NXIVM Founder’s Six-Month Stay with Intersex Prisoner, Toni Fly, Ends Without Incident

Raniere's SHU "cellie" is Toni Fly, a transgender woman who was sentenced to prison for rape when she was a man.
Raniere's SHU "cellie" is Toni Fly, a transgender woman who was sentenced to prison for rape when she was a man.

Well, Keith Raniere proved it. He wouldn’t hurt a Fly – Toni Fly, that is.

William Anthony ‘Toni’ Fly, an “intersex” prisoner in federal custody, was Raniere’s cellmate in the Special Housing Unit of USP Tuscon since September.

The BOP has transferred Fly.

He left without making a single charge against Raniere, a departure for an inmate who lodged 75 allegations of sexual harassment against inmates and guards since becoming a federal inmate.

Fly, 54, is currently residing at Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center.

Fly won’t stay long in Oklahoma City – anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks. He is there to be processed and sent to his next prison assignment.

Raniere alleged in court filings that the BOP assigned Fly as his cellmate, hoping Fly would make a rape allegation against the former Vanguard of NXIVM, plunging Raniere into further difficulties with prison authorities.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has housed NXIVM's Keith Raniere in the USP-Tucson SHU with the troubled Toni Fly since August 15, 2022, without justification.

During the six months when the two men shared a 12 x 8 cell 23 per day, they seemed to have found a way to coexist. Documents filed in Raniere v Garland claim Fly had episodes of ranting, wailing, screaming, fits of anger, and severe withdrawal caused by the prison authorities withholding his transitioning medications. Still, he did not take it out on Raniere.

The two men went to bat for one another to verify an untoward, unappetizing, and malodorous episode arising from their removal from their SHU cell, so that guards could search it. Guards placed Fly and Raniere into cages in a cell where 19 streaks of feces were visible on the wall, in addition to two piles on the floor, and before which they were served lunch as prison officials, including psychologists, observed them.  

Raniere also went to bat for Fly, complaining that USP Tucson officials would not give Fly eyeglasses, which he needed—and deprived him of medications that caused him to act irrationally.

It is unknown what prison the BOP will assign Fly.

William Anthony ‘Toni’ Fly came into and went from Raniere’s life. FR may contact Fly to get his views on his six months in the SHU with Keith Raniere.

The BOP release date for Fly is September 8, 2025.

A word on gender: I grant you that some people may be offended that FR refers to Fly as “he” and not his preferred pronoun, “she.”

While Fly considers himself a woman, the charge that brought him to federal prison had everything to do with his conduct as a man.

Fly pleaded guilty in federal court in North Dakota to transporting a female victim across state lines for criminal sexual acts.

Mugshots of Toni Fly

More about Fly:

 

Click to access 2023-02-27-raniere-bop-2-fly-and-raniere-affidavit-Copy.pdf

Click to access fly-allegations-98.pdf

Click to access 2023-02-27-raniere-bop-2-fly-and-raniere-affidavit-Copy.pdf

 

 

About the author

Frank Parlato

38 Comments

Click here to post a comment

Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us! (Email & username are optional)

  • Fly is a man. And he certainly is not intersex. We need to live in reality as much as possible. Even if some may say we are rude for pointing out the emperor is naked.

  • Someone made an excellent point about Mr Fly turning into a woman after the fact. Another good point in this is that Fly didn’t accuse Raniere of rape, or vice versa.

  • Expounding on your word on gender: Pronouns are for the person speaking, not the person being spoken about. Therefore, no one can chose their ‘own’ pronouns, as they are not their own and never can be. Pronouns are your choice as speaker not the other way around. Ignore anyone trying to dictate your speech.

    • you could say the same thing about a person’s name. However, most of us give people the courtesy of calling them by their preferred name or preferred version of their name, for example, Elizabeth, Liz, Betty..etc. Thomas, Tom, Tommy, Frank, Frankie etc. if someone said, please don’t refer to me as Frankie, I don’t like that, decent people would respect it.

      It’s called being kind and, dare I say, respectful.

      Not that I think we need to worry about being kind to Tony Fly the child rapist.

      But to other folks, why not?

      • No, a person’s given name is different. It is a proper noun that is unique to that person and therefore, they may make preferences on its use. Pronouns are generic grammatical place-markers for use by a speaker. It is not a matter of respect or disrespect. It is merely about proper usage of language tools for clarity and efficiency. Demanding someone use ‘preferred pronouns’ destroys the use of a pronoun as an efficient language device.

  • Federal Bureau of Prisons

    WILLIAM ANTHONY FLY
    Register Number: 18658-023
    Age: 54
    Race: White
    Sex: Male
    Located at: Terre Haute USP
    Release Date: 09/08/2025

  • Toni Fly was safe while being locked up with Raniere. Raniere isn’t into, let’s say, Toni’s type. Word on the street was that Raniere couldn’t be a real man long before his DOS Days.

    Fly was in prison for raping his daughter for years. That kind of crime doesn’t go over well in prison. It might have something to do with why Toni suddenly became a woman.

    Deciding to “become a woman” (eye roll) could have saved Raniere from Fly. Who knows what taking hormone replacement does to someone’s sex drive when suddenly “switching over the other side”?

    When a man has a thirst for his child, has been a rapist, and is heading to prison, that is not someone who is transgender, IMO. That is someone taking advantage of the system and hoping to go to a women’s prison. That should never be allowed.

    Women prisoners have more to deal with in their own prison than sending someone like Toni Fly.

    In Raniere’s civil lawsuit, Raniere and Fly were snitching for each other on their complaints.

    Snitching is never a good thing to be while you’re in prison, but they buddy up on this.

