Smallville actress Allison Mack and her attorneys have requested that she serve no time behind bars after her involvement with Keith Raniere’s NXIVM cult. Deadline reports that Mack is scheduled for sentencing on June 30 and federal prosecutors are recommending leniency. “It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry,” Mack wrote in a letter herself alongside sentencing guideline recommendations from her legal team.
“I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself,” Mack wrote. “I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life.” Mack was arrested by the FBI in Brooklyn on April 20, 2018, and faced charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy in relation to her role as a high-level member of NXIVM. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in April of 2019 and could serve between 14 and 17 years in prison. Following her arrest, Mack posted a $5 million bond and has been free ever since.
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NXIVM positioned itself as a multi-level marketing company, but was revealed to be a sex cult where Raniere would force the female cult members to have sex with him and be branded as his “slaves.” Mack was cooperative during the investigation into Raniere, who was sentenced to 120 years in prison in 2020 after being convicted of sexual exploitation of a child, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and more.
In a 2013 video unearthed by the Daily Mail, Mack was heard saying of NXIVM, “It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever done because it consists of working with a group of people who are totally interdependent, meaning we’re all working together and no-one is ever punished or told that they’re wrong or bad…. I would say that working for Jness is the most satisfying and purposeful thing I’ve ever done,” she added, speaking of an offshoot group that she was also part of. “Watching the women who are involved in Jness completely transform and evolve in a way that is so pure, is such a privilege.”
During Mack’s court case, her lawyers used Scientology as an argument for why she committed no wrongdoing, citing a 2009 case, in which a couple lost their lawsuit against the Church of Scientology over forced labor allegations. “The court did not find that plaintiffs were compelled to remain in the organization even though, if they chose to leave, they would be ‘excommunicated’ from their friends and family and labeled a ‘dissenter,’” the legal documents stated. “The threat of reputational damage and isolation from loved ones therefore did not qualify as serious harm.”
