Knowledgeable cybercrime analysts for a convicted intercourse trafficker say proof for a few of the most stunning costs towards him was tampered with and planted on storage drives that have been speculated to be in safe FBI custody, based on court docket paperwork.
NXIVM sex cult founder Keith Raniere, 64, is serving a 120-year sentence at a federal jail in Tuscon, Arizona. Prosecutors stated he recruited ladies and ladies right into a intercourse cult disguised as a self-help group. He had an “interior circle” of “slaves” and “masters.” Among the ladies branded Raniere’s initials on their our bodies. Prosecutors allege he held a home servant captive in a room for almost two years.
One survivor, India Oxenberg, informed the FOX News True Crime Podcast she endured “dehumanizing” therapy, together with “repeated molestation and rape” earlier than she and her mom escaped the cult.
The FBI declined to remark when reached by Fox Information Digital.
FOUNDER OF SELF-HELP GROUP NXIVM, KEITH RANIERE, SENTENCED TO 120 YEARS FOR SEX TRAFFICKING
Keith Raniere, the ex-leader of NXIVM, was convicted in 2019 of seven counts that included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, compelled labor conspiracy, intercourse trafficking, intercourse trafficking conspiracy and tried intercourse trafficking. (YouTube )
Along with the abuse towards grownup victims, federal prosecutors charged that Raniere was 45 and a toddler sufferer, recognized solely as “Camila,” was 15 when he took photographs of her and sexually abused her.
Raniere’s lead legal professional, Joseph Tully, informed Fox Information Digital the proof used to convict his consumer of the “most heinous” costs — little one pornography and little one exploitation — was “provably” doctored and planted by the FBI.
“If I might simply have a listening to, I might simply present the world that, as outrageous because it appears, that this tampering did occur, and it did occur whereas in FBI custody,” he stated.
At difficulty are dozens of pictures on a reminiscence card and arduous drive that protection specialists say had their timestamps altered, allegedly making it appear like a younger lady was beneath the age of consent on the time they have been taken. Between April 2019 and June 2019, extra photographs allegedly appeared on the FBI’s forensic report, based on court docket filings.
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Alan Dershowitz, the outstanding constitutional lawyer, isn’t a part of Raniere’s group however consulted along with his attorneys after studying of the allegations of FBI malfeasance.
He informed Fox Information Digital that if Raniere’s specialists are appropriate, it could quantity to “a staggering authorities act of misconduct.” If the allegations show true, it might have an effect on different circumstances.
The NXIVM Govt Success Packages signal exterior the workplace at 455 New Karner Street April 26, 2018, in Albany, N.Y. Keith Raniere, founding father of NXIVM, was arrested by the FBI in Mexico in March 2018. (Amy Luke/Getty Photographs)
SEX CULT MEMBERS DETAIL FORCED KISSES, BRANDING
He stated the late introduction of costs involving a toddler tipped the dimensions in favor of the prosecution.
“They’d an alleged very, very, very weak case towards the defendant, very weak. He simply might have received the case, after which, on the final minute, they ‘found’ {a photograph} of a feminine, bare, who they declare was underage,” he informed Fox Information Digital in an interview. “Now, when you introduce into proof something involving an underage feminine, the case is over.”
One other defendant nearly instantly took a plea deal, he stated. 4 different co-defendants finally selected to plead out, too.
Learn the affidavit of Dr. Kiper:
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However protection specialists, in a collection of declarations filed in federal court docket final month, now say the images have been taken when the girl was above the age of consent after which tampered with to make it appear like that they had been accomplished earlier.
“Why should not we have now a listening to? And this does not solely contain Mr. Raniere. It includes each American,” Dershowitz stated. “When you’ve gotten someone in jail, who’s there because of tampered with authorities proof, it is the Soviet Union. It is Iran. It is China. It isn’t the US of America.”
Clare Bronfman, an heiress of the Seagram’s liquor empire, arrives for a listening to on costs associated to the Albany-based group NXIVM at the US Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., July 25, 2018. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
The FBI didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the protection specialists’ findings. The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace that dealt with the case declined to remark. A response isn’t due in court docket till Jan. 27.
It is unclear why the FBI or federal prosecutors would allegedly body Raniere, however Tully, who wrote a 2018 guide about corruption within the prison justice system, stated his consumer had extraordinarily rich enemies and was simply unpopular.
“They needed to ‘get him,'” he informed Fox Information Digital. “When the favored child at school needs to make one of many poorer youngsters who has holes in his footwear the laughingstock of the college, they do it. And that type of human conduct doesn’t change when these youngsters develop up and get their regulation diploma and need to grow to be prosecutors.”
Newsweek first reported the allegations in late December, however Raniere has nonetheless not obtained a listening to almost a month later.
Actress Allison Mack arrives at the US Jap District Court docket Could 4, 2018, after a bail listening to for intercourse trafficking costs filed towards her within the Brooklyn borough of New York Metropolis. The actress identified for her function on “Smallville” was charged with intercourse trafficking, together with alleged cult chief Keith Raniere. (Jemal Countess/Getty Photographs)
“And the federal government is determined to not have a listening to,” Dershowitz stated. “They are not looking for the general public report to indicate that seven specialists, together with some who labored for the FBI, who they use to get convictions towards folks, at the moment are saying that this was a tampered piece of proof.”
Raniere’s protection attorneys are asking for a brand new trial. In a court docket submitting, they alleged that the “authorities knowingly used doctored proof to safe a conviction” based mostly on the conclusions of seven of their specialists.
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Raniere billed himself as a wellness guru, and his program attracted outstanding ladies to his orbit, together with actress Allison Mack and Seagram’s heiress Clare Bronfman, each of whom have been convicted of lesser costs. Critics known as NXIVM a cult centered on sex trafficking and abuse.
A central allegation within the racketeering case towards Raniere was that he had a sexual relationship with “Camila,” the alleged 15-year-old lady. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
WATCH: NXIVM cult survivor recounts psychological, bodily abuse
Dr. Richard Kiper, a number one skilled and former FBI agent who specialised in cybersecurity and digital proof, wrote in a 59-page affidavit that whereas reviewing the case for the protection, he “found particular actions that have been taken to manually alter the proof” and assist the prosecution’s allegations.
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“In my 20 years serving as an FBI agent, I’ve by no means noticed or claimed that an FBI worker tampered with proof, digital or in any other case,” he wrote. “However on this case, I strongly imagine the a number of, intentional alterations to the digital data I’ve found represent proof manipulation.”
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