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NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are trying to prevent jailed NXIVM leader Keith Raniere from moving his money.
In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors asked Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to issue a restraining order preventing any money from being moved out of a trust named after Pamela Cafritz, a longtime live-in girlfriend of Raniere in Halfmoon and a high-ranking NXIVM member who died of cancer in 2016.
Raniere, the self-help guru known within his cult-like organization as “Vanguard,” is a beneficiary of the Pamela Anne Cafritz Living Trust, stated the proposed restraining order sent to the judge by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar.
On Oct. 27, the judge sentenced Raniere to 120 years in federal prison and a fine of $1,750,000 for his conviction on charges of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and racketeering charges with underlying acts that included extortion, identify theft and possession of child pornography. He also must pay a $15,000 assessment under the 2015 Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.
Raniere, 60, “does not otherwise have substantial assets available to pay the court-ordered fine or compensate the victims entitled to restitution,” the proposed order said.
The filing said the order was needed because Raniere, a trustee of the fund or people acting on their behalf, “may take actions that would have the effect of alienating, transferring, dissipating, distributing, or disposing of any distributions to the defendant from the Pamela Anne Cafritz Living Trust, or otherwise making them unavailable.”
The proposed restraining order said under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, courts are required to order restitution to victims of sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy charges in the full amount of the victims losses, and that under the Crime Victims Act, victims are entitled to a full and timely restitution provided by law.
It would keep Raniere – as well as trustees, successors, employees, lawyers, family members, representatives or others – from trying to conceal the money.
Raniere still faces a civil lawsuit in federal court from dozens of his victims and victims of NXIVM, but it was not clear what effect the ruling would have on the civil suit.
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