NXIVM lawsuit.
In the second amended complaint, an allegation is made concerning plaintiff Maja Miljkovic.
Maja is one of 44 consumer fraud plaintiffs who claim they suffered financial and emotional harm and were placed “at risk of serious psychological injury” by taking NXIVM courses.
Maja’s complaint goes further. She alleges that the NXIVM defendants “forced” her to seduce a man and marry him.
If Maja’s allegations are true, she is a victim. There is another victim, the man who was seduced and tricked into marriage.
The defendants in the lawsuit are Keith Raniere, Nancy Salzman, Clare Bronfman, Allison Mack, Nicki Clyne, Karen Unterreiner, Kathy Russell, Lauren Salzman, Brandon Porter, Danielle Roberts, and Sara Bronfman.
The complaint does not state which defendants allegedly forced Maja to seduce and marry a man or how they forced her to do it.
Maja’s Complaint
The Complaint Alleges:
Defendants… took advantage of community members’ fears of failing and being separated from the community, pressuring them to enter into fraudulent marriages.
For example, when Maja Miljkovic found herself this exact circumstance, Defendants forced her to seduce a member of the NXIVM community and marry him so that she might obtain a green card.
In this way, Defendants supposedly “saved” her from having to leave the community, for which she would be forever indebted to the Defendants.
However, after a visit home, Maja Miljkovic realized how badly the marriage would complicate her life and, instead of filing an application for permanent resident status, ended the marriage and remained in her home country.”
In short, it is alleged that defendants:
- exploited Maja’s fears
- forced her to seduce a NXIVM member
- forced her to marry him to get a green card
- expected her to be thankful
Maja
- seduced the NXIVM member
- married the NXIVM member
- went back to ‘visit’ her “home country.”
- thought better of being married
- did not apply for a green card
- ended the marriage
Additional Facts
Maja’s “home country” is Canada. She lived in Vancouver, where she had been recruited into NXIVM in 2013, and took courses before coming to Albany in 2014.
She wanted to visit Albany to take more NXIVM courses and participate in several new projects Raniere created.
In early 2014, Maja entered the US on a visitor visa which permitted her to stay for six months. Maja was not a member of DOS. This occurred before DOS started. She did not give anyone collateral. She was not branded. She does not claim she had sex with Raniere or that she was anyone’s slave in NXIVM.
While in Albany, she took classes and participated in Ultima, a project Raniere was restarting with offshoot projects, including The Knife of Aristotle and Exo-Eso. Maja was reportedly on the founding development team for The Source, another Raniere project.
The complaint alleges that the NXIVM defendants tried to persuade her not to return to Vancouver and exploited her fears and vulnerabilities. It also alleges that “Defendants forced her to seduce a member of the NXIVM community”.
Forced to Seduce?
While in Albany, Maja attracted the attention of a NXIVM member. I will refer to him as John Doe since he is an alleged victim of seduction and fraudulent marriage.
John Doe told Frank Report he was attracted to Maja and asked her on a date. During the summer of 2014, they dated for two months.
Doe also told Frank Report that he did not believe Maja was “forced to seduce” him. He wanted to be intimate with her.
It has been said that classic seduction is when you make the seduced believe they are the seducer.
His denial of her forced seduction of him might be cognitive dissonance since no victim wants to think someone was forced to have sex with them.
No Collateral
The complaint does not allege Maja gave anyone collateral, the thing that turned seemingly voluntary acts by the women of DOS into sex trafficking and forced labor in the criminal trial of Keith Raniere.
Collateral made anything the DOS women did into a crime, even if they said they were happy since they feared the release of their collateral and had to pretend they were happy.
But Maja does not allege she gave collateral. Was there something else they had that made her claim she was forced to sleep with a man to trick him into marriage?
The lawsuit suggests her “fear of failing” and the desire not to be separated from the NXIVM community forced her to seduce and marry someone.
Forced to Marry?
John Doe said that when Maja’s visitor visa was about to expire, she declared she was going home to Vancouver.
Some of the defendants and others in NXIVM encouraged her to stay, make NXIVM her career, and continue learning and growing from the NXIVM techniques.
Doe wanted her to stay also, for, he said, he was “really into her” and dreamt she might be the right one for him.
The complaint says, “the defendants forced her to… marry him so that she might obtain a green card. In this way, Defendants supposedly ‘saved’ her from having to leave the community, for which she would be forever indebted to the Defendants.”
Doe claims she was not forced to marry him. He said he proposed to her, not vice versa, and he was sincere about marriage.
