Actress Allison Mack sentenced for involvement in sex cult
Actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in the scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM, was sentenced to three years in prison on June 30 on charges 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 TV series Smallville—had previously pleaded guilty to the charges and begun cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. Prosecutors credited her with helping them mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.
At her sentencing in Brooklyn federal court, Mack renounced the self-improvement guru.
“I made choices I will forever regret,” she said, also telling the judge she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”
“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM,” she wrote in a letter filed with the court. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”
She reiterated her apologies to the victims in court the day of her sentencing: “From the deepest part of my heart and soul, I am sorry.”
A survivor, Jessica Joan, rejected Mack’s apologies, telling the judge the actor deserved no mercy.
“She can blame Keith all she wants, but she is a monster cut from the same cloth,” Joan said in court. “Allison Mack is a predator and an evil human being.”
Mack, 38, was once part of the inner circle around 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.”
As authorities closed in on Raniere, he fled to Mexico with Mack and others to try to reconstitute the group there. He was arrested and sent to the United States in March 2018; Mack was arrested a few days later.
Raniere was sentenced last year to 120 years in prison for his conviction on sex-trafficking charges. Clare Bronfman, a 41-year-old heir to the Seagram’sfortune, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison in September for her role as Raniere’s unwavering benefactor.
Mack was allowed to remain out on bail in home confinement until she surrenders to prison on September 29. —Associated Press
