Wednesday, October 03, 2007

NXIVM aka Executive Success Programs ‘cult’ references and controversial Clinton connections

The controversial “training” group known as NXIVM, formerly known as Executive Success Programs (ESP), has been getting a lot of coverage in the press lately related to financial ties to various New York State politicians. Increasingly, headlines in the press and media have referred to the group as a ‘cult’, and cult expert Rick Ross, in a 2003 article, compared the NXIVM teachings to: “an amalgamated version of belief systems like Scientology, EST and Landmark Education.”

Here are some of the more recent media and press articles, from September and October 2007 :

Political connections take to the air, September 14, 2007 - Albany Times Union reports on mysterious flights funded by NXIVM for New York State Republican party members.

HILLARY’S $30000 FANS ARE HER ‘CULT’ FOLLOWING, October 1, 2007 - New York Post - “A purported pyramid-scheme operator who was run out of Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor has reinvented himself as the head of an upstate group accused of being a “cult” - and his devotees have pumped thousands into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential run.”

NXIVM’S VEXING EFFECT ON BELIEVERS, October 1, 2007 - New York Post - “Keith Raniere, leader of an Albany-based organization called NXIVM (pronounced nex-e-um), has built a lucrative empire with his Executive Success Programs. NXIVM, run by Raniere, 47, and President Nancy Salzman, a 52-year-old registered nurse, claims to pull in at least $4 million a year. Big-name devotees like Seagram heiresses Clare and Sara Bronfman back Raniere - and “The Family,” as insiders call the group - despite his checkered past."

BILL GOLF PAL’S ‘CULT’ COURSE, October 2, 2007 - New York Post - “A longtime friend and golfing buddy of Bill Clinton’s is a student of the controversial cult-like upstate group whose members recently poured thousands into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign coffers, The Post has learned. Richard Mays - an Arkansas lawyer who was one of Bill Clinton’s biggest presidential campaign fund-raisers - is listed on the class roster of NXIVM, the bizarre Albany-based group.”

Tax Hike to End the War?, October 2, 2007 - FOX News - “Federal records indicate Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has received about $30,000 from devotees of a man who was run out of Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor after being accused of operating a $30 million pyramid scheme.”

TOP GOPERS ‘CULT’ FAVORITES, October 3, 2007 - New York Post - “Disgraced GOP operative Roger Stone acted as a middleman between a cult-like upstate group and powerful Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, The Post has learned. Stone was hired by Albany-based executive-training group NXIVM in early 2006, according to sources.”

Spitzer’s Loudmouth Rhetoric: Not Loudmouth-y Enough?, October 3, 2007 - Daily Intelligencer, New York Magazine - “The governor, who called his detractors “fearmongers” and “demagogues” at Fordham, can now add “evil cultists” to the mix: Today’s Post coughs up a cryptic item about Roger Stone, the GOP operative accused of making threatening phone calls to Spitzer’s family. Stone was allegedly a liaison between Joe Bruno and NXIVM, a secretive, cultlike “executive training group.” Oooh!”

All About NXIVM, the Cultlike Organization With Ties to Albany, October 4, 2007, Daily Intelligencer, New York Magazine - The headline says it all in this one. Great article, this controversial group is really getting some good exposure from investigative journalists.

More NXIVM / Executive Success Programs updates at Cult News, and also at The Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements.

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