

sex with Keith is part of the enlightenment.

There are people sitting over in the chairs there.

I don't think they need to.

- Who? - To our left.

Around 2006,

a lot of people had bought into the belief

that Keith was really, truly an enlightened being.

And if you have sex with the guru,

it actually moves your evolution.

No, it's up here.

But did they see a halo over his head?

Did the bells ring, you know? No, I didn't have any of that.

But the truth is,

I had a lot of intimacy problems.

If you grew up without touch,

without cuddling, without being hugged...

I don't know... You can't receive.

Keith was very loving, gentle, attentive, affectionate.

And he helped me work through a lot of that.

To accept love, to receive love.

I really felt that, um, he was my soulmate.

And the women in the inner circle

who lived with him for decades said that.

Recorder on you.

He was living with Karen Unterreiner.

Pam Cafritz.

What's Odin?

Odin? - Woman: Mm-hmm.

Is a Norse God.

And Kristin Keeffe.

Which color

do you think I should dye my hair?

This is an important question.

This. Has more red.

Can you make it lighter or darker,

depending on how long you treat it?

You can look back

and always see the red flags.

But, they presented it like, you know, a dormitory.

When I walked into his house,

whoever was in there made room for me to sit next to him.

So, for all general purposes, what I could see,

I was the girlfriend.

There's something about me

that I can carry on

a very odd life.

And in some ways...

Yeah, it's odd in a lot of ways.

Like again, the number of women

that have been with me a long time.

You've been with me almost 30 years.

You've been with me almost 20 years.

How does that happen?

Why me?

Everyone that's ever received a Hallmark card,

someone said something about someone touching their heart.

It sounds good and it may be true,

but how do you express to an audience who doesn't know me at all,

do you say, "He touches my..."

If you saw a video about...

A bunch of people saying a guy touches someone's heart,

what do you get from that? Do you really get it?

Why is that I can have a relationship with

multiple women for a long time?

Not for about a year.

Woo! Ladies and gentlemen,

put your hands together and get ready to sing

a very happy birthday one time...

The count of three, from everybody... One!

Two! Three!

Well, this is the party if you wanna...

I think Nancy can't help herself...

I know.

To the. Oh, all right.

Barbara Jeske.

Keith said, "So I have sex with Barbara.

What's the big deal?"

And maybe once, twice a year, that's all,

he had sex with her as her guru teacher.

But then, I found out about the next woman.

Pamela Cafritz.

And I confronted them.

And they didn't hold back.

"Yep."

And then all this other stuff came out.

Karen Unterreiner.

'Cause now I'm suspicious of everybody he's living with in that house.

I'm looking for someone.

It's getting hot.

During my nine years there,

there were 12 women he was intimate with.

I was humiliated.

I felt betrayed. I was in shock.

But you don't know things and you don't know people, until you do.

And everybody is a blend of good and bad.

And you can't see the bad if you don't understand how they use the good.

Oh, thanks, babe. Thank you.

Okay, here we go. First radio interview.

Thank you.

- Sit right here. - Okay.

The last 12 hours have been actually pretty insane.

All of a sudden, it's like, "Holy shit. The whole world knows."

It's hard to know how it reads to people

who don't know about any of this.

Because now that I'm out and I'm looking at the people who are still in,

they just look crazy.

And so like, the, you know, the frog in the pot of boiling water,

what was implanted from the very beginning that's caused,

um...

you know, such a fracture in my psychology

that I would even get to the point where I said, "Okay,

Master, it would be an honor to brand me."

Um...

That night, it was like a horror show.

And then there's Lauren saying, "You a green. You need to do this." And,

"What does it mean, Sarah?"

What does it mean to be afraid?

Like, this is the kind of mind-fuckery.

It was immediately always flipped back to you, being your issue.

A lot of people are reaching out, like, "Oh, my God.

Like, what man did this to you?"

And technically, it was the women.

It was the women who pinned me down.

It was the women who scarred me.

It was the women who did the manipulation.

