Nancy Salzman, 68, the former president of NXIVM, will leave her prison cell at FCI Hazelton in three weeks.
The US Bureau of Prisons has assigned her to a Community Corrections Center (CCC), commonly called a halfway house. She will transfer from Hazelton to the Horizon Center in Albany, New York, on September 7.
Her transfer from the medium-security federal prison in West Virginia to a minimum-security halfway house near her home confirms Salzman’s deteriorating health may not be dire.
If Salzman was gravely ill, budget-conscious BOP officials would likely have assigned her to home confinement, an option BOP officials posited less than a month ago, pending an MRI scheduled for Salzman.
Typically, a federal inmate becomes eligible for a halfway house six months before the end of their sentence. In her case, she will be assigned ten months before the expiry of her sentence. The US BOP has set a release date for Salzman for July 2, 2024.
US District Court Judge Nicholas J Garaufis originally sentenced Salzman to three and a half years in prison in September 2021. On July 17, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis held a hearing on a motion for a sentence reduction based on Salzman’s decline in health.
Nancy Salzman headed to court in Brooklyn…
BOP officials told the judge that the prison’s medical department had cleared Salzman for an MRI within 30 days and that the BOP had scheduled her for transfer to either a halfway house or home confinement on September 7, 2023, under the First Step Act.
Judge Garaufis instructed the BOP or the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York to provide a definitive statement on whether Salzman would be released on September 7, 2023, under the First Step Act, and if so, whether she would be released to home confinement or a halfway house.
The judge also directed the BOP to inform the court whether the MRI was performed or delayed due to Salzman’s pressing health concerns.
Horizon House, where Salzman will live, is on Elizabeth Street, Albany, less than 20 miles from her former residence at 3 Oregon Trail in Waterford, NY, where she lived for years as the Prefect of NXIVM.
Her daughter Lauren Salzman, also a high ranking member of NXIVM, lives in the Albany area and is currently on probation due to her conviction for racketeering and racketeering conspiracy.
At last report, Lauren Salzman was working as a dog groomer.
Nancy Salzman’s former residence in Waterford, NY.
In 2017, doctors diagnosed Salzman with breast cancer, and she underwent a double radical mastectomy in 2018. Her surgery occurred while she was prosecuted for racketeering and other charges by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY, requiring her excuse from pretrial hearings.
After the FBI discovered child pornography on co-defendant Keith Raniere’s hard drive in February 2019, Salzman entered plea negotiations. By March 2019, she became the first of the six NXIVM co-defendants to take a plea deal, admitting to one count of racketeering conspiracy.
Four others, including her daughter Lauren, followed suit within a month, leaving only their leader Keith Raniere to stand trial. A Brooklyn jury found him guilty in June 2019. Judge Garaufis sentenced Raniere to 120 years in October 2020.
The Horizon Center is south of downtown Albany, about half a mile from the Hudson River. About 30 inmates live there, both male and female.
Federal halfway house residents have more freedom than in prison, but Salzman will have curfews, mandatory meetings, and regular check-ins with staff.
Her placement in the halfway house will give her greater access to medical treatment.
Salzman began working with Raniere in 1998, and together they founded Executive Success Programs based on Raniere’s teachings, which he called “Rational Inquiry.” Salzman became the president and led the training, consisting of a series of morning to evening classes taken from five to 16 days in succession, known as intensives.
The company later became known as NXIVM.
Keth Raniere and Nancy Salzman during the early days oif their partnership.
Last year, Salzman appeared on HBO’s The Vow, Season 2, telling viewers she repudiated her former mentor Raniere and realized he had deceived her for years.
Nancy Salzman appeared on HBO’s The Viow season 2.,
She maintained that NXIVM was a positive educational company that taught its members or students helpful life lessons—lamenting that her work was misunderstood because of Raniere’s actions, including his secret sorority, DOS.
Salzman said on camera, “Imagine you spent 22 years trying to build something that you fully believed in and thought was good, and everybody thinks it’s the devil’s work.”
Salzman maintained she knew nothing about DOS until the Frank Report broke the news of its existence in June 2017.
The FBI raid Nancy Salzman’s house at 3 Oregon Trail., Photos courtesy Albany Times Union….
On March 27, the FBI raided Salzman’s house at 3 Oregon Trail. The raid was one day after Raniere’s arrest in Texas, following his deportation from Mexico the day before. FBI agents found more than $500,000 in cash at Salzman’s house, which agents seized. She also agreed to forfeit real estate in her name in the Albany area.
Some of the cash seized at Nancy Salzman’s home
FR hopes Salzman, if she is ailing, makes a speedy recovery, and when she returns to society, she is healed, renewed, and ready to resume her life with grace and dignity.
