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The Vow is returning with a six-episode second season, promising a rare view into Nxivm founder Keith Raniere’s innermost circle, including co-founder Nancy Salzman.

“My whole company was destroyed and my whole life fell apart,” says Salzman, Nxivm’s president and co-founder with Raniere, in the trailer (below), which also features Raniere speaking from prison. “Going into this, I thought Keith was innocent. I was wrong,” Salzman tells the filmmakers.

The Vow, Part Two begins at the start of Raniere’s trial, with the finale capturing the verdict. The follow-up, directed by Jehane Noujaim, debuts Oct. 17, with weekly episodes on HBO and HBO Max.

Much has happened in the two years since The Vow first exposed Nxivm to a mainstream audience.

Nxivm, a company that masqueraded as a self-help group but was actually running a secret sex cult, and its leader Raniere...

A lawyer for Keith Raniere, the convicted leader of the alleged sex cult Nxivm, focused on the definition of a “commercial sex act,” alleged sixth amendment violations, and supposedly prejudicial abortion evidence during a hearing in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday, May 3.

The appeals hearing got under way almost two years after Raniere was sentenced to 120 cumulative years in prison for his role as the leader of Nxivm. The year before, Raniere was found guilty on all seven criminal charges against him,...

Former high-ranking Nxivm member Lauren Salzman has avoided prison time for her role in the cult.

While Salzman could have ended up serving seven to nine years behind bars, she was sentenced on Wednesday to time served, five years of probation, and 300 hours of community service.

Salzman had previously spent a number of years in home confinement, after pleading guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in April of 2019.

Her mother, Nancy Salzman, co-founded Nxivm with Keith Raniere in 1998. While the younger Salzman was once a close confidante of Raniere’s, she would ultimately testify against him in his 2019 trial, proving key in securing his conviction. It appears that her cooperation (as the highest-ranking Nxivm member to take the stand) may have resulted in a lighter sentence.

“The defendant helped Keith Raniere implement some of the most twisted, manipulative and reprehensible schemes,” Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis said of Salzman on Wednesday,...

Lauren Salzman, 45, a former Nxivm collaborator of cult leader Keith Raniere, was sentenced on Wednesday to time served and five years of probation. Salzman, the daughter of Nxivm co-founder Nancy Salzman, had pleaded guilty in April 2019 to racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Salzman was featured in the HBO docuseries “The Vow” last year, which became a sensation. A second season of the show — directed and executive produced by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer — is currently in production.

Salzman is the fourth Nxivm member to be sentenced. In September, Clare Bronfman, was sentenced to 81 months; in October, Raniere himself was sentenced to 120 years in prison; and last month, former “Smallville” actor and top Nxivm recruiter Allison Mack was sentenced to three years. Nancy Salzman has also pleaded guilty, and according to the Albany Times-Union, her sentencing is set for next week.

At Raniere’s trial in spring 2019, Salzman testified against him for four days.

Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in federal prison, a stunning downfall for the fresh-faced actor who spent a decade as a fan favorite on “Smallville” but then became a key figure in the Nxivm cult led by convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere.

Mack, 38, learned her fate Wednesday morning in federal court in Brooklyn from U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis. She was arrested in April 2018 in Brooklyn after a wild trek with Raniere and others to Mexico, where Raniere was arrested in a villa outside Puerto Vallarta in March of that year.

“I made choices I will forever regret,” Mack told the judge, according to the Associated Press, adding that she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”

Mack also received a $20,000 fine and was ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. She will surrender to authorities on Sept. 29. Her attorneys have requested that she be allowed...

Image Source: HBO

Keith Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison on Oct. 27, the United States Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of New York confirmed on Twitter. The leader of the Nxivm cult was found guilty of federal sex trafficking, extortion, obstruction, and racketeering charges back in June 2019, but his sentencing was delayed several times due to the shutdown of courtrooms resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Nxivm was originally founded by Raniere and Nancy Salzman in the 1990s, but a 2017 New York Times investigation uncovered the horrifying truths of the cult. The cult has since served as the focus for two documentary series: HBO's The Vow, which premiered in August, and Starz's Seduced: Inside the Nxivm Cult, which premiered in October. Clare Bronfman, one of Nxivm's financial backers, was sentenced to 81 months in September, while former members Salzman, Allison Mack, and Lauren Salzman are still awaiting sentencing.

On Monday afternoon, the day before Keith Raniere was set to be sentenced, Make Justice Blind, an assortment of ardent Nxivm devotees, gathered to hold a press conference in front of the Brooklyn federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn. The group, including Battlestar Galactica‘s Nicki Clyne, set out to present what they referred to as “smoking gun” evidence that would supposedly justify a call for a delay in sentencing for Keith Raniere, the leader of the alleged sex cult Nxivm who has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his 2018 arrest.

Keith Raniere, the leader of the alleged sex cult Nxivm, has given an interview which aired on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt tonight and will also be featured on the network’s Dateline.

In the interview, Raniere denies his convictions for sex trafficking, racketeering and possession of child pornography. Raniere said he was the victim of unethical prosecution in the interview. He asked for a new trial, but was denied Friday by a judge. He will be sentenced on Tuesday and could face life in prison.

