She testified in the trial of Keith Raniere, identified only as Sylvie. She was the first witness to testify.
Now she appears on a podcast revealing her last name.
The podcast The Truthiest Life features Surviving a Sex Cult ft. Sylvie Lloyd (Part 1), a 45-minute audio recording of Sylvie explaining her experiences in NXIVM and DOS.
The description of the podcast is as follows:
“In this first part of Surviving a Sex Cult ft. Sylvie Lloyd, we learn about the ‘cult’ called NXIUM: how Sylvie got involved, her first introduction to Keith, and how her reality was warped by his ‘teachings.’ Sylvie was the first witness to testify against Keith: she shares the humiliating story behind the trial and why she’s stayed away from the media since. She also shares why she’s sharing her story with us and has a message for all victims.
“Content Warning: Sexual Abuse
“Sylvie Lloyd is now a mother to a beautiful baby girl. From ages 18-32, she was a member of NXIUM + DOS, described as ‘an American cult that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering.’ Her brain was molded by the teachings of the convicted Keith Raniere, and she was the first witness in the federal case. She is a powerful woman we can expect A LOT from in our lifetime.”
Sylvie, a member of NXIVM for 13 years, starting in or around 2004. She was a protege of Clare Bronfman. They had met through a mutual friend in England.
She quit in 2017 after Frank Report revealed the existence of DOS and branding of its members with Keith Raniere’s initials.
Sylvie testified that she was “freaked out” when she first read about the branding in Frank Report, which is understandable. She was to be branded in a few days.
The revelations about DOS in the Frank Report halted the branding and Sylvie avoided the fate of having Keith Raniere’s initials scarred on her pubis.
During her years with NXIVM, Sylvie rose to the rank of yellow sash [coach] with three stripes.
*****
From her testimony at the trial of Raniere, we heard her story.
When she met Keith, her impression was that he was shorter than expected, not nearly as impressive as he had been described.
Sylvie first came to the U.S from England on a tourist visa, though she had been hired to work for Clare Bronfman at her horse farm in Duanesburg, NY.
After her visa ran out, Sylvie went home and then returned on a J-1 visa, arranged by Clare, based on her declaring that Clare would train her in horseback riding.
Sylvie moved from England to live with Clare, who at the time only “had a room in a house in Clifton Park”. While living with Clare, Sylvie slept on the floor in Clare’s bedroom, she testified.
Shortly after Sylvie arrived, Clare decided to abandon her riding career.
When her J-1 visa ran out, Sylvie returned home and pursued a career in finance with Goldman Sachs. She also became a long-distance runner, joining the Serpentine Running Club in London.
Clare wanted Sylvie back. What convinced Sylvie to return was the promise that Keith would be her running coach – and prepare her to represent England in the Olympics.
While training her, Keith mentioned that if they were to have a sexual relationship, they would first have to become “really good friends.”
Sylvie did not pursue Raniere’s hint because, she said, he was an “authority (figure and an) older man.”
As part of her training, Raniere instructed Sylvie to take the Jness module. She did.
Clare’s suggested she take a Society of Protectors course. She refused. To help her understand her negative reaction to taking courses Raniere and Bronfman were certain would help, they instructed Sylvie to participate in an Exploration of Meaning (EM) sessions with Dani Padilla, one of Raniere’s harem.
Sylvie was convinced to take the SOP training, which she described as an exercise in humiliating women.
Under Keith’s coaching, Sylvie was instructed to train for six hours daily and run as much of that time at 12 miles per hour.
Sylvie submitted daily reports of her training, weight, and other information to Keith and Clare.
Sadly, Sylvie’s training sessions were generally deemed a failure by Keith, especially since she was not achieving the weight loss he required.
The remedy was EMs, with Dani Padilla, Karen Unterreiner, Siobahn Hotaling, or Lauren Salzman.
Eventually, Sylvie developed a massive abscess that required surgery.
Despite her doctor’s orders, Sylvie continued to follow Keith’s training schedule while she was recovering from the surgery.
*****
As a result of her association with NXIVM, she met her future husband, John Fox, a NXIVM member. They were both employed at the Knife of Aristotle, Raniere’s media analysis company.
One day Sylvie told Keith about her plans to marry John and get her “green card.”
Raniere permitted the marriage but instructed her that she must have a platonic relationship with John for the first two years of marriage. Then, stroking her arm, Raniere said it was too bad she was getting married because she and him “could have had fun together.”
John and Sylvie wed with that agreement.
The wedding took place on July 7th, 2015. Clare reminded the bride that she was not to have sex with her husband for at least two years.
Around that time, Sylvie became a member of DOS. First Line Master, Monica Duran, invited her.
