To back up a bit: in 2017, The New York Times ran an exposé about NXIVM, an enigmatic organization that recruited young women with the promise of leadership training, with the provocative headline: “Inside a Secretive Group Where Women Are Branded.” In it, the report details how Raniere and co-founder Nancy Saltzman began what was marketed as a self-help seminar back in 1998, but what turned out to be an alarming cult in which some women were deemed “masters” and others “slaves.” Women previously involved with the cult came forward to detail some pretty raucous practices , including mental and physical abuse, as well as demeaning sex acts and even sex trafficking.