The activities of Nvxim was captured by the documentary series The Vow, which is coming back in 2021 for a second season on HBO. Directors and exec producers Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, to continue to the story of the Nxivm cult and its top leadership.

Raniere admitted to NBC interviewer Frank Parlato and Dateline NBC that he was the leader of Nxivm, which...

HBO’s buzzy Nxivm sex cult docuseries “The Vow” has been criticized for dragging at times over the course of its nine-episode run. But the closing moments of Sunday’s season finale left no doubt about where the storyline is headed in season two, which HBO formally ordered last week.

Warning, spoilers for the finale episode of “The Vow” ahead.

Here comes the counterspin from now-convicted felons Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman, co-founders of the self-help programs at the heart of the whole of shocking story that led to federal human trafficking, sex abuse and racketeering charges. “The Fall,” episode 9 of “The Vow,” ends with hints that the pair will go on camera, or at least on the record, with “Vow” directors/executive producers Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer.

The closing sequence features what appears to be a glimpse of Salzman under house arrest, complete with a shot of her...

Lauren Salzman is a name that you'll hear prominently in the unraveling of the self-help group Nxivm. HBO's The Vow, inevitably, features her story. Not only is she the daughter of Nxivm cofounder Nancy Salzman, but she also ranked high in Nxivm leader Keith Raniere's inner circle, Dos. As Nxivm's legacy crumbled and as people have been implicated for its activities, Salzman too has been caught in the aftermath. Along with other coconspirators, she has pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and confessed to being a part of Dos, but still awaits her sentence.

According to Rolling Stone, Salzman first met Raniere at age 21 in 1998 and later began a sexual relationship with him in 2001. Eventually, she found her way to Nxivm's secret society Dos, a sex cult where women found themselves branded and coerced into having sex with Raniere. Her role was that of a "master" who recruited "slaves" - at one point,...

HBO's true-crime docuseries The Vow takes on the unsavory case of Nxivm, a multilevel marketing company that, on the surface, promoted personal-development classes. While claiming to offer self-help, Nxivm has become associated with a disturbing sex cult and a pyramid scheme in recent years. At the center of Nxivm's chaos is its leader, Keith Raniere, a self-proclaimed genius who, with a cadre of top associates, preyed on women. Not long ago, Nxivm members faced multiple charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. To complement your viewing of the HBO documentary, read ahead for a timeline that gives a detailed look at the events that mark Nxivm's rise and fall.

1993: The New York attorney general files a lawsuit against Raniere's business, Consumers' Buyline, accusing it of being a pyramid scheme. A multilevel marketing company, Consumers' Buyline promoted commissions to existing customers for recruiting new ones. When served with the lawsuit, Raniere...

Nancy Salzman may not have been the highest-profile name caught up in the Nxivm scandal, but as new HBO documentary The Vow shows, she was one of the most important members of Keith Raniere's horrifying cult group. Where is Salzman now, years after the Nxivm scandal broke wide open? For now, Nxivm's "Prefect" is in something of a state of legal limbo, having admitted to some of her involvement in the "self-help" organization but still awaiting news on what, exactly, her sentence will be.

According to The New York Times,

Salzman helped Raniere found the group

back in the 1990s. She reportedly assisted Raniere in developing the "behavioral programs that formed the basis of Nxivm" and continued to have a strong influence on the group until its exposure in 2018 as a cover for recruiting into a cult involving sexual slavery and blackmail. Specifically, according to the court case against her,...

When Toni Natalie spoke to Rolling Stone on the morning of jury deliberations for the Keith Raniere trial, she predicted the jury would reach a guilty verdict by, “3, 3:30.”

The former girlfriend of Raniere, the leader of the spiritual organization Nxivm, was only about an hour off. After six weeks of grueling testimony, during which witnesses gave grueling testimony about being held down and branded, beaten with paddles, and coerced into having sex with the defendant, Raniere has been found guilty of all seven of the criminal charges against him.

Since his arrest last year in Mexico on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, tabloids have referred to Keith Raniere, the head of the self-help organization Nxivm, as the leader of an all-female “sex cult” called Dos. The 58-year-old spiritual leader known as the “smartest man alive” was worshipped by followers, with some former Nxivm members testifying they believed he could control the weather and that swallowing his semen could help them see “a blue light.”

Yet during closing arguments at Raniere’s trial at the Eastern District Courthouse of New York,...

In the early, frigid months of 2016, Nicole was struggling. An aspiring actress with pin-straight dark hair and small, delicate features, Nicole had lived for years in Los Angeles, where she had had some minor success booking commercial work; she had just moved to New York City to build her stage career. But almost immediately, Nicole regretted the move. In the few months after moving to New York, she had barely booked any auditions, nor had she made many friends. She was deeply lonely, and at one point seriously considered taking her own life.

A former Nxivm member who was sexually involved with Keith Raniere testified on Wednesday that she was imprisoned in a room for nearly two years as punishment for becoming romantically involved with another man.

