Hello hello, hello, welcome to your extra morning news show
My name is philip defranco and this morning we're gonna talk about something strange
Weird and just something that's honestly pretty horrific. And so with that said, let's just jump into it since 1998
There's been a cult growing in America one where women are branded forced into sex trafficking
Starved blackmailed and tortured it's funded by two wealthy heiresses promoted by a Hollywood actress
some of the group's alumni include the co-founder of B et a former US Surgeon General in the son of a former Mexican
President and right now if you're thinking okay Phil this seems like a lot
This is a bit much that sounds like a plot on law and order
Well, actually you're right because law and order did base an episode of SVU on what we're gonna be talking about today
But well that was an episode from a TV show. This cult is real
It is really dangerous and it has only to be in the news a lot more soon and the cult that we're gonna be talking
About today is called nexium and the past few months six members of Nexium have been charged with several crimes
Ranging from identity theft extortion and forced labor to sex trafficking money laundering wire fraud and obstruction of justice
Before we dig further into the other members
We've got to talk about the origins of Nexium in something called ESP 1998 a man by the name of Keith Rainier
He founded executive success programs Inc
the program's called ESP for short were a series of workshops designed according to promotional material to
Actualize human potential and part of ESP as a lure was a huge
Promises the workshops made to potential members and here's how he s be promoted itself on its website
Imagine if you could select at will designer
Qualities and characteristics and begin to wield them as your own if you could possess Gandhi's inner strength
Einstein's intellect and Jim Thorpe's athletic ability. How would your life transform our programs provide the tools for transformation?
We're a professional coaching company dedicated to empowering people to make better decisions so they can create richer more
joyful
And more meaningful lives in five years after founding
ESP Keith Ranieri created nexium and nexium ended up becoming an umbrella organization that
Included ESP and other similar classes that Ranieri had created and next semes goal was to bring people self fulfillment by eliminating
psychological and emotional
Barriers just like ESP nexium made pretty big claims over the years when he had said that its teachings that helped members overcome their Tourette
Syndrome their OCD improved their success at work and in finance even helped people become better
Athletes and this video Ranieri even says his programs might be able to do even more than yeah. I think things like OCD
headaches even certain fertility things maybe
fatigue things who knows, you know
attention deficit disorder things
Autism who knows there. We may have some positive effects on those things
So what were the classes like that have the ability to actualize human potential well to answer that
We really only have one place to look in 2003 a Forbes magazine writer met with Ranieri at his
organization's
Headquarters in New York the article that followed was one of the only reports we have that described what the class is at nexium
We're like and a big reason for that is because members are actually required to sign non-disclosure agreements before they partake
So what did the Forbes article uncover well to start things off the article revealed that members don't actually called Keith Ranieri by his name
instead they referred to him as
Vanguard the Forbes article also uncovered other weird things like the fact that members started every day with a special handshake
additionally
they also used some terminology similar to Scientology necks Ian's as members are known were encouraged to take classes like
ESP and recruit others to take classes as well
and with that recruitment of others helped members rise in the ranks to reach different quote goal level sins were different color sashes to mark
Which goal level they've reached along with moving up and goal levels comes different
responsibilities and privileges
Higher level Mexicans could actually make a salary or a commission and that was important because these classes were not cheap classes that nexium reportedly
Cost anywhere from five thousand dollars for a five-day workshop to upwards of twenty five thousand dollars a day for more exclusive
Classes because the classes were so expensive and members were pressured to continue taking them Nexian could get into debt and then members could feel
Obliged to stay with the group to make up these debts and if it sounds like a pyramid scheme to you
Well, yeah hold that thought because we're gonna be coming back to that in a minute
but even with the high priced classes have lured in lots of people to nexium over the years since its founding it's estimated that around
16 thousand people have signed up for courses offered by the group and like we said earlier some of the people who have signed up
For keith retirees classes have been pretty notable Sheila Johnson the co-founder of BT Antonio
novella
The former US Surgeon General under George HW Bush me Leon o Salinas a venture capitalist and son a former Mexican president Carlos, Salinas
They have all reportedly taken our Neary class additionally an X
IAM has also held a VIP session with Richard Branson on his private island in the Caribbean Alison
Mack was an actress best known for her role as Chloe on the show
Smallville is a high ranking member in the group and Clare and Sarah Bronfman are also active members of Nexium and this pay
Heiresses to the Seagrams fortune. It's also alleged that the two of portend more than 150 million dollars into nexium since 2004
But so the most surprising person connected an axiom is probably the Dalai Lama the Dalai Lama
actually wrote a foreword in one of Keith's rhaenyra's books and in
2009 next time even hosted an event in New York for the Dalai Lama and there are photos of the Dalai Lama with Ranieri at
This event also in this picture you see Clare and Sarah Bronfman on stage with them in, New York
But also nexium isn't just made up of actresses millionaires and famous people, right?
