Clare Bronfman and three others have been charged with racketeering conspiracy in connection with work they did with a self-help group that is accused of branding women and forcing them into unwanted sex, reports Canadian Press. The group called NXIVM is based in New York state and was the subject of a podcast series by the public broadcaster, CBC.
It carried an interview with a former member who described being branded with a hot cauterizing device, leaving the initials of the group’s leader permanently in her flesh.
Sarah Edmondson expected a tattoo when she joined NXIVM but instead says was branded. (Sarah Edmonson/CBC)
Daughters involved in financing group
Clare Bronfman is the daughter of billionaire philanthropist and the former chairman of Seagram, Canadian-born Edgar Bronfman Sr. She and her sister Sara are said to have been involved in financing NXIVM and supporting its co-founder, Keith Raniere.
Raniere and actress Allison Mack were charged in the U.S. earlier this year with coercing group members into becoming “slaves” to senior members.
Clare Bronfman is a daughter of the late, Canadian-born billionaire Edgar Bronfman Sr. and an heiress to the Seagram liquor fortune. (Facebook)
Bronfmans made a fortune on alcohol
Seagram was the world’ largest producer and distributor of distilled spirits and it had its head office in Montreal. It was owned and operated by the Bronfman family. The family gained notoriety and accumulated great wealth in the 1900s by finding legal ways to circumvent Canadian and U.S. laws prohibiting alcohol.
The company later diversified into oil and gas, petrochemicals and entertainment.
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