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Cult member Lauren Salzman said she kept a woman locked up as her personal slave for two years.

 

In a new twist to the ongoing court case involving the infamous Nxivm cult, one of its members has confirmed that she kept a woman enslaved in her home for two years.

Newly unsealed court documents show that Nxivm member Lauren Salzman pleaded guilty last week to charges of racketeering conspiracy, which involved keeping the unnamed woman locked up.

“I knowingly and intentionally harbored Jane Doe 4, a woman whose identity is known to me, in a room in the home in the Northern District of New York,” she said before Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis according to The New York Post .

According to court documents obtained by the publication, she held the woman hostage between March 2010 and April 2012 “and threatened to deport Jane Doe 4 back to Mexico if she did not complete labor requested by myself and others.”

Salzman was arrested last year along with Smallville actress Allison Mack and Nxivm cult leader Keith Raniere, who were charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labour conspiracy.

The 42-year-old women admitted during the proceeding to being a member of Nxivm’s secret inner organisation, DOS, which prosecutors have accused of starving and branding women.

Before the arrest, the group was purported to be a female mentorship organisation that was always actively recruiting new members,  but was allegedly grooming its members to have sex with Raniere and mutilating their bodies.

Mamamia’s daily news podcast The Quicky will get you up to speed on what you need to know today. Post continues after audio.

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Salzman was actually raised in Nxivm due to her mother’s role as a co-founder of the group, and it was her slave Sarah Edmondson who blew the lid on the organisation back in a 2017 interview with The New York Times.

In order to gain admission to the organisation, women required to give their recruiter naked photographs or other compromising material of themselves. They were then warned that such ‘collateral’ would be publicly released if the group’s existence were disclosed or if the women shared any of their secrets.

According to The New York Times, each woman who was seeking admission to the cult was ordered to take her clothes off and lie down on a massage table, while three other people held them down by their arms and legs.

The New York Times reported that Lauren Salzman was a top Nxivm official and instructed them to say: “Master, please brand me, it would be an honor.”

A female doctor would then proceed to use a cauterising device to make a two-inch-square symbol below each woman’s hip and, according to Edmondson, she “I wept the whole time. I disassociated out of my body.”

Lauren Salzman’s mother, Nancy Salzman, is the only other Nxivm member to plead guilty.

“I’m very sorry for my poor decision-making and decisions that result in the harm to others and not the just victims in this case but to hundreds of members of our community and their friends and families as well,” Salzman said during the hearing.

Salzman’s guilty plea last Monday did not appear on any public calendar, and portions of the transcript are redacted — leading to speculation she may cooperate against her fellow cult members at trial.