Seagram's heiress arrested in cult case

NEW YORK (AP) -- An heiress to the Seagram's liquor fortune has been arrested in connection with her work with a self-help group in upstate New York that is accused of branding women and forcing them into unwanted sex.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced Tuesday that Clare Bronfman and three other people associated with the NXIVM organization had been charged with racketeering conspiracy.

Bronfman is a daughter of billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr.

For many years she has been involved in financing NXIVM and supporting its co-founder, Keith Raniere.

Raniere was charged earlier this year along with a NXIVM adherent, the actress Allison Mack, with coercing followers into becoming "slaves" to senior members of the group.

They have denied the allegations.

Bronfman has said she had no knowledge of wrongdoing.