A liquor heiress is facing charges of funding a suspected US sex cult whose recruits were allegedly branded with the initials of its founder.
Investigators say Seagram scion Clare Bronfman, 39, used her fortune to help finance the operations of Nxivm.
She was arrested on Tuesday along with three others on charges of racketeering conspiracy, say US prosecutors.
Investigators say Nxivm is a sex-trafficking operation disguised as a mentoring group.
Ms Bronfman’s lawyer said her client “did nothing wrong”.
The attorney, Susan Necheles, said in a statement that Nxivm was “not a criminal enterprise” but “an organisation that helped thousands of people”, US media reported.
“The charges against Clare are the result of government overreaching and charging an individual with crimes just because the government disagrees with some beliefs taught by Nxivm and held by Clare,” Necheles said.
Nxivm co-founder Nancy Salzman, 64, her daughter, Lauren Salzman, 42, and the group’s 60-year-old bookkeeper, Kathy Russell, were also charged with racketeering conspiracy on Tuesday.
Court documents allege Ms Bronfman, a member of Nxivm’s executive board, was involved in the identity theft of at least two women – including one who was a deceased sexual partner of Nxivm founder Keith Raniere, 57.
She is also accused of encouraging and assisting in illegal entry into the US of a Nxivm member.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) accuses Mr Raniere, Nancy Salzman, Ms Bronfman, 35-year-old actress Allison Mack, and two others with “an array of crimes, including identity theft, extortion, forced labour, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice”.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said on Tuesday that “the details of these alleged crimes become more and more grim as we continue to dig deeper into the conduct of this organisation and its intended mission”.
Mr Raniere was arrested by the FBI in Mexico in March. He has denied all the allegations against him.
He and Ms Mack were both charged in April with sex trafficking and forced labour conspiracy. Racketeering conspiracy was added to their charge sheet on Tuesday.
Ms Bronfman is the daughter of late billionaire philanthropist Edgar Bronfman, who led the Canada-domiciled distilled beverage conglomerate Seagram.
Prosecutors have already denied bail for Mr Raniere, citing fears that Ms Bronfman might use her financial clout to help him escape.
In a note published on her website last December, Ms Bronfman said she still supported Nxivm after seeing “so much good come from both our programmes and from Keith himself”.
Ms Bronfman and the other defendants could face up to 20 years in jail, plus an additional maximum 15 years for identity theft conspiracy.
Mr Raniere and Ms Mack, known for her role on the TV show Smallville, separately face mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years and a maximum of life imprisonment for their sex-trafficking charges.
Mr Raniere’s trial is scheduled for 1 October.
What is Nxivm?
On its website Nxivm (pronounced nexium) describes itself as a “community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human”.
Based in Albany in upstate New York, the group was founded as Executive Success Programs in 1998 and says it has worked with more than 16,000 people.
Members of the group are reported to include the son of a former Mexican president and Hollywood actresses.
Federal prosecutors allege Mr Raniere oversaw a “slave and master” system in Nxivm, where female members were expected to have sex with him and were branded with his initials.
According to the group’s website, it has suspended enrollment and events over the “extraordinary circumstances facing the company at this time”.
This story is from The BBC News. To read the full story, please go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44946059.