At last, some action from the New York Attorney General

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The state attorney general's office is investigating a nonprofit foundation associated with the NXIVM corporation that allegedly sponsored brain-activity and other human behavioral studies without any apparent oversight, according to court records.

The nonprofit Ethical Science Foundation was formed in 2007 by Clare W. Bronfman, an heiress of the Seagram Co. business empire who has described herself as the operations director of NXIVM. Bronfman, who owns a horse farm in Delanson, is listed in public records as the trustee and donor of the Ethical Science Foundation.

At the request of the attorney general's office, a state Supreme Court justice recently signed an order directing Bronfman and Dr. Brandon B. Porter, who is involved with NXIVM and conducted the human studies, to turn over all documentation associated with the research, including any written communications, videos, conclusions, consent forms and the names and addresses of "individuals associated with Ethical Science Foundation who participated in any manner with the studies."

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The woman also provided the Times Union with a written outline detailing her involvement in the study of obsessive compulsive disorder. She was with NXIVM from 2012 until June 2017 and said she had been diagnosed with OCD in 2000 and took medication to treat the condition.

In August 2016, during a NXIVM retreat in the Lake George region, Salzman, who co-founded NXIVM with Raniere and has a nursing background, "informed me they were still interested in using me for the OCD study. She told me that ... Dr. Brandon Porter would connect me to a brain wave cap and measure my brain activity while the (NXIVM executive success program) technology was used on me."

The woman said that she had been required to have her psychiatrist write a letter acknowledging her care would be transferred to Porter. She said Porter and Salzman were involved when she took part in two brain-activity studies in the fall of 2016.

Later, the woman said, after she had uploaded information about her participation in the study on a Facebook post, Salzman contacted her.

"I remember her telling me in that call that I was not to speak of being part of the study," she said.

In a follow-up session with Porter, she said, he asked her how she felt about her weight, what part of her body she obsesses about, and about "murder, harming myself, harming others and other more depraved topics."