Sara Rosner Bronfman (born 1976) is the daughter of the billionaire former Seagram chairman
Edgar Bronfman Sr.
Edgar Miles Bronfman (born June 20, 1929 – December 21, 2013) was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish ...
Bronfman was a leading funder and a member of the leadership team for the controversial
multi-level marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...
company and cult
NXIVM
NXIVM () is the name commonly used to describe the personality cult of imprisoned racketeer and sex offender Keith Raniere. NXIVM is also the trademarked name of the defunct corporation that Raniere founded, which provided seminars and vide ...
, as was her sister,
Clare Bronfman
Clare Bronfman (born 1979) is an American heiress, convicted felon and former leader of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company and cult based near Albany, New York. She is the youngest daughter of billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram ...
.
Background
Bronfman's father,
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
billionaire
Edgar Bronfman, Sr., met her mother, Rita Webb, the daughter of an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
pub owner from
Essex, England
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
, in Marbella, Spain.
Webb changed her first name to Georgiana and married Bronfman in 1975, two years after his divorce from his first wife, investment-banking heiress Ann Loeb. Webb gave birth to Sara the following year, then Clare two and a half years later.
Her father is of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
background.
Shortly after Clare's birth, Georgiana asked Edgar for a divorce. After Edgar married again in 1980, then was again divorced, the two sisters visited their father at his homes outside Charlottesville, Virginia; in Westchester County; at Sun Valley; and on Fifth Avenue in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, though their lives were centered in England and in Kenya, with their mother.
NXIVM leadership and funding
In 2001, 25-year old Sara was introduced to
NXIVM
NXIVM () is the name commonly used to describe the personality cult of imprisoned racketeer and sex offender Keith Raniere. NXIVM is also the trademarked name of the defunct corporation that Raniere founded, which provided seminars and vide ...
by a family friend. NXIVM was a
multi-level marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...
organization founded by
Keith Raniere
Keith Allen Raniere (; born August 26, 1960) is an American criminal convicted for a pattern of racketeering activity including human trafficking, sex offenses, and fraud. He co-founded NXIVM, a purported-self-help multi-level marketing com ...
that claimed to help individuals achieve self-discovery, offering personal and professional development seminars, but has subsequently been identified as a
cult.
Sara has described herself, prior to discovering NXIVM, as "dilettantish".
After her introduction to NXIVM, Sara urged Clare, then 23, to become involved. Clare was then committed to her equestrian career as a competitive jumper, horse trainer, and owner of Slate River Farm; she was described as being "a bit withdrawn and certainly the type to stay in and read while everyone else goes out."
Sara and Clare became committed followers and
financial backers of both NXIVM and its leader, Keith Raniere, and relocated to upstate New York to work as NXIVM trainers.
"As Sara would later explain on her blog," wrote Suzanna Andrews in a profile of the sisters for ''
Vanity Fair'', "she was 'in search of finding ways to bring peace to the world.' According to
family friend, who put it more prosaically, she was desperately looking for some purpose in her life. And she found it at NXIVM."
Sara began working with Raniere's company Executive Success Programs, Inc. (ESP) and its "proprietary technology" Rational Inquiry, which had been created by Raniere.
According to one source: "She founded the company's VIP Programs, which provide distinguished individuals with special training and coaching. These programs
facilitated by the company's President Nancy Salzman, were responsible for launching ESP into the British and Irish markets in 2005." Soon Sara Bronfman was on the Executive Board of ESP and had become "Director of Humanities, Regional Vice President, Professional Coach and Head Trainer".
[
]
In September 2018, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Bronfman in the Brooklyn Supreme Court, asserting that she "ensnared" Isabella Martinez and Gabrielle Leal, among others, into taking costly classes as part of "a fraudulent scheme nationwide" for Raniere and NXIVM.
Sara and her husband founded the Athal Education Group, a France-based offshoot of Raniere's Rainbow Cultural Garden, as well as the UK branch of RCG itself. The school was closed by the authorities in 2020.
On June 19, 2019, NXIVM founder Raniere was found guilty of
sex trafficking and
racketeering. At trial, prosecution witness and NXIVM defector Mark Vicente testified that Sara Bronfman was among Raniere's "trusted group".
On January 28, 2020, Sara and Clare Bronfman were named as defendants when 80 former NXIVM members sued, saying they were victims of sex trafficking, forced labor and illegal human experiments, and the NXIVM organisation being a pyramid scheme.
[
]
Collaboration with the Dalai Lama
Eager to distance themselves from cult allegations in the press, NXIVM members sought the endorsement of the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
, spending $2 million on the project. Sara, along with her sister, Clare Bronfman, and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere formed an organization called the World Ethical Foundations Consortium.
In January 2009, after the Dalai Lama cancelled a planned visit to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho, Sara Bronfman wrote a letter to an Idaho newspaper in which she threatened to "formally resign as an honorary board member of the Special Olympics if it turned out that the Dalai Lama had been dis-invited by no fault of his own".
Sara and Clare were credited with being able to bring the Dalai Lama to Albany to participate in the WEFC's inaugural event on May 6, 2009, where the Dalai Lama gave a talk; during the event, he presented Raniere with a white scarf onstage. The Dalai Lama additionally wrote the foreword to the book ''The Sphinx and Thelxiepeia'', which Raniere co-authored in 2009. Eight years later, it would be found that Sara Bronfman had had a 2009 sexual relationship with Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama's gatekeeper who arranged the appearance, who, being a monk, had taken a vow of celibacy. Amid accusations of corruption, Dhonden was replaced.
Libyan involvement
In November 2011, Sara Bronfman traveled to Libya with fellow NXIVM member (and future spouse) Basit Igtet, accompanied by consultants including Adam Hock
Adam Hock (born October 9, 1964) is an American businessman who has founded and co-founded several companies in the financial sector. He was married to Latvian model Ginta Lapiņa, but the couple divorced in 2017.
Early life and education
Hock ...
and Joseph Hagin. In 2012, Igtet and Bronfman founded the Canada-Libya Chamber of Commerce, serving as its inaugural president and chairman of the board respectively.
Personal life
In the early 2000s, Bronfman married Irish jockey Ronan Clarke. They divorced after four months.
In 2009, Bronfman reportedly had a sexual relationship with Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the self-styled "Personal Emissary for Peace for the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
"; the affair was made public after a 2017 investigation led to Dhonden's removal for corruption.
In 2012, Bronfman married Libyan
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
businessman Basit Igtet; the couple have one daughter.Forbes: "Can A Business Entrepreneur Save Libya?" by Carrie Sheffield
December 5, 2013
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronfman, Sara
1976 births
Living people
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of English descent
Sara
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* ''Sara'' (2010 film), 2010 Sri Lankan Sinhal ...
NXIVM people
Carl M. Loeb family