Alison Durkee
Forbes Staff
July 5, 2023
Actress Allison Mack was released from prison on Monday, federal prison records show, ending her three-year sentence early after Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges for her role in the NXIVM cult, in which she helped leader Keith Raniere recruit and abuse women.
KEY FACTS
Federal prison records first reported by the Albany Times-Union show Mack, 40, was released from prison this week, after she was sentenced to three years in prison in June 2021.
Mack was first arrested in April 2018 alongside Raniere for her role in NXIVM, in which prosecutors said she recruited women to join the purported “female mentorship group,” and “victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants’ benefit.”
The actress, best known for her work on the television show Smallville, pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges in April 2019, and prosecutors said she began cooperating with the government in their case against NXIVM and Raniere one week before entering her guilty plea.
Mack faced a potential prison sentence of 14 years, which prosecutors asked to be lessened due to her cooperation with the investigation.
Mack expressed remorse in a letter submitted as part of her sentencing memorandum, telling victims of NXIVM she was “sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The Times-Union notes Mack is the first NXIVM member to complete their prison term. While Raniere is likely to serve a life sentence in prison, after being sentenced to 120 years for crimes including sex trafficking, former NXIVM president Nancy Salzman is scheduled to be released in July 2024. Clare Bronfman, a former operations director for the group and heiress to the Seagram’s fortune, is set to be released in June 2025 after being sentenced to 81 months in prison. (Several other members of the cult were sentenced only to probation.)
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“I believed, whole-heartedly, that [Raniere’s] 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 greatest regret of my life,” Mack wrote in her apology letter read at her sentencing, as published by Variety, adding she was “dedicated to spending my life working to mend the hearts I broke and continuing to transform myself into a more loving and compassionate woman.”
KEY BACKGROUND
NXIVM was a “self-help” organization first established in the 1990s, which the New York Times notes attracted more than 16,000 people to its workshops and “Executive Success Programs.” Members of the group became more ardent followers of Raniere, however, and Mack helped lead a female-only subgroup, known as DOS, which functioned as a pyramid scheme in which women were recruited as “slaves” to “masters,” with Mack being one of the highest-ranking members. Victims have testified to being branded and abused as part of the group, as well as being coerced into having sex with Raniere. Forbes suggested in 2003 that detractors of Raniere saw NXIVM as a “cult-like group,” with Bronfman’s father, billionaire Edgar Bronfman Sr., saying he hadn’t spoken to his daughter in months and Clare had lent $2 million to the program. The full extent of NXIVM’s abuse first gained widespread attention in a Times article published in October 2017, six months before Mack and Raniere’s arrests.
FURTHER READING
Allison Mack, actress convicted in NXIVM case, released from prison (Albany Times-Union)
Allison Mack sentenced to 3 years in prison for role in Nxivm (CNN)
A Timeline of the Nxivm Sex Cult Case (New York Times)
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