Clare Bronfman pleads guilty in NXIVM sex slave case
NEW YORK — Clare Bronfman, heiress to Montreal’s Seagram empire, has pleaded guilty to charges implicating her in a sex-trafficking conspiracy case against an upstate New York self-help group.
Bronfman entered the plea on Friday in federal court in Brooklyn.
The plea means the 40-year-old Bronfman will avoid going to trial early next month with Keith Raniere. He’s known as the spiritual leader of the group called NXIVM (NEHK’-see-uhm).
Prosecutors say Bronfman was bankrolling Raniere’s group at a time when he had a secret harem of sex slaves who were branded with his initials.
Sentencing is set for July 25.
Bronfman is a daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr.