Cults Unpacked - NXIVM

Keith Raniere, despite greatly exaggerated stories he told his followers about being a concert pianist, genius, inventor, and judo champion, was really only good at two things: multi-level marketing and pep talks.

Originally an Amway salesman, Keith started his own MLM company called Consumer’s Buyline, but had to shut it down when authorities busted him for running a pyramid scheme. Not one for originality, he borrowed heavily from both the Amway and Scientology models and started NXIVM, a company that offered higher and higher tiers of executive success training for more and more money.