FOUR former FBI agents have claimed that evidence in the NXIVM sex cult case was tampered with, according to court records.
NXIVM leader Keith Raniere was caged for 120 years for sex trafficking, racketeering, possession of child pornography, and other crimes after victims came forward to say they were manipulated, controlled, and sexually abused by him.
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Desperate Raniere is now appealing his conviction claiming evidence of child porn found on his computer was "manipulated" in order to secure a conviction against him.
He was convicted in court in New York back in October 2020 after overwhelming evidence relating to sex crimes was presented against him.
Brave victims gave emotional testimony about how they were recruited into the cult believing it to be a self-help group before being abused by him.
The U.S. Sun previously revealed how Raniere claimed in a series of handwritten letters from jail that his life was in danger from a billionaire media mogul and his violent intersex cellmate.
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Last year former FBI agent Richard Kiper told The U.S. Sun he discovered what he believed to be evidence tampering in the notorious case.
In a 42-page court filing, Kiper said agents appeared to have "manually altered the evidence."
The main finding, Kiper alleged, was that pictures of a naked female were placed on the hard drive manually with "manipulated file creation dates" - to make it look like the photos were taken when the female was below the age of consent.
Now, reports from three more former FBI agents and three civilian experts, supporting Kiper's claims, have been filed in the case.
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Stacy Eldridge, a former FBI Senior Forensic Examiner, who served in the agency for 10 years, said in court documents obtained by The U.S. Sun: “Without a doubt, files, folders, dates, and metadata on the hard drive [1B16] were manipulated.
"The photos in this case, including the alleged contraband, were planted on the hard drive.
"It is my expert opinion that the digital evidence was extensively manipulated, and some of this manipulation, specifically regarding the CF card, was executed by a person or persons within the FBI.”
Mark Daniel Bowling, another former FBI Special Agent and Forensic Examiner, who served in the FBI for 20 years, added in the court documents, that it was a "complete technical certainty" that the evidence was "manipulated" and "possibly manufactured."
Another former FBI agent Stephen Bunting said he agreed with the findings.
The new experts also allege members of the prosecution team were involved in the evidence tampering, according to the court filings.
They claim that the camera card, on which the child porn photographs found on Raniere's hard drive allegedly came from, was handled by the prosecutors' office (USAO) six months before the photos were officially discovered.
Eldridge said in her report: “In my ten years of experience at the FBI, I am unaware of a single case where the USAO office handled digital evidence before the FBI.
"I’m left with the question, why did the USAO office handle the CF Card [camera card] in September 2018 when it was only an ‘accidental’ discovery five months later that demonstrated the significance of this piece of evidence?”
The FBI and the US Attorney's Office Eastern District of New York declined to comment on the latest claims when approached by The U.S. Sun.
But previously the US Attorney's Office has slammed the allegations as "frivolous."
Raniere was convicted in court back in 2020 when victims testified about being recruited into the cult, thinking it was a self-help group, before the leader's sick abuse.
“I still have dreams about you where I’m being punished by you for something trivial and I can’t speak up for fear of public shaming," said former NXIVM member turned whistleblower Sarah Edmondson.
The court heard how Raniere created a secret sorority within NXIVM called DOS, where female “slaves” turned over nude photos and other compromising materials that could be used for blackmail if they tried to leave.
Prosecutors said that the disgraced self-help guru - who was addressed as "Vanguard" by followers - also starved and forced some of his victims to be branded "like cattle" with his initials.
Yet despite his conviction, Raniere still has a loyal band of followers campaigning for his release.
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One of them, Suneel Chakravorty, his power-of-attorney said: “We have clear evidence that bad apples in the FBI and the DOJ were involved in framing Keith Raniere for heinous crimes to secure a landmark conviction. All charges must be dismissed.
"Separately, an independent prosecutor needs to investigate the bad agents who broke the law.”
