An attorney for NXIVM founder Keith Raniere on Tuesday asked for his conviction to be vacated, alleging in a court filing the FBI tampering with key evidence in the case against him and offering a statement false statements during his 2019 trial.
Raniere was convicted on seven counts, including fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to force labor, sex trafficking, conspiracy to traffic sex and conspiracy to traffic sell sex. Raniere was sentenced for the rest of her life in prison.
In a petition filed Tuesday, Raniere’s attorney, Joseph Tully, asked for the conviction of Raniere to be dropped, because of “the government’s use of false testimony and evidence.”
An FBI spokesman declined to comment.
Attorneys for Raniere are set to make oral arguments against his conviction Tuesday afternoon, as are attorneys for his co-defendant Clare Bronfman, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. concealing and harboring people who are not legally in the US for financial gain, as well as fraudulently using identity documents. 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 were “slaves” and “masters”.
Many women testified at the trial that they were confused about joining the group and were told it was a “women’s empowerment” group. They then discovered they would become “slaves” who were supposed to have sex with Raniere, sending him nude pictures and having his initials on her body. surname.
The allegations in Tuesday’s petition are part of Raniere’s appeal, but the motion detailing evidence allegedly shows the record tag’s metadata was altered while the FBI was in possession to do so. for it seems the nude photos of a woman were taken in 2005, when this woman. a minor. Evidence is at the heart of the child pornography allegation that Raniere has been found guilty of.
In the filing, Tully requested an evidence hearing where the attorneys could question multiple forensic experts, the FBI agents involved in the case, two federal prosecutors, two witnesses, and two witnesses. others. A spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York was unavailable for comment.
In a timeline summarizing the alleged evidence of tampering, Raniere’s attorneys said a camera, camera card and hard drive were found at a home linked to Raniere in March. 2018 and the authorities kept these devices for 4.5 months. The summary alleges “an unidentified person had excessive access to the camera tag” in September 2018.
A former FBI special agent has submitted an expert report in which he says he believes the tampering “certainly” took place while the devices were in the custody of the FBI, and comments His expert was that “the FBI must have been involved in tampering with such evidence.”