Where Did They Marry?
The complaint could be easily interpreted to suggest they got married in Albany.
The complaint reads, “after a visit home, Maja Miljkovic realized how badly the marriage would complicate her life and, instead of filing an application for permanent resident status, ended the marriage and remained in her home country.”
The complaint confused her leaving the US after her visitor visa expired to go to Vancouver as “a visit home.”
She did not get married to Doe in Albany and then visit home. When she left Albany, she was not married. She was not visiting home. She lived in Vancouver, some 3,000 miles from Albany, where the defendants lived.
Doe thought Maja loved him. He came to her, and they married in August 2014 in Vancouver.
Wedding Day Ended the Marriage
What happened on the day they married is something that may come out during the trial.
Whether Maja got married thinking she was under duress or thought she would use Doe to get a green card, or something else, she wed the man who traveled thousands of miles to marry her.
Whether Doe saw another side of Maja and he had to face the reality that she did not love him, or whether Maja decided to stop the deception and break free of the coercion of NXIVM, Doe said he knew that it was over on the day they married.
On a day that should be one of joy for bride and groom, as he expected it to be with his new wife, she made it clear to him that she considered the marriage a sham. They were not to live together, as husband and wife, for even a day.
He wanted an annulment. Annulments are usually challenging to obtain in British Columbia, except in cases where the marriage was forced or when one of the partners is unable or unwilling to have sex. Doe and Maja got divorced.
Is It Force?
As this civil case proceeds, it will be interesting to see evidence of how Maja was forced to seduce and marry Doe.
Was Doe, who was used in this scheme, a victim of NXIVM, Maja, or both?
Maja will likely be challenged on the legal standard of what a ‘reasonable person’ would do under the same circumstances.
In law, force usually means physical force, as in violence, or compelling someone to do something against their will by physical means. I am interested in learning how Maja’s actions with Doe were “forced.”
Finally, I am curious how Clare and Sara Bronfman will be held responsible. Did either work with Maja, or is it based on the overarching theory underpinning the entire case: i.e., the Bronfmans’ money was the root of all evil in NXIVM because they funded it — and NXIVM would have been nothing without their money?
[…] story, Canadian Alleges She Was Forced to Seduce, Marry NXIVM Man But He Says It’s Untrue, prompted an anonymous commenter to accuse me of bias. The story is about Maja Miljkovic and the man […]
The Vanguard wanna-be cultist was convicted on charges including racketeering, conspiracy, forced labor, sex trafficking and obstruction of justice.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lawrence-ray-sarah-lawrence-dorm-dad-convicted_n_624df920e4b0981745098d30
Larry Ray found guilty on all charges of racketeering and sex – trafficking. Jury takes less than five hours to deliberate. Deja Vu?
https://mol.im/a/10693287
It would be very very unusual here in the UK to say the defendants did XYZX eg forced the marriage.
If that was put in a pleading the other side would make a formal request for further and better particulars asking exactly which people that was (as unless you have the full details and name of the people you cannot even begin properly to defend a case).
However US law may be different I suppose. If the formal request were not granted you would have a separate hearing before a judge to require the further and better particulars to be produced.
Question for the female readers of the Frank Report. If you saw someone like let’s say, Marc Elliot, on Tinder, would you swipe right or left? Asking for a friend.
I think Marc Elliot is kinda hot.
I hate to say it, but I think that Marc Elliot is kinda hot too. He is also kind of a tool. I would totally hate-fuck him though.
Tell your friend I would throw my cell into the river
Natashka-
To answer that question….
…..That’s what you popup out of the woodwork for?
Too funny! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
NG LOL. As a female reader, I thought it very important to address such a vital question and good timing to let you know I was still breathing
It’s incredibly important! LOL
Have a great weekend!
Ice-Nine,
It’s obvious by your interest
Marc Elliot’s looks — you have a thing for Maya.
I posted the link to her present beau. Take a long look at the tool bag she’s with….Trust me, she’s in your league.
***
BTW: Great detective skills! 😉
Nice Guy- is she still dating him? I followed your posted picture trail and all the photos seem to be a out 2017. Also he apparently was on the same Battlestar tv show as Nicki Clyne. Odd Coincidence?
Sounds like Ice-Nine wants to take the bus to “Poon Town”……
To the female readers of the Frank Report. If you really want to fuck a woman but she always says no, do you think if I force her to marry someone, let’s call this person “Marc”, to keep her around, that she might change her mind? Asking for a friend.
