“This thing is evil.”
With those four words, a former member summed up the alleged sex cult Nxivm for Brooklyn federal jurors, breaking down in tears Thursday while denouncing the upstate group’s mission statement — which he had recited hundreds of times to indoctrinate members.
Mark Vicente’s meltdown came as he silently read the purported self-help group’s 12-point mission, written by founder Keith Raniere, who is on trial for racketeering involving acts of child sexual exploitation and possession of child pornography.
“It’s a fraud. It’s a lie,” the Los Angeles filmmaker said as he blotted tears from his eyes with a tissue. “This well-intentioned veneer covers horrible evil.”
The lengthy screed preaches tenets focused on individualism and selflessness, such as, “There are no ultimate victims; therefore, I will not choose to be a victim” and “I will give unreservedly to those who have earned it.”
“I’m ashamed that I ever read this,” Vicente told jurors. “It’s been used to harm a great many people. This thing is evil.”
He estimated having to read the mission statement out loud in group sessions between 500 and 1,000 times in his 12 years as a high-ranking Nxivm member before he left in 2017. Vicente is the second witness to testify against Raniere, the guru accused of using Nxivm to groom women into sex slaves.
Female members of the group were convinced to join a secret sorority called DOS — an acronym for a Latin phrase that loosely translates to dominance over obedient females — where they were branded with Raniere’s initials and called him “Vanguard” or “Grandmaster,” prosecutors said.
Vicente said higher-ups despised the word “cult.”
“They brought up the word ‘cult’ and said the word doesn’t exist,” he testified.
Some members who were caught using the word “cult” were booted out, while the rest were taught that “people who are against us are just using this word to inspire fear,” he said.
Vicente described Raniere as paranoid to the point where he believed there was a conspiracy that reached the “highest levels of government” to get him.
Jurors on Thursday also saw a photo of a home in Halfmoon with Raniere’s “executive library” — a room with a bed elevated over a hot tub where he allegedly slept with his “slaves.”
The library is also where feds turned up a stash of child pornography, prosecutors have said.
Raniere faces up to life in prison if convicted.