It was also made up of regular everyday
People and as nexium grew the lives of some of these everyday people became more intertwined with the group
which meant that some next scenes moved beyond just taking
Classes some left friends family jobs behind to follow the group's leader Keith Ranieri full-time
But with that we have to ask who is Keith or Neary and how did he come to lead this group that has been now?
charged with some pretty horrible things after that
We look back Keith Renteria was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 26 1960 at age five
Renee's family left Brooklyn and moved to the suburbs of Suffern New York for most of his education. He attended private school
He reportedly really excelled in his classes if you get it really interested in this and you start doing your own research
Into Keith Ranieri, you'll also notice something pop up over and over when you look at bios of his life
Everybody talks about Keith rhaenyra's intelligence. Just how smart Ranieri is is probably up for debate
We do know that in 1982 were in the area graduated from college triple majoring in physics math and biology
He also had two minors in psychology and philosophy and that's one of the only confirmed things
We really know about how smart he and it's important to mention that because over the years Ranieri has actually made some pretty big claims
About his own intelligence that kind of lends to the lore about his brilliance
He said he talked in full sentences by age 1 and was reading by age 2 he claims that he taught himself high school math
And 19 hours when he was 12 years old
He has said that he completed three years of college math in computer language classes by the age of 13
Ranieri has also claimed that in 1989
He was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest IQ and actually on that note
we reached out to Guinness World Records to see if that claim was actually true and as surprisingly this is what they told us a
Search of our database found that Keith Ranieri was featured in the 1989 edition of Guinness World Records
they also told us that Ranieri scored one of the three highest scores ever recorded on an IQ test developed by an
Organization known as the Huffman Research Group with Guinness saying Erin Erie's results on the test represented a quote
performance at the level of 1 in 10 million
That's not even the craziest claim about Renier intelligence according to some news outlets
Ranieri has even told Maxine's he doesn't drive because his intellectual energy sets off radar detectors
I'm just gonna let you live with that claim for a second one of the main points here
Is that over the years when area has used this self-proclaimed?
