Nancy Salzman Not Residing in Pittsburgh But at Albany Halfway House

Artwork by MK10ART

The multi-level marketing life coaching company NXIVM and its key leaders have enjoyed substantial attention in the media, including articles, books, and documentaries.

But of late, there has been some misinformation about one of its ablest leaders, Nancy Salzman, 68, the co-founder and president of NXIVM.

Known as the Prefect for her high duties to her Vanguard, she dedicated herself to his security, welfare, and comfort.

She served her Vanguard like the ancient Prefects of Rome served their Emperor, being considered the governor of the people of NXIVM in Raniere’s stead.

The media accurately reported that the Federal Bureau of Prisons released the Prefect from FCI Hazelton, though they have not yet released her from their custody.

However, some in the media reported that Salzman, 68, is in Pittsburgh. It is easy to understand why they got it wrong, since that is where the BOP informed the public that Nancy is staying – at RRM Pittsburgh. 

But RRM Pittsburg is not a halfway house. It is one of 22 Residential Reentry Management (RRM) field offices for the BOP.

RRM Pittsburg handles the Judicial Districts of Northern New York, Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Northern West Virginia, and Southern West Virginia.

The fine folks who work there, along with the good folks at the other 21 RRM field offices across the nation, manage 14,426 federal offenders, including 5,758 in home confinement and 8,038 in residential reentry centers, better known as halfway houses.

Salzman is not staying at the BOP field office in Pittsburgh. 

She is in one of the halfway houses the field office oversees: the very halfway house Frank Report told our esteemed readers she would be at more than two weeks before she went – the Horizon House in the south end of Albany.

Sadly, Nancy wasn’t taking our call over the weekend, but one of the good folks at Horizon House, who answered the phone was kind enough to ask Nancy if she wished to talk and then kindly confirmed that I needn’t call back – ever, for Nancy did not it seem desire a conversation now or anytime in the near future. 

Nancy spent one year and seven months in prison, and got out of jail early based on a motion for expedited release under the Compassionate Care Act, where she alleged prison officials at FCI Hazelton denied her access to adequate medical care. 

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis took it seriously, and the BOP graciously sent her near home – to a half way house in Albany.

In early 2022, before reporting to prison, the BOP assigned Salzman to a minimum-security facility in Alderson, West Virginia, known as “Camp Cupcake.” 

Just before reporting, Nancy’s attorneys publicly blasted Camp Cupcake for handling COVID poorly – in seeking an extension of her report date by a month. 

The judge granted her the extension and during that time, the BOP changed her assignment from Camp Cupcake to “Misery Mountain,” a medium-security prison known officially as FCI Hazelton, which is said to be about 10 times worse than Camp Cupcake on its worst day.

Last week, one of the leaders of NXIVM left Misery Mountain and is now enjoying a degree of freedom she has not enjoyed since she entered the West Virginia facility in February 2022.

NXIVM offered personal development and self-help courses, but the world lost its healing balm and Solomonic wisdom, which spouted from its oracular leader Raniere’s brain after a jury convicted him in 2019. 

Raniere is serving his sentence at the “Cactus Castle” – FCI Tucson – and will not qualify for a halfway house until January 2120 due to his conviction on sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering, and a release date of June 2120 – at age 159.

But Nancy fared better. The FBI arrested Nancy in July 2018, along with others. She was the first of five to plead guilty, taking a plea deal to one count of racketeering conspiracy in March 2019.

Judge Garaufis sentenced her in 2021 to 42 months.

Before becoming the Prefect of NXIVM in 1998, Nancy was a trained nurse, hypnotist, and NLP expert. She utilized these skills in the “executive success” programs NXIVM offered. Her daughters, Lauren and Michelle Salzman, and son-in-law, Ben Myers, were also involved in the organization.

The feds also charged Lauren, who was spared prison in favor of probation for testifying against Raniere during his trial – culminating in her breakdown into tears and, some say, near hysteria during the cross-examination, which led to the judge screaming at the defense attorney for the nature of his questioning, and ending the cross-examination abruptly.

This judicial action went on appeal and was denied in the appellate court and appealed again to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear Raniere’s due process arguments.

As for Nancy, she is safe in a halfway house in Albany – the Horizon House – one of four women and some 20 men who currently call the place “home.”

She will be there for several months. Around the first of the year, she will likely be granted the right to go home and stay on BOP home detention for the last of her six months of her sentence, which ends on June 17, 2024.

After that, she will enjoy probation for three years and conclude her business with the courts on June 17, 2027.

Her life then will be restored, and the conclusion will come legally for her role as Prefect to the world’s smartest man. 

While it is true, Emperor Raniere ended up slightly better off than some of 46 Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Julius Nepos – who died by assassination or suicide forced – being in prison for 120 years is still no joke.

The fate of the tyrant often ends abruptly.

But Prefects often retire in wealth and contentment. Very few end up in halfway houses, but many lived to a ripe old age, especially after denouncing their slain or imprisoned Emperor and sharing with the public through the Acta Diurna or HBO, that after 20 years of service, they finally figured out their Emperor was a fraud.

The writer Anatole France wrote a short story about another Prefect – this one of the Roman Province of Judea.

The scene is 30 years after the death of Christ, and the retired Prefect, Pontius Pilate, is retired in Sicily. A friend at supper casually heard of a band of people who followed a Galilean, Jesus, from Nazareth.

The man said to Pilate, “He was crucified for some crime. I don’t quite know what. Pontius, do you remember anything about the man?”

Pontius Pilate contracted his brows. His hand rose to his forehead as one probing the depth of memory. After a silence of some seconds, he murmured. “Jesus?… Jesus—of Nazareth? No, I cannot call him to mind.”

Perhaps it will be so that the Prefect of NXIVM may too not recall those she let her Vanguard destroy, perhaps washing her hands of it, unable to call them to mind or tongue, not even for the producers at HBO, forgetting her role in the promotion of her leader and the influence she knew he had on others to devastate their lives.

Viva Executive Success!

Frank Parlato