TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM, has been jailed for three years.
The decision was made after Mack pleaded guilty to charges that she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader.
Mack — best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend on the series "Smallville" — appeared in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday.
The actor sought credit for cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere and taking responsibility for helping him create a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.
She was hit with a three year prison sentence and slapped with a $20,000 fine for her role in the NXIVM case.
Devoting herself to the self-improvement guru "was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life," she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week.
Mack, 38, was once part of the inner circle of Raniere, whose group attracted millionaires and actors among its adherents.
Prosecutors said she became a "master" for "slaves" she ordered "to perform labor, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere."
Read our Allison Mack sentencing live blog for the latest news and updates…
- Katie Balevic
ALLISON WAS IN A NXIVM RECRUITMENT VIDEO
Smallville actress Allison Mack stars in NXIVM recruitment video
- Katie Balevic
FORMER CULT MEMBERS REVEAL HORRIFYING DETAILS
They revealed they had been forced to hand over explicit naked pictures, had been beaten with paddles, made to starve themselves and were unwittingly branded with Keith's initials on their private areas.
Other women claimed they had been made to seduce and/or have sex with Keith.
A 31-year-old woman testified in court as to how she was blindfolded and tied down to a table while Keith watched another woman perform a sex act on her.
- Katie Balevic
'SELF-HELP' ORGANIZATION INVESTIGATED AFTER SHOCKING REVELATIONS
Advertised as a self-help group, NXIVM was placed under the spotlight in 2018 when former members made a series of shocking revelations about the organization.
Victims of the cult were allegedly forced to be brandedCredit: Getty Images – Getty
- Katie Balevic
ALLISON ALLEGEDLY RECRUITED WOMEN AS 'SEX SLAVES'
Prosecutors have alleged Mack was a high ranking member of the group and recruited women as “sex slaves” following the arrest of leader Keith.
Allison pled guilty to one count of racketeering and one count of racketeering conspiracy in April 2019.
She faces up to 40 years in prison on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy.
- Katie Balevic
KEITH RANIERE SENTENCED TO 120 YEARS IN PRISON
Keith Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison for starting and leading a sex cult.
Credit: Eastern District of NY - Katie Balevic
ALLISON CLAIMED TO 'PUBLICLY DENOUNCE' RANIERE
The letter also stated, that Allison has “publicly denounced Raniere (and her own prior association with Raniere) in the strongest possible terms.”
Her legal team continued: “That is made clear by Ms. Mack’s plea allocution, her decision to cooperate completely and fully with the government, and is further underscored in her letter to this Court as well as her efforts to demonstrate her remorse to the public generally.
“And more specifically to those she harmed. There is thus no need to impose an additional sentence of incarceration on Ms. Mack to achieve specific deterrence.”
- Katie Balevic
ALLISON BEGGED FOR NO JAIL TIME
Allison referenced “those harmed by the collateral damage of my destructive choices,” in which she wrote that she is dedicated to spending the rest of her life working to make amends and become a “more compassionate woman.”
In a memo from the actress’s attorney, she pleaded with the judge for no jail time as she feels she has “committed grievous wrongs and that she has earned her punishment.”
Credit: Splash News - Katie Balevic
ALLISON 'DEVOTED HER LIFE' TO KEITH RANIERE
The former TV star continued: “I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself.
“I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life.”
- Katie Balevic
ALLISON APOLOGIZED FOR HER ACTIONS
In the document, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Allison apologized to anyone who had been “harmed” by her actions.
She said: “It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.
“I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had,” she said of the 60-year-old felon who started the infamous sex cult.
- Katie Balevic
ALLISON MACK BEGS FOR NO JAIL TIME
Allison Mack called her involvement in the NXIVM sex cult the “biggest mistake and regret of her life” as she begged the judge for “no jail time.”
The 38-year-old Smallville actress wrote a lengthy letter to the court claiming to be remorseful ahead of a hearing next Wednesday where she will be sentenced for her criminal activity.
- Katie Balevic
COMPARISONS BETWEEN ALLISON MACK AND BILL COSBY
One person on Twitter suggested that Allison Mack may serve more time in prison than Bill Cosby, who was released earlier today after serving two years.
- Julia Fields
WHY IS ALLISON DIVORCING HER WIFE?
Mack and Clyne wed in 2017.
Mack filed for divorce in Orange County, California on Friday, December 11, 2020.
According to court testimony, their marriage is allegedly connected to the NXIVM cult co-founded by Keith Raniere.
Federal prosecutors claimed in 2018 that Raniere ordered Mack and Clyne's marriage.
That was the same year that Mack was arrested on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy in connection to her involvement with NXIVM, which some accuse of being a sex cult.
Mack pled guilty to one count of racketeering and one count of racketeering conspiracy in April 2019.
- Julia Fields
WHAT WAS NXIVM?
The NXIVM sex cult was allegedly founded by Raniere and Nancy Salzman.
NXIVM was a company in Albany, New York, that touted "self-help" classes.
However, prosecutors said within the organization, a secretive, female-only group was created.
Some women were ultimately branded with Raniere and Mack's initials and were forced into giving compromising information, including nude photos, to the group's leaders regularly.