Superior intellect to promote companies that he has created and this includes a company that he formed in the early
1990s called consumers byline and actually on that note if you really want to understand how nexium works
it's worth taking a deeper dive into consumers byline consumers by line or CPI for short was a company based entirely on memberships where people
would join at a cost of
$219 a year and that membership fee gave people access to buying groups in these buying groups bought goods like electronics and household appliances in
bulk and members could then get the goods from their groups for discounted prices and just like nexium members could also move up and make
More money if they brought in new members now remember how an axiom sounded like a pyramid scheme
Well, it turns out the consumers byline was also a pyramid scheme. Here's a 1992 news report on the company
I'll follow up tonight on consumers byline
We first told you about consumers byline last May when the company was accused of being an illegal pyramid scheme that uses
unfair sales practices to sign up new members on Saturday night more than
200 main consumers byline members packed into this Biddeford theater all looking to meet the man behind the company president Keith Ranieri
But Ranieri did not show up and some say as a result the meeting got nasty so far
The company is facing four state investigations and several state lawsuits as a result of one of those lawsuits
Consumers by line will no longer sell memberships in the state of Arkansas here in Maine the Androscoggin County District Attorney has demanded
CBI return all of the money sent in or drafted out of members bank accounts da
Janet Mills says she considers the activities of consumers byline to be illegal and a few years after that report
The company was forced to shut down as CBI was investigated as a pyramid scheme by several state's attorneys general
but shortly after CBI closed Ranieri created another company called ESP and that of course as we said became part of Nexium
But how did nexium go from a weird self-help group slash pyramid scheme to full-blown sex cult investigated by the FBI
well that has to do with a secret society that's formed within nexium in the past few years and changes and rhaenyra's teaching the
2003 Ranieri started running his class and workshops at a compound outside, Albany, New York
and that's where an Erie reportedly started teaching his followers about the difference between men and
Women Ranieri claimed that men and women were innately wired differently men
He claimed were oppressed and unable to enjoy the same rich experience of existence as women saying they also have a better inherent understanding of
Right and wrong while women he said were more often disloyal and have Tantrums that allow them to get away with whatever they want
And in fact in his video Ranieri talked with Allison Mac about how men and women are not equal
I don't believe in equality
it would be awful to say that men are or women are equal and it would be horrible in the world if
We were equal we would be so far behind
men
Desperately need women and women desperately need men
They need the differences Ranieri also started teaching something called the primitive
hypothesis, basically
it's the idea that men are naturally promiscuous and women are naturally monogamous and it's this important idea that became the center of
Nexium secret society and in 2015 reportedly that secret society began to form within nexium and it's been called both the val or do
stos
Standing for dominus obsequiously Orion which in broken Latin loosely translates to Lord slash master of the obedient female
companions according to ex members and just like nexium and CBI before it d OS was structured like a
pyramid
But this pyramid was made up of levels of slaves and masters
linearity was the only male member of the group and he made up the top of the pyramid as the highest master women in the
Group were referred to as slaves
So women could also move up and become masters themselves if they recruited more slaves and while recruiting a new do s member masters made?
slaves provide them with something they called collateral and this collateral is usually something like incriminating photos videos or
damning confessions about a recruit or her family and so if do s slaves left the group spoke publicly about their involvement or failed do
s
obligations their collateral would be released and these women who were targeted for do s recruitment were often going through a difficult time in their
Lives or they were one who wanted desperately to move up inside nexium masters would tell these potential slaves that the secret group would be
a special chance for them to improve their lives in a select group and
Unlike we're doing now in recruiting women to join the u.s
Members avoided using the words master and slave instead more often masters told potential members that the OS was a quote women's mentorship
program and if someone was hesitant to join the group
They were told that the hesitation was due to their inherent in weakness
Once in the group do s slaves were forced to serve their masters in various acts of care OHS acts of care included running errands
For their masters cleaning their homes bringing them coffee
Preparing their food and reportedly slaves who failed to complete these acts of care risk their collateral being released
Additionally the women of the u.s
Reportedly were forced to perform
uncomfortable acts of self-denial like taking I see showers and standing for an hour at 4:00 in the morning slaves were also given
Assignments, which included reviewing densely written articles about ESP and other Nexian programs
One day OS member said she was forced to stay awake for 23 hours straight to review 95
articles another assignment included participating in readiness drills which consisted of having every person respond to a text message of any given time day or
night there also threatened with being placed in cages if they failed the drill with these readiness drills and other
assignments that often resulted in slaves suffering from severe sleep deprivation and if that wasn't bad enough
