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Nicki Clyne

Nicki Clyne is a Canadian actress, known for her role as Cally Henderson on the SyFy television series Battlestar Galactica. Clyne was a member of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company founded by Keith Raniere that has been described by former members, the media, and cult experts as a cult.

Career

Clyne is known for her role as Cally Henderson in the 2003 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica. Like several members of the cast, she was originally cast in a minor, non-recurring role but, having impressed the showrunners, became a major part of the series until her character's death in season four. Prior to BSG, she had guest parts on sci-fi and supernatural shows including Dark Angel, Smallville, The Twilight Zone, and The Dead Zone. In 2018, she appeared with fellow Battlestar alumnus Richard Hatch in the web series Personal Space.

She was also featured in two episodes of the podcast Tiki Bar TV, and presented an episode of HypaSpace. She stars alongside Lance Henriksen, Danielle Harris, Bill Moseley, and AFI's Davey Havok in the "illustrated film" series Godkiller. Clyne hosted two seasons of Syfy's Blastr TV, covering science fiction pop culture and events. She appeared in the independent film Lunamancer.

NXIVM

Clyne was a member of NXIVM, a now defunct multi-level marketing large-group awareness training company founded by Keith Raniere and headquartered in Albany, New York. By her own account, she attended her first NXIVM event In November 2005, an "intensive with Executive Success Programs (ESP)," one of several NXIVM companies. It has been reported that Clyne left Battlestar Galactica in 2008 to focus on being a full-time member of NXIVM. Clyne denies the claim.

Prosecutors dismantled NXIVM's corporation structures in 2020 by seizing First Principles Inc., the company with title to NXIVM and Keith Raniere's intellectual property. Nevertheless, Clyne and a small group of NXIVM members continue to proclaim Raniere's innocence and are described in media as NXIVM "dead-enders," or "loyalists."

Following Raniere's 2019 conviction of human trafficking and sexual abuse, Clyne continued to support Raniere and advocated for his release. Clyne was part of the remaining NXIVM members and continued to defend NXIVM and its practice. On March 27, 2023, the Frank Report published a statement from Clyne stating that she would no longer defend Keith Raniere.

Relationships with Keith Raniere and Allison Mack

Clyne has given statements to a federal court and the press that she was a sexual partner of Keith Raniere for over a decade. Clyne married American actress Allison Mack, a fellow member of NXIVM and DOS and a sexual partner of Raniere, in 2017 and witnessed by another NXIVM member. The marriage was little discussed until Mack was arrested in 2018. In 2020 Allison Mack filed paperwork in Orange County, California to divorce Clyne.

Fox News, quoting Frank Parlato, Jr. reported that the marriage was an immigration-related sham to keep Clyne (a Canadian citizen) in the United States. The New York Times, citing prosecutors from the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, have said similar.

The Knife of Aristotle and DOS

In 2014, NXIVM adherent Rosa Laura Junco (daughter of Alejandro Junco de la Vega) founded the media organization The Knife of Aristotle, later shortened to The Knife. Clyne was given a job with the organization, and was credited as its "Executive Producer".

By Clyne's own account, she helped Keith Raniere found a "secret sisterhood" that started in 2015 called "DOS" (also known as "the Sorority", and "the Vow"). The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said that DOS was arranged as a pyramidal organization with Raniere at the apex and subordinates Clyne, Mack and others as its "First Line". The First Line were Raniere's direct slaves, instructed to become "masters" by recruiting slaves of their own. The slaves of the First Line (and below) were to treat Raniere as "Grandmaster," but were not allowed at first to know of Raniere's participation.

The DOS sorority required a number of acts of devotion involving masochism or submission. These acts included ceremonies conducted in the nude, one involving branding with a symbol that (undisclosed to several recipients) was a monogram of the initials of Keith A Raniere. Members were instructed to provide humiliating photos and derogatory information about themselves as "collateral" used to blackmail them into obedience. At Raniere's trial, several recruits to DOS indicated their masters told them to have sex with Keith Raniere or an individual acting as his proxy. The group also practiced forms of corporal punishment ("penances") as well as severe caloric restriction and sleep deprivation.

In October 2017 the New York Times ran an expose of Raniere, NXIVM and its relationship to DOS. The article featured Sarah Edmondson who gave her account of the branding ceremony. Raniere fled to Mexico in November 2017. Clyne later accidentally revealed his location on her Instagram, sharing a photo of a Puerto Vallarta landmark revealing his whereabouts to the FBI. In March 2018, Mexican police raided the vacation home where Raniere and DOS members Clyne, Mack, and Lauren Salzman were staying. The Mexican government deported Raniere as persona non grata, and he was arrested by the United States. Lauren Salzman later testified that the day of the raid was supposed to be a "recommitment ceremony" involving group sex with Raniere.

