[meowface]

Maybe, or maybe the FBI were just incompetent in this particular case and at that time didn't consider it prosecutable.

>Edmondson told the Times Union the FBI agent found the brandings disturbing, but said he did not see anything illegal about it — and said it “seemed like it was consensual.”

One could argue that Scientology similarly blackmails its members and compels them to make humiliating acts of submission and servitude, but one could also argue that it's consensual and not necessarily illegal. That was probably something like the FBI agent's thought process.

[nerdponx]

That, or word came down from the top to leave the case alone.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/14/20803950/jeffrey-ep...

Acosta said he had signed the non-prosecution agreement because he had been told to “back off” of Epstein: “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he said, according to the White House official.

[daodedickinson]

That "belonged to intelligence" line haunts me as well, but I haven't seen it applied to NXIVM.

[Spooky23]

NXIVM had an “executive development” and self fulfillment training side that attracted a lot of people. It was more than a weird sex cult. There were rumors about potential connections that started when the local US Attorneys never took any action. Prosecution was run out of NYC.

No idea if that is true, but the local paper reported on shady stuff and nothing happened. The Albany County DA was essentially implicated in helping the cult in various ways that has been documented in the press, so who knows. Albany is a weird, tightly connected place.

[jacquesm]

So does Scientology.