Claire Bronfmandaughter of a late business tycoon Edgar Bronfman Sr. and heiress to the Seagrams liquor fortune, was accused of financing what turned out to be illegal behavior after meeting Raniere in 2002 and became first an NXIVM associate and eventually a board member, as well as Raniere's benefactor and lawyer, who allegedly financed lawsuits on his behalf against perceived enemies.
Bronfman's father estimates that in 2003 Forbes that she loaned NXIVM $2 million, which she denied at the time. “I think it's a cult,” said Bronfman Sr., who died in 2013.
April 19, 2019 Bronfman pleaded guilty conspiring to conceal and harbor an undocumented immigrant for financial gain, and fraudulently using identification documents to help Raniere use a deceased person's credit card. Part of the sentence included paying her a $6 million fine.
“I am truly remorseful,” Bronfman told a U.S. District Court judge. Nicholas G. Garaufis. “I tried to do good in the world and help people, but I made mistakes.”
On September 30, 2020, she was sentenced to 81 months in prison. In explaining the large fine, Garaufis said he was “troubled by the evidence suggesting that Ms. Bronfman repeatedly and consistently used her wealth and social status as a means to intimidate, control and punish” people who had left NXIVM or were perceived as its opponents.
Bronfman was released from prison to halfway house in May 2024, according to the law. Albany Times-Union.
