Smallville actress-turned-cult recruiter Allison Mack on Wednesday was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty to charges she lured women into becoming sex slaves for NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.
Mack appeared at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, where she took responsibility for working in concert with Raniere to create a group of brainwashed and blackmailed women who were branded with Raniere’s initials and pledged loyalty to the self-appointed spiritual guru.
“I made choices I will forever regret,” Mack said during her sentencing hearing. She also said she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”
Mack, 38, was once a part of Raniere’s inner circle, whose group counted heiresses, multimillionaires, and other actors among its members. Prosecutors said Mack was a “master” for “slaves” she ordered “to perform labor, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere.”
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Mack, one of Raniere’s closest confidantes, fled with him to Mexico when authorities zeroed in on the group. He was arrested and sent back to the United States in March 2018. Raniere was convicted in June 2019 of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
Mack was arrested on April 20, 2018. She was charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy.
Mack eventually turned on Raniere and provided prosecutors with “significant, detailed, and highly corroborated information which assisted the government in its prosecution,” according to court documents.
Federal prosecutors had not requested a specific sentence but said it should be less than 14 years given her cooperation.
Mack’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to spare her prison time and instead sentence her to home confinement or probation.
“She cannot undo what has been done, and she will have to live with the regret for the rest of her life,” Mack’s lawyers said in a court filing last week. They added that she “still holds the potential to be valuable to society — as a family member, as a friend, as a helper to those in need, and as a cautionary tale.”
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In an apology letter to the victims, Mack called her involvement in NXIVM “the biggest mistake and greatest regret” of her life.
“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM,” she wrote. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”
NXIVM, founded in 1998, pushed Raniere’s teachings as part mystical, part executive coaching, designed to help people live their best lives. Enrollees in the group’s executive success programs shelled out thousands of dollars for the 60-year-old’s advice. NXIVM pitched itself on its website as a “community guided by humanitarian principles,” though detractors claim it was an abusive sex cult that branded its members and forced them into a life isolated from friends and family.
Several other people affiliated with NXIVM have also pleaded guilty to criminal charges, including Seagram liquor heiress Clare Bronfman, former NXIVM President Nancy Salzman, and her daughter Lauren Salzman.
