Marcel Pontbriand talks with QMI Agency in an exclusive interview. (TVA NOUVELLES)

A self-styled guru at the centre of a massive child-seizure case gave an exclusive interview to QMI Agency from his U.S. desert hideout.

Marcel Pontbriand, 53, says the Mafia put a contract on his head. QMI Agency agreed to keep the precise location of his whereabouts a secret.

Pontbriand made headlines in November when Canadian authorities took custody of 12 children who had been living with him and his followers in Marana, Ariz.

Several Quebecers have said their children and grandchildren moved to Arizona over the past two years to live with Pontbriand, whom they said convinced them the world would end on Dec. 12, 2012.

Some feared Pontbriand was planning a mass suicide.