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Federal prosecutors say they have captured a cult leader who allegedly recruited Hollywood stars and enslaved women, making some of them brand themselves with his initials. FBI agents raided a home in New York connected to alleged cult leader Keith Raniere, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Raniere claims he runs a self-help group NXIVM, but investigators allege it was a multi-level marketing scheme used as a ruse to enslave and traffic women for sex.
According to a criminal complaint, Raniere -- known within the group as "Vanguard" -- oversaw a barbaric system in which women were told the best way to advance was to become a "slave" overseen by "masters." They also were expected to have sex with him and do menial chores for masters, and to keep the arrangement a secret or be publicly humiliated, the complaint says.