    Staying in the SHU seems safe for the two of them. Fly never turned Raniere in for rape, and Raniere didn’t get a beat down while in the SHU. Instead, they backed up each other stories, and it worked for them.

    Raniere seems to have had plenty of contact with his criminal and civil attorneys during his time in the SHU. His civil case filings show Raniere has had plenty of contact with his attorneys.

    Raniere filed a second civil lawsuit, returned to the second circuit court after losing his appeal, and filed with the Supreme Court, all from the SHU.

    Raniere keeps complaining he doesn’t have enough access to his lawyers. So how has all this legal work gotten done?

    Raniere is complaining and cannot do it without the help of his power of attorney, his NXIVM loyalist Suneel Chakravorty AKA Isaac Edwards. Regardless things still get done without Chakravorty.

    • Raniere is an incessant complainer because he’s a narcissist. He needs attention like normal people need food or drink when they get hungry or thirsty and will seek it in any way that can satisfy the urge.

  • Fly deserves a lot of sympathy for being forced to share a cell with Raniere. That was indeed cruel and unusual punishment.

  • Thank you for calling him “he”. So sick of the bullshit of people who conveniently use sex change to manipulate the system.

    • #me2#me3#me100,000

      I read about an old lady who went to the YMCA her whole life and was booted out because she complained about a fully grown man who called himself a woman who was NAKED groping over little girls who were dressing in the women’s locker room.

      Rather than kick OUT the sick man who called himself a woman, they kicked the old lady out permanently.

      I am so tired of this transgender nonsense.

      There should be women, men and then transgender people.

      No one should hate on transgender people. It’s cool. No problem with ADULTS NOT CHILDREN who decide to go through a change, but do not tell a woman, who has been subjected to sexism, sexual harassment and a very different physical stamina that a MAN knows what any of that feels like to be a WOMAN! A little girls/woman s struggle in life is not the same struggle as what gender confused boy or man goes through.

      It just is not the same and it is not fair to throw it into the same category.

      The hormones women go through alone with their cycle. A transgender man can not understand.

      That doesn’t mean that transgender men can’t have empathy for biological women, and vs. vs. Of course women can feel tremendous compassion for a transgender people and feel empathy for their particular issues.

      But don’t just throw everyone together. It just is not fair.
      It’s not productive either. It doesn’t mean that we can’t all get along, it just means that we should not live in denial of what reality is.

      It’s like a major battle of sexes no one can talk about or it’s considered politically incorrect.

      Men can’t just zip up their noodle and then call themselves a woman.

      No. No. No.

      Women have fought very hard to get some civil rights and now men are going to just pop hormones, augment their this and that and demand that they are considered women?

      I have no problem befriending a transsexual human being. I can completely accept that that’s their choice and not judge their decisions and I can genuinely relate to them as a once was one gender, but now is a new gender.

      Just do not make me lie and say that person is not exactly what they are!! Don’t let men who turn into women compete in the same sport with biological women without acknowledging their obvious physical advantage.

      If we don’t want to make any sort of differentiation between sexes, races, age etc, just call everyone human beings.

      Stop bullying everyone by insisting that others live in an imaginary world where you can just identify as a unicorn and then -whoooooosh! Abracadabra 🦄 Youre a unicorn!

  • This is torture of Raniere by depriving him of human companionship! This could happen to anyone so it affects us all. This is a basic human rights issue.

    The Supreme Court must hear Keith’s case or it will lose all legitimacy.

    • It is not known if Raniere is alone or whether the prison provided him with a new cell mate. We shall endeavor to find out.

  • So another one one of Raniere’s accusations turned out to be pure bullshit. There never was any rape allegation against Raniere after all.

    In fact, the cellmate he loathed and complained about so much has been transferred out. I wonder if Raniere will say thank you?

    I wouldn’t hold my breath.

    The prisoner who punched him in the head got transferred out of Tucson too. Any word of gratitude from Raniere? No, I didn’t think so.

    I notice also that although he was screeching and hollering about some supposed plan to transfer him to a limited communications unit, Raniere hasn’t been moved. That was over a month ago. Looks like that claim was bullshit too. Can’t say I’m surprised.

    Soon, Raniere will run out of things to complain about. Oh what am I saying, of course he won’t! Back when he was philosopher king of Flintlock Lane, getting laid regular and having his shirts appear as if by magic, all he did was complain. My harem girls are too fat, my underage girlfriend doesn’t praise my dick enough, etc. etc.

    What Keith Raniere needs is a big, steaming mug of STFU.

    • Mr Sausage, isn’t it psychologically interesting to study a man who literally had it all and lost it due to lying 🤥. If I had one of Ranieres beautiful slaves, like Nikki I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else.

    • I have asked multiple times where Dick or Richard got his information that Reniere was being transferred and if he thought that he could be being played by Reniere and all the times I was met by silence so I am assuming whoever received this information got this from Reniere who spouts BS time and time again. More cult leader propaganda.

      • Yeah, every time Raniere has a beef or a complaint against “the system” it gets a big write up here and furious discussion. As if Raniere can be trusted as a source. As if his bullshit proves anything.

        Raniere claims he’s innocent just like every other criminal who got caught. He doesn’t like prison and thinks he doesn’t belong there, so what?

        People need to stop believing Raniere’s claims. They’ve all turned out bullshit. The man’s a professional liar.

        • I guess it’s his hail Mary desperation, he will say anything knowing Richard will publish it as fact. Got to hand it to Reniere for still being able to suck people in. He finds the weak spot and exploits. In this case hatred for the justice system.

About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” He also appeared in "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM, and was credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premieres on May 22, 2022.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

Archives