But it was under direction of a man.

And it was all for, in my opinion, a man's pleasure.

And I didn't really recognize how much

that was a massive, um,

assault on me emotionally and physically,

and I just felt compelled to share it.

And these women feel it's a beautiful, noble attempt

to teach women strength,

and to teach women empowerment.

To be the type of women that they could be,

and I am fucking that up for them.

This is from Keith. "Happy birthday."

"Dance like no one's watching you.

"Sing like no one can hear you.

"Love like you've never been hurt before.

And live like it's heaven on Earth."

And he wrote, "I just think of you every time I read this.

I love you, Keith."

There's a lot of people think there's nothing wrong

with multiple consenting sexual relationships.

And these women bought into that concept,

and also the concept that it was the way to evolve your soul.

I just had a problem with it all.

We have an amazing show.

So, once I found out about some of the other women,

Keith stopped talking to me.

Until the inner circle all met with me for three days.

You know, "Keith is your soulmate."

"What's the big deal?"

"Makes you really angry and jealous.

Wouldn't you rather not have those feelings anymore?"

And I did love Keith.

And I wanted to get through my issues.

I didn't like feeling jealous.

I didn't like feeling angry.

I felt out of control.

I gave it the Girl Scout try to not be so attached to the penis.

But anytime Keith and I had a disagreement,

or an argument, he'd hang up.

And then I'd get the phone call within five minutes

from one of those other women.

"Keith says that you're blaming him."

"He's flat out on the couch. You wiped him out."

"Keith is not gonna talk to you,

"until we work through this issue with you,

and we give you the green light."

They made me think that I was just crazy.

That went on for years.

I mean, I remember one time,

they came in 60 days in a row.

Groups to mentor me.

So what is blame?

A way to be right.

Being a victim.

NXIVM released a statement saying

they firmly oppose violence and abuse.

They also say the allegations are unfounded.

Uh, I'm looking at India's Facebook.

Okay, so she posted the official NXIVM statement.

And she says, "For anyone who's read

"the recent article from the 'New York Times, '

"this may help answer some questions,

and alleviate any confusion."

Which it doesn't. It doesn't address anything.

It makes us even more confused.

"Thank you for your care and concern,

"It's been an incredibly sad situation,

"and I've anticipated this article.

"I am absolutely fine. Great, actually.

"I would never put myself or the people I love into any danger.

"These are my friends and colleagues.

"I've never seen anything but good come out of this work.

Please share if you feel compelled to let people know what's really going on. India."

I doubt it.

Uh, I think she has people pushing her.

I mean,

this is so hard. Oh, my God.

So this woman says, "I don't know you as a woman and sister,

"but I'm compelled to write to you.

"We live in intense and confusing times,

"and we've all a drive to feel that

"we play a meaningful part in this mysterious life.

"Being without meaning can be scary.

"Not knowing how to navigate this life can be scary.

"But maybe ask yourself, what exactly are you so invested in

guarding, hiding, keeping in the shadows?"

Come on.

Before I quit, I broke up with Keith.

And then we needed to figure out how I could work within the organization,

which I still thought had a lot of good,

where Keith and I had a platonic relationship.

Well, Keith stopped talking to me.

And you cannot be a high-ranking person in an organization

where the leader is not talking to you.

And then Keith and the inner circle

secretly told people that the reason they saw me distressed

and emotional

was because my soul had an ethical breach.

They actually told people I was going crazy.

And nobody told anybody

that I had had a relationship with Keith,

and that it was all because I broke up with him.

How dare I?

Where are you going?

No, I was just waiting to talk to you before I left.

- I was gonna go check on Lauren. - Okay.

By using sex and intimacy with women,

it allowed him to then unduly influence them,

and gain more control and power.

In Keith's world, not having an intimate relationship

with someone key in the organization

was the kiss of death for him.

He was losing control of me fast.

I had about 40 NXIVM coaches and proctors

who confided in me issues with leadership and hierarchy,

and I was gaining momentum with this.

