The actress pleaded guilty and today a judge has handed down the sentence
Actress Allison Mack, best known for playing the role of Chloe in Smallville, a DC series also starring Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum, was sentenced today after pleading guilty to charges related to the recruitment of women for the NXIVM sect. The group was portrayed as a network of self-help programs, but it ended up being not only a pyramid scheme but also a secret s*x cult, and Mack was one of the people who recruited women to be part of that s*x cult, who ended up being branded with the initials of the group's founder, Keith Raniere. For the charges she faces, Mack could have spent between 14 to 17 and a half years in prison, but has now been sentenced with a reduced sentence for having helped obtain evidence for the sentencing of the group's leader.
According to Comic Book, the court has decided that Mack will spend three years in prison and will also have to pay a fine of US$20,000. Just yesterday the actress released a letter, which was filed with the court last week (via AP), where she said that dedicating herself to Raniere's organization "was the biggest mistake and the biggest regret of my life." She also wrote "I am sorry to those of you who brought me to NXIVM. I am sorry that I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man." Here is part of the statement in more detail:
I threw myself into Keith Raniere's teachings with everything I had. I believed in my heart that his mentorship guided me to be a better, more enlightened version of myself. I dedicated my loyalty, my resources, and in the end, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my entire life. I apologize to all those I brought to NXIVM. I am sorry that I exposed them to the vile and emotionally abusive schemes of a sick man. I am sorry that I encouraged them to use their resources to participate in something that was ultimately so disgusting. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and feel a huge weight of guilt for having misused their trust, leading them down a negative path.
The NXIVM cult and the story of Ms. Mack's downfall has been a tragedy for everyone involved. But that does not have to, nor should it, be the end of Allison Mack's story. Ms. Mack now understands that back then she believed it was the best thing that could have happened to her.
In July 2020, the FBI's Assistant Director in New York stated that NXIVM was a long-standing association that traversed multiple avenues of criminal activity, including, but not limited to, electronic monitoring; identity theft; extortion; trafficking of victims; and illegal trafficking of a victim after a period of unlawful confinement. The details of these alleged crimes became increasingly grim as the investigations continued. Following the formal prison sentence for Allison Mack, officials say it is one more step towards bringing justice to the victims of NXIVM.
The co-star of the Smallville series was arrested a few days after Keith Raniere, who had fled to our country after authorities began searching for him. He was finally arrested in March 2018 and sent back to the United States for trial and was sentenced to 120 years in prison on s*x trafficking charges. Mack has been sentenced to three years in federal prison, from there she will continue to face other charges. The downfall of the actress took everyone by surprise, as the young, fresh-faced blonde spent a decade as a fan favorite in Smallville, then became a key figure in the NXIVM cult, led by convicted s*x trafficker Raniere.
Mack, 38, learned at noon Wednesday of her imminent fate in a Brooklyn federal court by U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis. She was arrested in April 2018 in Brooklyn after a trip with Raniere and other cult members to Mexico, where the leader was caught in a villa outside Puerto Vallarta in March of that year.
Series such as The Vow - 87% on HBO and Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult - 100% on Starz, have explored in depth the structure and mechanisms that Rainiere and his accomplices used to recruit women from different social strata. The HBO program reveals the emotional toll that cult members take. Sarah Edmondson, Mark Vicente, Bonnie Piesse and Barbara Bouchey, who were part of the cult, appear in the docuseries and give their testimony. The Starz show is an intim*te and harrowing first-person account of India Oxenberg's seven-year journey as she was drawn into the clutches of NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. The young woman is the daughter of actress Catherine Oxenberg, known for her role in the Dynasty (1981), one of the most popular television series of the 1980s.
During investigations, it was discovered that Allison Mack recruited several people into the abusive cult that revolved around emotional manipulation and forced s*x with Raniere. Prosecutors detailed how Mack and Raniere came to form a social club for women in NXIVM that encouraged members to serve as "slaves" to designated "masters," with Mack being one of the high-level masters who could command others to perform odd tasks and limit their caloric intake. The actress was described as one of the ringleaders of the shocking decision to brand members with a ritual that marked women using a symbol incorporating Raniere and Mack's initials.
Allison described her 11 years in the Raniere-run NXIVM organization as a form of brainwashing, and she has condemned its “twisted influence” on her life. Something that helped earn her a lesser sentence was that the actress provided evidence to sink Rainiere, such as an audio recording and other details. Mack's mother told the judge about her daughter's slow disengagement from the NXIVM cult after her arrest in April 2018. Since then, the actress has been under house arrest at her parents' home in Orange Country. Mindy Mack, in her sentencing letter to the judge, told him that her daughter went from lying in bed and crying to “raging and then regretting losing control.”
