A NXIVM cult member who recruited slaves for guru Keith Raniere has avoided jail after testifying against him.
Lauren Salzman, 45, was sentenced to to time served by Brooklyn-based U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis and ordered her to perform 300 hours of community service.
Prosecutors noted her “credible, detailed” testimony against her ex Raniere at his 2019 trial as reason for leniency.
She had faced seven to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering.
Salzman was one of two people to testify at Raniere’s trial about submitting to a branding ritual meant to show his slaves devotion to him.
She recalled saying: “Master, please brand me. It would be an honor.”
Salzman told the court she organized other brandings by inviting women to her house, where they were required to strip naked and sit blindfolded in a circle as part of the ritual.
The first woman branded, she said, “was screaming and squealing.”
She also admitted to keeping a woman locked up in a room for almost two years with surveillance cameras outside the door.
Salzman was known as a “first-line master.”
The group of eight women were recruited by Raniere and considered his “slaves” – but they also recruited their own “slaves”, The New York Times reports.
Salzman told the judge: “I do not have enough tears for how deeply sad, ashamed and regretful I feel about my time with Keith Raniere and my participation in his wrongful initiatives.
“I can’t even begin to imagine the pain, feelings of betrayal, feelings of violation and lasting emotional trauma that the victims have experienced.”
Salzman’s mother Nancy had founded NXIVM alongside Raniere.
Former NXIVM member Ivy Nevares said of Lauren: “In hindsight, she groomed me to feel safe in the presence of a predator and his vicious pack.
“She used her position and skills to try to force me to accept my exploitation and to do so with a smile.”
Raniere is currently serving 120 years in jail for charges including sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering.
He is accused of running a sinister master-slave group called DOS where women were starved, branded on their groins, forced into sexual acts, and made to hand over damaging collateral such as naked pictures.
TV actor Allison Mack played a key role in the cult and was jailed for three years earlier this month after pleading guilty to charges that she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves.
Mack — best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend on the series “Smallville” – sought credit for cooperating against Raniere.
She was hit with a three year prison sentence and slapped with a $20,000 fine for her role in the NXIVM case.
Devoting herself to the self-improvement guru “was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life,” she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week.
Mack, 38, was once part of the inner circle of Raniere, whose group attracted millionaires and actors among its adherents.
Prosecutors said she became a “master” for “slaves” she ordered “to perform labor, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere.”