- What is this? - This is my "V" meter.

It tells you how close you are to being fully integrated.

One of them was Susan Dones,

who ran the center in Seattle.

Two 16-days,

- four level twos, and about 500 EMs. - Wow!

It's like I had one foot in and one foot out.

Well, what's the difference between a hundred percent honesty

and a hundred percent disclosure?

What's the difference between those?

And, you know,

I spent hardly any time at all with Keith Raniere,

but I didn't like the whole, um,

guru-y kind of thing with him.

So, back to the whole thing about titles.

So, we have... We all got together, and...

"Vanguard" got the highest number of votes.

I didn't want to be called "master."

I asked Barbara, I said,

"Why is Keith not talking to you?"

And she said, "I can assure you that

"I haven't done anything bad.

"But I can't talk to you about why,

um, Keith and I aren't talking."

And so then I shared with her that I was thinking of leaving.

And she said, "Don't leave yet.

Come back to Albany and let's, let's talk."

And I held a forum at my home

to discuss the issues of NXIVM,

with the intent to address and confront Keith.

And that's when I found out

the board consisted of all the women Keith had been sleeping with.

And there were nine strong women who wanted to confront him.

It was like, "Oh, my gosh. I'm in a cult."

The nine of us, after 11 hours with Keith, all resigned.

I shut my center down,

and I told the people I trusted,

and so, we wrote our resignation letter...

asking for money that we believed that was owed to us.

Some were owed commission, some were owed trainer fees.

I asked for the value of what I believed my center was.

Keith and Nancy personally owed me $1.6 million.

And so, we wrote,

"If these requests are not met,

we are going to move forward by contacting the press."

- - Oh, thank you.

Please be seated.

Am I sitting... Okay. I almost sat on the table.

So, I'm here to give you a...

It's sort of a... Well, it's a mixed thing.

Um...

I had a series of meetings.

Um, the meetings were to give me feedback on myself,

on the organization, on a number of different things.

And all the feedback's valid, by the way.

Now, the long and the short of it is,

I think there are a group of people who are probably going to leave our community.

It is believed, in this group,

that I have a group of intimate relationships,

some sexual, some not,

and they say this intimacy is a control strategy.

Well, clearly is.

I have to be able to trust 'em.

And there are things that are secret.

I believe in strategic secret...

Especially when I believe that there are people with bad intent.

And I do believe that

a very, very small minority in this group

may not be well-intentioned.

And in a specific case,

there is a personal issue that I have with one of them.

And I've worked to try to fix it, worked to try to fix it,

to the best of my ability, and I failed.

Where did it cross the line?

It crossed the line when the executive board get a letter

and essentially the letter says,

"We want..." It works out to two... over two million dollars.

"Uh, and if you don't give us

"coming up this Thursday, a certified check for the two million dollars,

um, we're going to the press."

This is extortion.

So, we are filing criminal charges.

It's already in process. Um...

This is very difficult for me, because these are people I care about.

And people I've known a very long time.

In some ways it's a death. In some ways it's a, a birth.

And in some ways, it's a relief.

I hate to say that.

But there... a physical relief.

I can divert, um, my attention, my focus,

even my physical being, to some other things now.

I have a beautiful picture in here of the two of them.

Let me find it.

That's Sara and Clare Bronfman.

2005,

Keith convinced me to become their financial planner.

I left April 2009,

and then what happened is, Clare Bronfman went to the Saratoga D.A.,

to tell them that her financial planner, Barbara Bouchey,

had an ethical violation with her and she fired her because of it,

and that Barbara Bouchey, in revenge and spite,

tried to extort two million dollars from her and blackmail her.

They used the resignation letter.

Um, had a knock on my door.

And I was being served, uh, legal documents

that said that Keith Raniere, NXIVM, and the Bronfmans

were going to bring civil and criminal charges against me.

How did they take people who should have known me,

and experienced me, and how did they twist it?

- Yeah, we're winning, right? - No.