The witness, who has been identified by the state only as Daniela, wept as she recounted her time confined in the small room at 12 Wilton Court in Clifton Park, a town outside Albany, New York, where Nxivm was headquartered. The room contained only a mattress, and there were allegedly cameras installed by Raniere and fellow Nxivm...

In harrowing testimony on Thursday, a woman told jurors about how Keith Raniere, the head of the self-empowerment group and alleged sex cult Nxivm, groomed her as an adolescent to have sex with her on her 18th birthday — only for him to deem her too overweight when the day arrived.

Identified only as Daniela, the 33-year-old woman testified during the trial against Raniere, who is being charged with seven criminal counts, including sex trafficking, racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. Earlier this week, former Nxivm member and co-defendant Lauren Salzman, who has...

In March 2018, Lauren Salzman, a high-ranking member in the self-empowerment organization Nxivm and a so-called “master” in the alleged sex cult Dos, was making a smoothie in the kitchen of a house outside Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when her friend Loreta Garza, another Nxivm member, burst into the room. She told Salzman that cops had just arrived at the house to arrest Keith Raniere, the group’s charismatic head, and Salzman’s on-off lover of nearly 20 years.

Salzman flew into a panic. Raniere had fled to Mexico the year before, following...

Witness testimony at the trial of Keith Raniere, the founder of the self-improvement organization and alleged “sex cult” Nxivm, sparked larger questions about Bdsm and consent on Friday, when Sean Welch, the chief technology officer of the sex toy manufacturer Xr, L.L.C., took the stand.

During his testimony, Welch produced documents indicating that Daniela Padilla, a member of Nxivm, ordered $900 of Bdsm-inspired sex toys off his website ExtremeRestraints.com, including a remote-controlled electrified collar (dubbed a “puppy trainer”), a studded rubber paddle, a hanging, rubber-strapped cage and ankle shackles.

Beginning Tuesday, Keith Raniere, founder and leader of the self-empowerment group and alleged sex cult Nxivm, will stand trial for criminal charges including racketeering and sex trafficking, and faces life imprisonment if convicted on all counts. The details of the allegations against him are as well-publicized as they are horrific: Raniere stands accused of running Nxivm as his own personal sex cult, coercing female followers into sleeping with him, having his initials branded into their flesh and punishing them by threatening to release “collateral,” such as pornographic photos, if they...

Although the trial of Keith Raniere, the alleged mastermind behind the self-empowerment cult Nxivm, doesn’t begin until the end of April, the court proceedings have already given us plenty of drama. There’s been fainting in court, child pornography charges and, as with all things 2019, a brief appearance by attorney Michael Avenatti. And in a surprising twist, all of the defendants in the Nxivm case, with the exception of Raniere, have pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them, meaning that at least some of his former acolytes...

Allison Mack, the Smallville actress implicated in the Nxivm sex cult case, pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering and one count of racketeering conspiracy at a Brooklyn federal court on Monday.

In court, Mack tearfully said that she took “full responsibility for [her] conduct” as the alleged second-in-command of Keith Raniere, the Albany-based guru and leader of the self-help group Nxivm. Raniere is facing charges of sex trafficking and was hit with possession of child pornography charges last week.

Related: Nxivm: What We Know About Alleged Sex Trafficking, Forced Labor

In a statement,...

At a hearing in Brooklyn today, a federal judge agreed to move the trial of Nxivm founder Keith Raniere and his co-defendants from October to January 7th, at the government’s request.

This scheduling change comes a day after prosecutors brought charges against four more members of the alleged cult; Clare Bronfman (an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor company fortune), Nancy Salzman (Nxivm’s co-founder and president), her daughter Lauren Salzman (a high-ranking recruiter) and bookkeeper Kathy Russell join Raniere and Alison Mack, a former actress turned Nxivm staffer,...

Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Canadian-based Seagram’s liquor company, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with her ongoing work with self-help group Nxivm and charged with racketeering conspiracy.

Once an international equestrian competitor, Bronfman is the 39-year-old daughter of the late billionaire and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. In addition to Bronfman, Nxivm co-founder Nancy Salzman a.k.a. “Prefect,” 64, her daughter Lauren Salzman, 42, and bookkeeper Kathy Russell, 60, were accused of the same crimes. According to a court information officer with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New...

Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman was among four women charged with racketeering and other crimes in connection with the sex cult case brought against Keith Raniere and former “Smallville” star Allison Mack.

The indictments unsealed on Tuesday added 10 counts of racketeering to the federal sex trafficking charges already pending against Raniere and Mack. Bronfman and three others — Nancy Salzman, her daughter Lauren Salzman, and Kathy Russell — were charged with racketeering, forced labor, money laundering, identity theft, and wire fraud. The four women were scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, Bronfman in Brooklyn and the Salzmans and Russell in Albany, N.Y. They face as much as 20 years in prison if convicted for racketeering, and a minimum sentence of 15 years for identity theft.

Raniere and Mack face additional charges of racketeering along with the sex trafficking counts they were originally charged with in April. Raniere has been in jail since March. Mack...