Does anyone remember all the people that stormed Moira Penza’s office that one time? There was Suneel, Nicki, Eduardo, Michele, and that one other guy but I forget his name.
This reminds me of a guy I know named “Larc Melliot”. He too was seduced by a super hot woman but it turned out she was forced to do it. Some asshole coincidentally named keith made her do it because he wanted to keep her around and fuck her, but it turns out she has standards.
Is there anything worse than trying to out a victim?
Did I out a victim? I have not mentioned anyone that considers himself a victim of anything, and that is due to your reporting. The person I have mentioned has gone to great lengths to shame hundreds of actual victims of Keith Raniere by denying that he did anything wrong and deserves to be free.
If Keith Raniere has done nothing wrong, as Marc and the loyalists allege, then by virtue of his own argument, it is simply not possible that he was a victim of anything either. So no, there is no outing of any victims here because no crime has been committed, according to him. Also, Frank, there are no ultimate victims, you know that.
Plus, somebody else already mentioned his name before me.
– I didn’t think Larc was a victim. Doesn’t he see himself as having the game of Neil Strauss and the bulletproof ideals of a good SOP boy?
– If we are looking to protect victims from being outed, not sure this article was a good idea. Seems like the girl has a better claim to the victim label than Melliot.
🔼🔼 Gold! 🔼🔼
Quotation from:
Seduced: Ep. 2 “Indoctrinated”
[… ]
We cut to Nxivm member Marc Elliot who says no one in his life has ever taught him how to relate to women. SOP is “the Harvard” of being taught how to do that. Oh, Marc. No, honey. We cut to Dr. Steven Hassan who says that radicalization and cult indoctrination fosters obedience as it reprograms one’s beliefs. I say radicalization is scary shit because of how easily it can happen. I mean, look at the Q-Anon movement that has spread online.
[…]
https://recapulet.com/2021/01/06/seduced-ep-2-indoctrinated/
Women are human
One relates to them…As humans!
That will be $20,000.00
You can also pay $150.00 a month for me to text you reminders. Women = fellow members of the human species.
Women are people. They are fellow humans. You treat them how you would like to be treated.
Please sign up for Zness. It is a course where we will explore how to relate to zombies. It is only $30,000 for the first 5 day intensive.
It will change your life!
Wow, that sounds exciting, there will be a 15 retreat too.
Any news on Marc Elliott Slapp motion with Lions Gate case?
Why did you mention Marc Elliot’s name at a time like this? Frank, let’s keep things on topic please.
I saw what you did, there… 👀😁
It is obvious to me. A beautiful woman enters the scene and Keith wants her. He unleashes his wolf pack and they begin to pressure her to come live in Albany: an essential step for Keith’s plans with her. The fact that she’s coached by Keith himself tells you all you need to know about his interest in her. It wouldn’t surprise me if he would’ve vetoed her having sex after marriage as he had done with Sylvie years before.
It must have been a huge disappointment for Keith that she came to her senses shortly after her marriage and cut ties with NXIVM completely. Unbeknownst to him then, there were many more disappointments yet to come for Vanguard.
Too hot for Frank Report:
https://images.app.goo.gl/G1ZWf3JfcwxoVd1y6
If that was her husband — she’s entitled to some money!
Too hot for Frank Report:
https://images.app.goo.gl/G1ZWf3JfcwxoVd1y6
This strikes me as grossly unfair to Miljkovic and frankly pro-Nxivm.
The facts of this case are laid out in chapter 19 of journalist Sara Berman’s book Don’t Call It A Cult. The “john doe” is therein named, so it seems bizarre for the Frank Report to endeavor to conceal his identity. He is Nxivm loyalist and steadfast Raniere defender [John Doe]. [Doe’s] version of events is misleading at best.
Miljkovic was lured into Nxivm, like so many others were, by a close friend she trusted. There were several fellow Vancouver actors talking it up and urging her on (group pressure). Edmondson, an ace Nxivm recruiter who ran the Vancouver Nxivm chapter, knew which buttons to push.
This was at the time that Nxivm was aggressively expanding, and establishing an acting program was one part of this. Mobius morphed into Ultima then The Source. Miljkovic was enthusiastic.
The manipulation had already begun. This was a cult after all. Mobius required MAKING A VOW. This was, in their rhetoric, to commit publicly and “get some peer accountability going”.
Does the vow sound familiar? Yeah. The other name for DOS was The Vow.
Enforced commitment. And punishment for failure.