The group, known as DOS, involved several women who were known as "first-line masters," who reported directly to Raniere and recruited other women as their slaves, according to testimony at the trial.
Unbeknownst to many of the women, Raniere was the head of the group, and women were, at times, directed to have sex with him and send him nude photographs.
- Julia Fields
ALLISON MACK OUTSIDE OF COURTHOUSE TODAY
- Julia Fields
MACK PREVIOUSLY PLEADED FOR NO JAIL TIME
In a memo from the actress’ attorney, she pleaded with the judge for no jail time as she feels she has “committed grievous wrongs and that she has earned her punishment.”
The letter also stated, that Allison has “publicly denounced Raniere (and her own prior association with Raniere) in the strongest possible terms.”
Her legal team continued: “That is made clear by Ms. Mack’s plea allocution, her decision to cooperate completely and fully with the government, and is further underscored in her letter to this Court as well as her efforts to demonstrate her remorse to the public generally.
“And more specifically to those she harmed. There is thus no need to impose an additional sentence of incarceration on Ms. Mack to achieve specific deterrence.”
- Julia Fields
WHAT WAS RANIERE'S SENTENCE?
Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison in October 2020 – after he was convicted last June on seven felonies, including sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering.
The cult founder – who followers called "Vanguard" – was also found guilty of acts of extortion, identity theft, and the production and possession of child pornography.
Raniere was arrested in March of 2018 by Mexican officials in Puerto Vallarta, where he fled when the group’s sordid activities were exposed.
Raniere was extradited to the US – where he was arraigned in Texas and later tried in New York in 2019.
A jury in federal court in Brooklyn took less than five hours to find Raniere guilty on all counts, prompting ex-Nxivm members to burst into applause.
- Julia Fields
MACK APOLOGIZES TO THOSE SHE RECRUITED INTO THE CULT
Devoting herself to NXIVM leader Keith Raniere “was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life,” she wrote in a letter filed with the court.
She added: “I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM.
"I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”
- Julia Fields
MACK RECEIVED REDUCED SENTENCE FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION
Prosecutors previously asked US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to give Mack a reduced sentence because of the "substantial assistance" she gave the government in the investigation and prosecution of others.
- Julia Fields
WHAT IS ALLISON MACK'S SENTENCE?
On June 30, 2021, Mack was sentenced to three years in prison at a Brooklyn federal court.
She will also be hit with a $20,000 fine for her role in the NXIVM case.
- Luke Kenton
WHAT DID NXIM LEADERS DO?
Former members testified at NXIVM leader Keith Raniere trial that he established a secret sorority within the group in which women were kept on starvation diets, branded with Raniere's initials and in some cases ordered to have sex with him.
Leaders of the group, including Mack, were said to use nude photos and other compromising materials to blackmail members into complying.
Mack admitted that she coerced two unnamed women into doing work for the group by threatening to release damaging information about them.
- Luke Kenton
MACK'S LAWYERS: SHE 'TURNED HER LIFE AROUND'
In the three years since her arrest, Mack's lawyers said she has worked to completely turn her life around.
They say in that time she has been working as a caterer, obtained her associate's degree at a community college in California, and enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at the University of California, Berkeley.
"None of these things can justify Ms. Mack's past actions, or erase the harm done to the Victims," he lawyers wrote in a memo.
"However, having been finally removed from Raniere's grip by these very proceedings and the unwavering support of her family and friends that they have engendered, Ms. Mack has regained the clarity she had lost as a member of Nxivm — clarity to see past Raniere's lies and manipulations, and to understand the incalculable harm caused by the group she was a part of."
- Luke Kenton
'I'M SO SORRY'
In a letter included as part of the sentencing memorandum, Allison Mack apologized to the women she brought into the dangerous sex cult.
"I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm," Mack wrote. "I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man."
Her attorneys claims she's "turned her life around and earnestly dedicated herself to rehabilitation, renunciation of Keith Raniere and those who supported him, and making amends."
They had requested the judge impart a sentence without jail time.
- Luke Kenton
WHAT IS THE NXIVM SEX CULT?
NXIVM claimed to be a self-help group and a multi-level marketing organization.
Within the organization, there was a women’s-only subsect led by Keith Raniere known as “DOS.”
The group’s former publicist Frank Parlato claims that to join, women are brainwashed into handing over blackmail-worthy material such as pornographic pictures or financial information.
Once they became a member – or “slave” – they were allegedly encouraged to recruit new women into their “slave pods” to be on call 24 hours a day to their “master.”
If they don’t recruit enough “slaves” or respond to their “masters” fast enough, they were beaten with paddles, Parlato claims.
- Mollie Mansfield
SHE COULD HAVE FACED 17 YEARS
Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Mack would face between 14 and 17 1/2 years behind bars.
Her defense team has argued in court papers that probation or a sentence to home confinement is more appropriate, and prosecutors have agreed that any prison term should be below the guidelines range because of her cooperation.
Mack was today sentenced to three years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
- Mollie Mansfield
MACK SAID BEING PART OF NXIVM WAS 'BIGGEST MISTAKE'
The actor sought credit for cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere and taking responsibility for helping him create a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.
Devoting herself to the self-improvement guru "was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life," she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week.
She was today sentenced to three years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
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