India Oxenberg Denies Charges She Belonged To Sadistic Sex-Cult NXIVM, But Suspicions Linger

India Oxenberg, daughter of “Dynasty” actress Catherine Oxenberg and granddaughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, has been identified as a “co-conspirator” in a lurid sex-trafficking case involving an alleged cult, but she says the group she belonged to did nothing “but good.”

Oxenberg, a 26-year-old former model and minor starlet, was a member of NXIVM, whose leader, Keith Raniere, and alleged second-in-command, the actress Allison Mack, face a three-count federal indictment charging them with sex trafficking, conspiracy and forced labor.

Raniere was arrested in late March and is being held without bail in Brooklyn, while Mack was arrested in late April and released on $5 million bond to home confinement at her parent’s house in a suburb of Los Angeles.

NXIVM, prosecutors say, included a sub-group, DOS, or “the Vow,” which included “levels of ‘slaves’ headed by ‘masters.’ Slaves are expected to recruit slaves of their own … who in turn owe service not only to their own masters but also to masters above them in the DOS pyramid.”

Raniere, prosecutors say, is at the top of the pyramid, “as the highest master.” Mack served as Raniere’s lieutenant, and pimp, who presented the cult “as women’s empowerment group or sorority,” according to prosecutors.

Last Friday, the federal judge overseeing the case scheduled their trial for October 1, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Kim Penza also told the court that “there will be additional charges against additional defendants, which would be filed “in the next month, month and a half.”

While it is not known for sure who will be charged, the criminal complaint against Raniere refers to an unindicted “co-conspirator #2.”  

According to the Associated Press, Yahoo News and Frank Parlato, a Buffalo-area newspaper publisher, blogger and former NXIVM publicist who first broke the story about the group’s branding ritual, India Oxenberg is “co-conspirator #2.”

As co-conspirator #2, India is alleged to have tricked a woman into joining the group. That woman, referred to as “Jane Doe #2,” was then ordered by India and Mack to “seduce Keith” and have him take a nude picture of her to prove it, according to the criminal complaint against Raniere. 

But Jane Doe #2, instead of complying, fled the group in May 2016.

Meanwhile, Catherine Oxenberg, India’s mother, went on the “Today” show in November 2017 and said India had been “hijacked” by the group and branded. But India spurned her mother’s efforts, and instead became enraged.

In December 2017, Catherine told ABC news’ 20/20 that she had not seen her daughter in months and in early April, outside the Brooklyn courthouse where Raniere had just been arraigned, she faced the cameras and pleaded with India to “come home.”

India, for her part, issued a statement on Facebook in October 2017 saying: “I’m absolutely fine, great actually. I would never put myself or the people I love in any danger. These are my friends and colleagues I’ve never seen anything but good come out of this work.”

But, after the arrests of Raniere and Mack, India declined to share her current thoughts, and instead told journalists from the New York Post, who found her headed to work in late April, “It’s not polite to take pictures without asking. Leave me alone. I will call the police.”

“She’s going through a lot,” a manager for the restaurant where she worked also told the newspaper. “She may have been brainwashed.”

Later that night, she was seen smiling with Mack’s wife, the actress Nicki Clyne, before getting into a car with her and driving away.

Oxenberg’s attorney, Carla DiMare, gave a statement to Oxygen.com: "India Oxenberg disagrees with things that have been said about her in the media, and the way she has been portrayed in the media.  She also disagrees with her mother’s use of the media and her mother’s viewpoint.  India looks forward to giving her story about what happened in the near future." 

[Photo: India Oxenberg by JB Nicholas]