Sylvie provided, as all DOS women were required, “collateral.”
Hers was a letter to her parents. She falsely wrote that she became a prostitute in the U.S.
Inside the envelope with the letter was a full-frontal naked picture of her.
She understood it would be sent to her parents if she disclosed the existence of DOS.
After becoming a DOS slave, Monica commanded Sylvie to provide collateral monthly and that each new collateral must be more damning than the previous.
In time, Monica gave Sylvie her first assignment: to seduce Keith Raniere.
It started with naked pictures – including close-up shots of her vagina, sent from her phone to Raniere furtively from her bathroom.
That continued for several months. Her father, with whom she shared an iCloud account, saw the photos.
To let his daughter know that her photos were on ICloud, he discreetly mentioned her “medical pictures.”
A humiliated Sylvie told Monica and Keith that she would not be sending any more naked pictures.
Monica commanded Sylvie to meet Keith in person.
Sylvie met Keith, probably at his executive library at 8 Hale Drive, which had a loft bed and hot tub. Sylvie and John were living next door at 9 Hale.
Keith instructed Sylvie to pose naked and then told her to lie down on his bed.
“So, I laid back on the bed, and he, I guess you’d call it, went down on me,” Sylvie testified.
Despite the sexual encounter, Sylvie told Keith that she intended to remain loyal to her husband.
“No,” Raniere replied, “your ultimate commitment is to me. I am your grandmaster.”
In March 2018, Sylvie and John moved to England.
Sylvie’s Instagram account shows pictures of her husband and child, revealing that Sylvie and John endured and found there was life after NXIVM.
[…] she had been hired to work for Clare Bronfman at her horse farm in Duanesburg, NY.” read the entire article Lloyd, Sylvie. Frank Report 16 April 2022. […]
An inspiration to us all, she continues to show remarkable courage. We should all be so grateful to her for shining the most intense light on the cruel darkness of what was NXIVM / DOS; there is light at the end of the darkest of tunnels, and we should always remember that.
Viva Sylvie and family!
Alanzo doesn’t like to get pork’ed — cuz it ain’t kosher…..
…..He prefers the beef injection. Mmh!
She was only 18 and that was dreadful that he took her youth in a sense and possibly her career and sporting ambitions really all taken from her and luckily because she was married and because she is from here (UK), she had someone to escape in a sense to be free and, unlike some of the women, was still young enough to have children.
Clare has her friend come from England and has her sleep on the floor? Not even an air mattress from the millionaire? Sylvie finally leaves and then Clare lies and manipulates to bring her back for more abuse? Where’s the animal that kept demanding monthly collateral? Why isn’t Monica Duran being sued?
Brave woman who put humiliating information on the record to educate the public and prevent abusers like Keith Raniere from harming others again. I do not understand how Lauren Saltzman got off so easy when she was such a powerful, key player and manipulator in the lives of so many.
Sounds like she and her husband have moved forward together– happy they got out and far, far away from any memories of their time with Raniere.
Now compare this victim to Vicente– He should be ashamed to call himself a victim.
The podcast (part 1) is very interesting. Sylvie gives a very good description of the way she is sucked in into NXIVM and the stress she endured as being the first victim to testify at Raniere’s trial.
Everybody is talking about Agnifilio doing such a bad job as Raniere’s lawyer, but Sylvie has a story that shows how cunning he was when cross examining Sylvie. He circumvented the court’s mandatory discussion of admitting certain evidence (a naked photo of Sylvie) by introducing it as a way of identification of Sylvie right at the start of the cross examination. So here we have the judge, the lawyers of Rainiere, the government and Rainiere himself! (but not the jury) looking at Sylvie’s pussy on the screen before them and Agnifillio asking Sylvie if that is her pussy. Needless to say, this is very embarrassing for Sylvie and intentionally designed by Agnifilio to put Sylvie off balance for the rest of the cross examiniation. Very effective if despicable strategy by Agnifilio.
Also interesting is that Sylvie is talking about her relationship with Clare, but never once mentioning Clare by name.
Podcast part 2 (about DOS) airs this week.
Sylvia knew Clare better than anyone. Why isn’t she in the Glazer lawsuit?
An incredible story. I hope Sylvia and John have many happy returns.
The podcast with Sylvie is intense. That is a brave woman. So smart to take some time out of the public eye to build up her strength. The criminal trial sounds like it was excruciating for her. That such a private, gentle soul was made to publicly identify photograph after close-up photograph of her own vagina in court makes me ill.
Sylvie went through such agony physically and mentally with Nxivm. For years. She was so young too. It’s awful. She is a beautiful woman in all senses of the word. May her life, family and future be full of joy, health and blessings forevermore.
WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
🤘🏻 😝 🤘🏻
MY FUCKING NAME IS FUCKING JIM AND I LOOOOOOOOVE TALKING ABOUT HOW I MUCH I FUCKING HATE GODDAMN NIGGERS!!!!!!!!!! 😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜😜
I FUCKING HATE GODDAMN NIGGERS SOOOOOOO FUCKING MUCH!!!!!!!!
I HATE NIGGERS!!!!!!! I CANT STAND TO EVEN LOOK AT THISE GODDAMN BLACK DEVIL MONKEY NIGGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪
You see, I publish this to show that some racism is really mental illness. Maybe all racism is mental illness.
Frank-
You’ll print Jim’s racist stuff, but not, “Alanzo rates his farts based residual residue and moisture content”, and “Alanzo eats his own buggers.”
***
I don’t get it. It’s your website.
Racism is a FORM of mental illness. But not excusable nor quite like depression or anxiety which often have a physiological basis to them. Racism persists because it’s due to a failure to use your God given intellect (which makes it mental) to refuse to see (which makes it a kind of illness) the irrationality of it and persist in its ignorance.
Jim Bird(Scott Johnson),
I’m glad your “true colors” are coming out. How’s life in the fast lane?
I see why they put Sylvie on the witness stand. She makes a compelling, believable story. More importantly, unlike Maja, her story is consistent with what is known about Keith and how NXIVM operated.
Maja suggest she was going to be forced to marry a man she didn’t love and have sex with him on maybe the orders of Keith to benefit Keith and/or NXIVM in ways that are not specified. Sylvie indicates she was “allowed” to marry the man for a green card but ordered to not have sex. Why? Because Keith had designs on her that he later fulfilled with DOS. That fits what we know about Raniere to a tee with his primary concern being how does he benefit. He didn’t benefit from Maja’s story, he did with Sylvia’s.
Useful for the civil case, Sylva does a decent job of making connections to the Bronfman’s with the introductions to Keith, the job, helping with green card. None of it illegal but provides that connective tissue to behavior that follows. That connective tissue is weak on the DOS of it all but regardless there is something to work with. Maja does none of that, the Bronfman’s do not even seem to be background characters.
I think Glazer might have a credibility problem on his hands that he will need to suss out with his plaintiffs. Consistency will key to his overcoming the Edmondson defense. I believe Sylvie. I do not believe Maja (at least based on the limited information we have).
It’s good to know more about Sylvie and that she and her husband kept their family together. Remarkable in fact. Why did Clare live in one room with her sleeping on the floor? Didn’t Claire have a house on her farm? Wasn’t Clare embarrassed to have a friend of the family in such accommodations?
Bananas that she and her husband were forbidden to sleep together for 2 YEARS? Keith and Clare were quite the weirdos to insist on something so completely cray-cray. Thank God they’ve gone on with their lives and that they seem content.
I have never been able to understand why anyone would ever want to be in this cult to begin with? Honestly nothing that appealing about it. A short chubby fat dude who speaks in word salad living Upstate NY who needs a haircut and knows a handful of noteworthy people?
What if it is that REALLY all of the cast of NXIVM characters were all ACTUALLY just hangers on of Clare’s billions and her sometimes boyfriend who was psychopathic, into kink and always needed a bath.
It’s the only way to make sense of this story, that the love of money is the root of all evil. Sums up this saga well. Helluva a story Clare will have at the end of it all. I think the Bronfmans should be singing her praises too, her distant family and all of the fortunes made by bootleggers, no one talks about THAT anymore. Or the other one who trips their balls off somewhere in the desert. The whole lot of Bronfmans should at minimum each be sending her a thank you letter a day, even if the help are who actually make it happen. Even the hippy.
I hope she gets to camp cupcake soon, she should definitely write a book. I hope she does. THAT will be a STORY.
“I have never been able to understand why anyone would ever want to be in this cult to begin with. Honestly, there is nothing that appealing about it. A short chubby fat dude who speaks in word salad living in Upstate NY who needs a haircut and knows a handful of noteworthy people? What if it is that REALLY all of the cast of NXIVM characters were all ACTUALLY just hangers on of Clare’s billions and her sometimes boyfriend who was psychopathic, into kink and always needed a bath.”
I’m pretty much with you on this. I know most people started taking classes for self-improvement. Maybe they thought they were benefitting from the courses? A bunch probably stuck around for the “community”: i.e., an easy and almost guaranteed way to have friends…
Why did you start taking classes, Nutjob? Why did you fall for the con?
Are you ever going to be brave like Sylvia and not remain anonymous?
—I have never been able to understand why anyone would ever want to be in this cult to begin with?
NutJob asks himself the same question….
My guess is he saw an opportunity to get laid.