Lauren Salzman has spent the past year and a half waiting to learn her sentence. That sentence was announced today: time served, five years probation and 300 hours of community service.

Salzman, whose mother Nancy Salzman founded NXIVM and Executive Success Programs with Keith Raniere, pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges in March 2019.

Two victims addressed the court during sentencing — former NXIVM members Susan Dones and Ivy Nevares.

Nevares, who says she considered Salzman a best friend, told the court she was manipulated by her, adding, “In hindsight, she groomed me to feel safe in the presence of a predator and his vicious pack.”

Nevares finished her statement by addressing Salzman directly. "Of all the pain you’ve caused me, the greatest is my broken heart." 

Raniere was found guilty of multiple charges, including sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy just months after Salzman pleaded guilty. He has been sentenced to 120 years in prison.

Salzman graduated from Shenendehowa High School in 1994 and joined NXIVM shortly after attending SUNY Oswego, where she received a degree in English. She spent about two decades with the organization, recruiting and teaching some of the thousands that took NXIVM courses.

With her plea, she admitted to keeping a woman confined to a room in a Clifton Park home for almost two years. She says she was directed to do so by Raniere after the woman expressed romantic feelings for another man.

Trial testimony showed surveillance cameras were set up outside the room and the woman wrote letters almost daily asking for forgiveness.

Salzman spent four days on the witness stand during Raniere’s 2019 trial, testifying about the group’s inner workings, Raniere’s involvement, and her own failed attempts to leave the group. Her cooperation with the government has been called critical, helping prosecutors piece together a number of crimes.

She was the only co-conspirator to be called to testify.

Salzman was among eight “first line slaves” in the secret subgroup “DOS,” which stands for a Latin phrase loosely translated as “master over the slave woman.” Salzman was invited into the group two years after it started.

“First-line slaves” reported directly to Raniere and were encouraged to recruit their own “slaves,” thus becoming their “master.” Salzman recruited six women into DOS, concealing Raniere’s involvement from them. Instead, the woman were told they were joining a secret sorority.

Women in DOS were told to hand over damaging collateral, including naked photographs. Some of the women, including Salzman’s “slaves,” were branded with Raniere’s initials.

Since leaving the group, Salzman says she has realized she was manipulated by Raniere, telling the court he used her “as a tool for his own ends” and hopes she can “serve as a cautionary tale to others” in similar coercive situations.

Salzman has remained in the Capital Region, where she works as a dog groomer. Her attorneys say she has taken a number of courses about animal skin conditions.

Seagram’s heiress Clare Bronfman, who pleaded guilty to charges involving fraud and identity theft, was sentenced in September 2020 to 81 months in prison. She was the first NXIVM co-conspirator to be sentenced for their role in NXIVM.

Actress Allison Mack, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges, was sentenced last month to three years in prison.

Salzman’s mother Nancy is scheduled to be sentenced for her crimes in September.

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