Heiress pleads guilty in sex slave case

Clare Bronfman

An heiress pleaded guilty on Friday in a sensational case accusing a cult-like upstate New York group of creating a secret harem of sex slaves for the group's self-anointed spiritual leader.

Clare Bronfman admitted in her plea in federal court in Brooklyn that she harboured someone who was living in the US illegally for unpaid "labour and services" and that she committed credit card fraud on behalf of Keith Raniere, the lead of a group called NXIVM.

Bronfman - the 40-year-old daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. - told the judge that she had wanted to help people through NXIVM but ended up dishonouring her family. "I was afforded a great gift by my grandfather and father," Bronfman said. "With the gift, comes immense privilege and more importantly, responsibility. It does not come with an ability to break the law." She added: "For this, I am truly sorry."

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