reportedly other
assignments included slaves being forced to have sex with Ranieri reportedly masters who directed their slaves to have sex with Ranieri were rewarded with an
increased status inside the OS I'm also reportedly getting special financial benefits slaves were also forced to pose for nude photographs including
Close-up pictures of their vaginas which were given to Ranieri also some of the assignments were designed at groomed EOS women to become sex slaves
for Ranieri
For example women were forced to starve themselves on extremely low calorie diets to stay thin because we're nearly allegedly preferred very thin women women
who didn't comply with these rules could also be brutally punished Ranieri allegedly physically assaulted at least two intimate partners also forcing another member into
Eighteen months of confinement after she expressed romantic feelings for someone else and on top of all of that Ranieri preached something even more
Disgusting he told his followers that age of consent was too rigid
Arguing that it should be lowered to one a child's parent says the child is capable of consent. And so
Unsurprisingly federal prosecutors have accused or an area of having sex with multiple
Underage children one of which was reportedly as young as 12 years old
also
We should talk about the branding the OS slaves were forced to participate in a branding ritual women were stripped naked
Blindfolded and then brought into a room together women who did not know they were going to be branded
Beforehand some thought they were going to be getting matching tattoos
But once they were inside the room masters would order one slave to fill while all the other slaves in the OS members held down
the slave that was being branded and these women were branded with a
Cauterizing pen and each brand reportedly took between 20 to 30 minutes and these videos of the branding ceremonies were also used as even more
Collateral as far as the brands themselves the the women were told that these would represent the four elements
but the brand was actually Keith Rooney reason itial linear e-even allegedly admitting this to a woman in the US and said that the brand
Was a form of tribute
but all these horrible
Alleged crimes do s members were involved and seemed to have come to an end that appears to me because Ranieri was arrested in March
After fleeing to a nexium chapter in Mexico and Ranieri along with Allison
Mac has been charged with sex trafficking sex trafficking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit forced labor
And as far as nexium is concerned they have suspended all
operations and planned events after his arrest Ranieri released a statement on next semes website where he tried to distance himself from d OS saying,
Quote I feel it is important to clarify
The sorority is not part of Nexium and that I am not associated with the group
I firmly support one's right to freedom of expression
so what the sorority or any other social group chooses to do is not our business so long as there is no abuse but
Here's the thing about that denial though. The FBI says they have proved that that is a lie
The FBI has publicly released the complaint an affidavit in support of Keith retirees arrest warrant
and in that document the FBI says that they gained access to messages Ranieri sent through a yahoo email account and whatsapp and those messages
according to the documents support the conclusion that Ranieri
Created the OS the emails also show the Ranieri had direct knowledge about collateral collected from slaves the FBI even
detailing some collateral that was collected from a slave in late 2015 that slave is referred to as
Cc1 by the FBI and that complaint reads this collateral was described as one a letter regarding CC one's mother and father that would destroy
Their character to a contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by CC one two
Ranieri of CC one broke her commitment to Ranieri three contract the transferred ownership of CC one's home
If commitment to Ranieri was broken and for a letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to CC one's nephew also
There was another whatsapp chat showing the Ranieri directly asked a master to recruit a sex slave for it
But with all of this collateral, I mean, it's just blackmail in my eyes. You might ask Kyle
How did the cult leaders like Ranieri and Allison Mac finally get charged for doing these horrible things?
Well last year a former member an actress named Sarah
Edmondson spoke with media outlets like the New York Times and vice about the group's branding process Sarah even allowing these outlets to take photographs
Of her brand but they're also describing the branding ritual - ABC News Nightline the woman on the table
screamed out in pain, you know twisted and turn and yelled and
The woman I was with holding her legs down
We looked at each other and we just wept why did she let go and run out of there even naked?
It didn't seem like a choice at the time. Imagine a hot
laser
dragged across her flesh for 30 minutes without
anesthetic and after Sarah shared her experiences nexium started getting more and more media coverage the FBI then began an investigation into the group that
Investigation, of course, then led to charges being brought against Ranieri as well
as for other members some of those being Claire Bronfman who's one of the Seagram Eris's and Alison Mann as far as why you're gonna
Be hearing about this more and more is that right? Now the trial is scheduled to start on March 18, and ultimately that is a
That's a story. Obviously, we're gonna be paying attention once this trial starts, but now you got a head start on everyone else
Oh my god, the world is a scary place, of course like with everything we cover on this channel
I do want to pass the question off to you
What are your thoughts around this situation any and all I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below?
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Thank you for watching and I'll see you later today on today's brand new philip defranco show