No? Not yet.

Thank you so much, Rick.

- Okay. - All right. Bye-bye.

Okay.

He is a cult expert,

and he knows Keith intimately,

because they kept him in litigation for about 15 years.

He's been helping me all along.

Hey, Rick. - Ross: Hi.

So, this is Stanley.

Hi.

Stanley has been a friend of mine since I was 18.

And India actually...

So she just texted me for the first time

since the, uh, "New York Times" article.

So, this is what she says.

"Mom, I love you, but I don't agree with your approach,

"publicly shaming me and people I care for.

"That's not very considerate of our private relationship.

"I've been cautious about our communication,

"and don't think the people you're working with

have your or mine best interests."

What that kind of verbiage, to me,

it's like, it's all your fault.

NXIVM never does anything wrong.

Keith Raniere never does anything wrong.

They never have anything to address.

Well, this is what I was going to say.

"You have every right to be angry with me.

"In spite of that, I hope you can understand that I am coming from love.

I'm a mother afraid for her daughter."

- Is there anything else I should change? - That, that's good.

And, and you can say, "I respect your right to make choices,

and I hope that you can do the same for me."

Mm-hmm. Except that my choice is to out her publicly.

How do I justify that?

- I think you have to be careful. - Okay.

- Because once you start to get into an argument... - Okay.

That there is probably somebody,

uh, coaching her on her text.

And this is the training.

So he determines the parameters of reality.

And the women that are the closest to him

who live in the Albany area,

are the most controlled people in the entire group.

We don't want to admit that that could happen to someone we love,

but the human mind is much more fragile

than we would like to believe.

We are all subject to influence techniques.

Any anybody, especially a woman, that says,

"I'm done with you, Keith Raniere,"

he doesn't like that.

And I've seen people who he's...

he's utterly destroyed their life.

- A - significant cultural event

for the Capital region.

The appearance of the iconic spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan Buddhist monk who won a Nobel Peace Prize

and who has admirers all over the globe came to Albany today,

as a result of an invitation from the World Ethical Foundation,

which is founded by two sisters,

heiresses of the Seagram's liquor corporation.

Two weeks after I quit,

the Dalai Lama agreed to tack on Albany

to his already 23-city tour.

And then they milked it. I mean, it was all over their website,

and articles went out, and, you know, letters.

In the meantime, behind the scenes,

my whole criminal case was going on.

And the Bronfmans and Keith had already networked locally

with many prominent law firms.

The name carried weight,

and I couldn't find an attorney.

Who do you think wants to represent me?

Um, well, sometimes there are some people that come

that seem to have bad intent.

But I, I never want to believe that.

Um, at what point do you take action definitively?

Oh.

Uh, that, that, uh...

- Oh? -

Oh.

Good.

And after that,

I have the actual NXIVM announcement.

They announced proudly

that they were improving things

and they're gonna change the board.

He took all the girlfriends off.

And then he put Clare Bronfman,

Emiliano Salinas,

and Mark Vicente on the board.

- That's what I'm talkin' about. - They kind of pulled Mark into the fold.

The person who was my field trainer originally,

and Mark's field trainer, is no longer in the company.

So now in the meantime, they lost Seattle,

because of Susan Dones quitting.

And you had all those people in Vancouver

that used to sometimes go down to Seattle for some classes.

So, Mark and Sarah,

Keith and Nancy very strategically

took a stronger interest in them.

We're going down the stairs.

The front, which has a reception.

This would be like a study hall. White board.

And they got to open the center in Vancouver.

You could say from image, to financial,

they got lots of benefits.

And as this went on, the Bronfmans started accusing me of more accusations.

I stole their money, I misappropriated.

They were bombarding the court.

They said that I had, you know,

done all of these crimes against them.

And so I had to defend all of those.

I think there was 360 court filings filed

in that 10-month period of time.

Three hundred and sixty.

And I couldn't work during that time,

because I had to constantly write motions

and go to hearings, and, and that kind of stuff.