Revelations from USA v. Raniere

After Raniere's arrest, a grand jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York continued investigating Raniere and his associates, including Clyne. In addition to Keith Raniere, prosecutors charged Allison Mack, Clare Bronfman and several others for activities involving either DOS or NXIVM. Several were indicted in a racketeering enterprise indictment centering on human and sex trafficking of NXIVM and DOS members, as well as illegal acts targeting enemies of the organization. In the course of the investigation, the government subpoenaed Clyne to testify before the grand jury. She invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and was not indicted.

At Raniere's trial, cooperating witness Lauren Salzman (a fellow DOS "First Line" member) testified that Clyne joined her in editing the recording of Sarah Edmondson's branding in a failed bid to preempt the October 2017 New York Times report.

Salzman also testified at trial to the existence of a DOS "Sorority House" in Halfmoon, New York which hosted events where DOS slaves paddled and whipped one another, and where DOS slaves planned "seduction assignments" intended to traffic women for Raniere's gratification. Sex toys including a human-size cage and puppy play gear were also introduced as proof the house was used for human and sex trafficking.

An FBI agent's affidavit supporting asset forfeiture indicates that while Rosa Laura Junco provided funds and owned the LLC that bought the DOS Sorority House, Clyne was Managing Member of the LLC and her passport included in purchase paperwork. After the DOS Sorority House was sold in 2018, proceeds were deposited into a trust account held by Clyne's lawyer, Edward Sapone. After Raniere's conviction, a magistrate judge authorized the seizure of the funds in August 2019.

In a 2020 prosecution memorandum opposing the retrial of Keith Raniere, prosecutors stated their position that "the cache of DOS materials, including collateral, in Clyne’s possession is the product of fraud and extortion, as was demonstrated at trial." Devising restitution for the victims of Raniere, Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered that as restitution, "all lower-ranking DOS members are statutorily entitled to the return of their collateral." Due to Fifth Amendment concerns, this order was stayed until 60 days after the ruling on Raniere's appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Circuit ruled Raniere's appeal was "without merit" on December 9, 2022.

Activities since the conviction of Keith Raniere

Following Raniere's conviction, Clyne and other NXIVM members launched an activist group We Are As You and accompanying website WeAreTheForgottenOnes.org. The members of the organization danced outside of Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, where Raniere was detained. The group faced backlash from former NXIVM members for using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on its social media posts and questioning why it only targeted the prison where Raniere is located, and how it could serve as a possible attempt to recruit new members.

In August 2020, the government filed exhibits ahead of Raniere's sentencing indicating that he sent messages to Clyne through the Federal Bureau of Prisons-monitored TRULINCS email system, the contents of which include messages condemning government witnesses for having "broken vows," and calling them "apostate sorority sisters."

In September 2020, one month before Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison, Clyne spoke out in his defence in an interview with CBS News This Morning. Footage of Clyne was used in season one of the HBO documentary series The Vow. In the show's second season, she is interviewed on camera, continuing to defend Raniere despite others, particularly Sarah Edmondson, expressing regret for having enticed her into NXIVM.

Clyne has a verified Twitter account. Since Raniere's conviction, she has used it to advocate on his behalf; the Times Union has documented that this included an alleged threat to publicly identify Raniere's sex trafficking victims who were granted anonymity by court order. In April 2022, Clyne used her account to share a copy of a motion related to Keith Raniere's appeal, which claims that the FBI framed Keith Raniere.

Clyne appears on a number of social media outlets expressing support for causes célèbres of conservatism in the United States in addition to stating Raniere's innocence. She has appeared on video in conversation with Scott Adams, Destiny, and James A. Lindsay. Clyne's comments in support of Kyle Rittenhouse were shared by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY).

Through a filing by the U.S. Attorney, the Bureau maintains that, "[Raniere] circumvented mail monitoring by communicating with Ms. Clyne through another inmate and using her to communicate with Clare Bronfman, a NXIVM associate and co-defendant of Plaintiff who is serving time in federal prison."

Civil lawsuit

Clyne, Allison Mack, and other NXIVM associates were named as defendants in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court by 80 former NXIVM members in January 2020. The lawsuit charges the NXIVM organization of being a pyramid scheme, exploitation of its recruits and conducting illegal human experiments and making it "physically and psychologically difficult, and in some cases impossible, to leave the coercive community." Clyne is defending herself pro se and in a statement says, "I do not have any assets that would grant any relief or compensation for the Plaintiffs’ alleged hardships… I have a 2011 Subaru to my name."