Quote: “At the end of ‘Human Pain’ [!] another intensive that often followed Möbius, students would form a ‘penance group’ where FAILURES WOULD BE PUNISHED WITH COLD SHOWERS [my emphasis] …DOS wouldn’t be created for another two years but some of the elements that would define it were already taking shape.”
This was the environment Miljkovic was suckered into and by now deeply committed financially. Oh and btw she was also living with master manipulators and Nxivm recruiters Allison Mack and Mark Vicente in the cult compound.
As for the arranged marriage to [John Doe], a visa fraud like so many others Clare Bronfman arranged, I already quoted Berman’s book in my last post. The facts appear at odds with Nxivm loyalist “John Doe’s” tale. I’ll be charitable and suggest perhaps he misremembers.
So was Maja Miljkovic “forced”? She was certainly pressured. Coerced. Manipulated. Subjected to punishments. She was immersed in a cult, isolated, surrounded by people expert and well-practiced in psychological tricks and utterly devoted to their criminal enterprise.
All this time, Miljkovic was being groomed by Raniere. The kissing on the lips and the pelvis grind “hugs” were normalized by everyone. As was the blatant misogyny everywhere from the courses to the volleyball games. Miljkovic was subject to the standard cult indoctrination full-time.
Maybe some people think that’s okay. That she and others weren’t being grossly misused and have no right to sue these criminals. I hold a different opinion.
Here’s an example of how the Nxivm cult manipulation worked.
Quote: “Miljkovic said she’d love to be part of it [Ultima] but she had to go back to Canada.
‘Keith was like “Why? Why don’t you want to stay?”’ she recalls.
Raniere wouldn’t let her say no. He was pulling out the ‘specify, isolate, overcome’ routine.
‘What would you need to stay?’ he asked. ‘Money, a visa, a house — what if we could get you all of that?’”
Miljkovic compares Raniere to a Mafia don, holding state at the Apropos clubhouse, everyone around her worshiping the man. She found him creepy.
She resisted. She pushed back at the misogyny at the volleyball games. “A cartoonish performance of masculinity and femininity”. Raniere wasn’t even very good at the game, she recalls. He insisted on coaching her. “His coaching felt like being publicly berated, which made her fume in silence. “I was like, Fuck that. You missed half your own shots, buddy.”
Suffice it to say that she was unimpressed with Vanguard Raniere.
I like Miljkovic. She’s got the right stuff. Sure, she was a fool for ever joining Nxivm but she was lured in, trapped, manipulated and exploited. Fraud, sexual harassment, and peonage are clearly evident. She never completely fell for it and she didn’t abuse others the way the Salzmans or Mack did. Or the way Vicente and India did for that matter.
Miljkovic is a victim of Nxivm but they never broke her spirit or her integrity. She represents one of the good ones, and there are many in this case. I hope she’s awarded a million bucks.
As for redacting the name, I am doing that tongue in cheek. There has been quite a debate on whether or when people should have their names redacted. Being humiliated is one of the reasons. I will have more to say on this.
Well said Agree A.S.
So…”He wanted an annulment” the guy who said it wasn’t a sham? Fishy.
John Doe’s description of his feelings toward his “wife” does not ring true. Not do his feelings about the dissolution of the marriage seem real.
Like most Nxivm immigration fraud marriages you have a group of people who notoriously post on social media about everything. But the weddings are very clinical and low-key affairs. When they are fake. They usually do not include much or any family. Or outside friends. There are also other “tells”.
Her story rings true. His story does not. She’s also admitting to a crime.
Keith loved breaking down the concept of marriage and getting his followers to commit crimes that he could use to further ensnare them.
So happy that she escaped this cult!
Thanks, Pal
My BS radar is going off on this one. Cannot pinpoint why. I know she is going the Mack/Clyne route so there is precedent of NXIVM using green card marriages to keep people in the flock. Still it’s strange, especially once you add that hint of sex to it. It’s easy enough to marry for a green card and pretend to be together without sex but this story indicates the whole thing was expected to be a “real” marriage in all ways.,
I can connect the dots to Keith. He is a narcissist (and sociopath). Everything is through the prism of “me, myself, and I”. Assuming the post pics are accurate, she is very attractive and exactly Keith’s type. He would want her around for himself and eventually in DOS. Hitting on a green card marriage, especially since it worked for Clyne, would be a solution to use again and again.