I was broke.

I didn't have $20 in my pocket.

I was shuffling between being able to buy food,

or pay my lawyers.

I think it was, like, 2011,

myself and a couple other people I know

talked to the, um, New York State Attorney General,

and we were asked to turn over lots of documents to them.

And finally they said, "Stop sending us stuff."

A nd we thought, "Okay, they have enough information."

Nothing ever happened.

Nothing ever happened.

And the attitude was, "Well, you know, Miss Bouchey,

"like, aren't you and Keith just bickering, like in a bad divorce?

"And you know, really, this is just probably just a big fight.

We've got bigger fish to fry."

I am terrified every time the doorbell rings,

the phone rings, every time I open up my email,

that it is another voluminous filing.

Groups that litigate like this

can drag out these lawsuits for years.

Hoping to exhaust you and drain you,

and ultimately, to gag you.

It took me seven years to pay off the $700,000 in legal debt.

And I finally was able to move here and rebuild my life.

In February 2014,

Kristin Keeffe quit NXIVM and left.

And I was the first person she called.

Great job.

You weren't scared to call me?

Why?

He could have been great.

There was so much potential.

And he did do a lot of great, good things,

and did help thousands of people, including me.

It's unfortunate that his addictions and flaws

destroyed his own consciousness.

In that, I forgive him.

But I want to say to him,

"You belong in jail for the rest of your life."

You know, I don't begrudge anybody anything,

and I don't feel bitter.

I totally get how

each one of you, at a young age...

...was influenced.

Mm-hmm.

We're headed to, uh, 30 Rock.

30 Rockefeller Plaza to do the "Megyn Kelly Show."

Everything that I'm doing right now is targeted

to, uh, pressure the authorities to step...

To do the right thing.

My daughter, she said I made her look like a lunatic.

Sad. I mean, because...

I mean, this is the thing, and this... I want to get across on the show...

There are times in one's life as a parent where...

my child's safety comes first.

And her safety is more important than her liking me right now.

And that's a price I have to pay.

And it's a big price, as a parent.

Several of the women went to the authorities,

and the authorities dismissed their claims.

They said if a woman consents, there's nothing they can do.

Well, I'd like to counter that, because to me,

brainwashing is not consent.

Blackmail is not consent.

So what do you do now?

Well, this is my last resort, going to the media,

to bring awareness. Because without awareness, there can be no outrage.

And unless there's outrage, the authorities are not gonna step in

and do what they should do, which is shut this down,

and stop this from happening.

The fact that they had all the pictures of us,

like, that was really hard.

I felt, I felt her.

Hi, Barb.

Okay. Big hugs.

Okay. Okay. Bye.

Okay.

In 2009, when Barbara Bouchey left

and everybody left, I got a promotion.

I believed the lies about them.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm a victim in terms of I'm a victim of a con.

But I definitely had made choices.

I definitely have lots of responsibility

in many bad things that happened.

But it's not black and white. You're not one or the other.

- Let's have a pillow fight. - You wanna have a pillow fight?

- Yeah. - Okay.

Get the pillows! Get the pillows!

- Oh, no! - Get the pillows!

I gotcha. Oh, we're safe in here.

- - We're safe.

Yay! Thank you.

This is the wonderful

and amazing goddess, India.

Oh!

Oh, my God, it's the Attorney General! Oh, my God.

I'm speechless. Holy shit!

One of the parents of a girl who escaped

has been in touch with the chief investigator

in Eric Schneiderman's office,

and he is ready to talk to me.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God!

He was a business man when I met him.

All of a sudden, we were supposed to call him Vanguard.

And that was the turning point.

I started to feel uncomfortable

with things going on with the company.

I thought, "I'm gonna breakup with him,

and that's going to be the end of the relationship."

It was just the beginning of hell.

This is a criminal enterprise masquerading as personal growth.

The chief investigator

and the attorney general has reached out.

What we need is evidence of criminality.

The more people that can go on the record, the better.