Keith isn’t the money so the real question becomes – how do the Bronfmans play into this? Can Maja connect the forced marriage to them in some way? Did they order it, demand it, pay for it, etc.? Outside looking in, I do not see why they would have any interest in who this woman married or if she stayed in the cult. As for your DOS/other plaintiffs members like Clyne, etc., maybe? Seems like a reach but their core purpose was devotion to Keith so there is possibility of participation there if he ordered it to be done.
Hopefully, she has more to back this up besides just her spoken story (emails, receipts, etc.). I already see the defense asking questions like “Did the Bronfmans ever discuss the marriage with you?”, “Have you ever met the Bronfmans?”, “Did you tell them of your need for a green card?”. Regardless, it adds to the overall tapestry of NXIVM on trial and a pattern of behavior by Keith. However, if it doesn’t directly implicate the Bronfmans and other defendants, then it may not help get that pay day. More dots connecting them to paying, encouraging, designing, enforcing, etc. of NXIVM behavior like this, the better for the plaintiffs’ case.
Given that Clare Bronfman is in prison for immigration fraud conspiracy, a crime that she pleaded guilty to, Miljkovic’s account should seem believable enough to the jury. Clare was well known in the Nxivm community for “fixing” these visa problems, as others will no doubt attest.
Clare was pretty hands-on around Nxivm. Quoting again Sara Berman’s book Don’t Call It A Cult:
“Miljkovic remembers one evening when, at an Apropos community night… Clare Bronfman came to get her and bring her to Raniere.
‘Keith would like to talk to you,’ Bronfman told her”. Clare was pimping for Raniere
Miljkovic then goes on to describe Raniere’s specific grooming techniques, his “mirroring” and his public inappropriate touching. He would touch a woman’s breasts or crotch and if she objected that would be turned around on her, that she was at fault for not accepting his touch, and everyone present would of course agree.
Clare Bronfman wasn’t some distant entity, writing checks far from the cult compound in Albany. She spent time there and she knew what was going on. She had plenty of time to observe Raniere in action. She knew and supported his methods. She knew about and participated in Nxivm’s criminal activities. That’s why she’s currently in prison.
This is hilarious. Out of fear of missing out, I was FORCED to read this article, Frank. You made it so compelling that I simply couldn’t not read it. I’m suing you for lost wages, because now I’m late for work! The logic of these plaintiffs is so easy to see through. They seem like a bunch of Gen Z snowflakes who don’t want to take any responsibility for their lives.
There’s a a category difference between taking responsibility and trusting someone and being lied to/and or deceived.
Keith often spoke of things being a matter of trust. In fact, he relied on it. It’s in the RARB thread when he offers Deke Sharon the opportunity to spend a day with him to effectively get over his trust “issues”. Deke smartly refuses, because he finds Keith untrustworthy. Others who delved deep into the cult took a chance because they trusted someone they knew even if they weren’t sure about others. And that’s when the hooks of the cult and Keith were engaged.
This is the stupidity of the remaining cult members who play on this idea of people taking responsibility for their choices. They want to deflect from the fact that every relationship chain takes a matter of trust and put all of the responsibility on those who decide to take that leap of faith. But this is a false dichotomy, because that choice is fundamentally and implicitly rooted on the assumption that they will not be lied to or deceived. Regardless, that they were responsible for that choice has absolutely bearing on the actions of the other and certainly doesn’t abnegate the latter’s bad intent, fraud, deception, or whatever else is exposed later.
Hey, Frank, why don’t you tell us the name of the Nxivm dude ?
Guys don’t need to be protected like chicks do. So, a guy gets seduced by a hottie like this chick, and she is fooling him so what? At least he got to do her.
Wish she’d seduce me.
The dude should know “let the buyer beware.” I bet he thought he was seducing her.
But tell us his name. Only women are legally allowed to have first name protection.
Marc Elliott
Hahaha “wish she’d seduce me” love it thanks Jeff
I don’t know if I have all my facts straight but is it actually a law that only women can have their last names kept from being mentioned? I heard it was true and it makes sense to me. Women need protection.
Johnson Valois
April 5, 2022 at 4:23 pm
I don’t know if I have all my facts straight but is it actually a law that only women can have their last names kept from being mentioned? I heard it was true and it makes sense to me. Women need protection.
Not true.
Males or females who are victims of sex abuse may have their names redacted.
But with the new Harvard-educated Supreme Court Justice Jackson, who is not a biologist, sometimes judges are unable to distinguish between males and females
The Maja story is interesting and leans into coercive control. I would like to know more specifics about.