Former ‘Smallville’ actress Allison Mack released from federal prison for her part in NXIVM scandal
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on July 5, 2023
Former Smallville actress Allison Mack was released from federal prison in California on Monday, July 3, after serving a sentence for her part in the NXIVM scandal.
NXIVM was a purported women’s self-help group that prosecutors had portrayed as a sex cult and criminal enterprise.
Mack, 40, had pleaded guilty to blackmailing women and subjecting them to sexual harassment. She received a more lenient sentence of three years in prison in June of 2021, after testifying against the purported self-help group’s leader, Keith Raniere.
Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison in 2020, following his 2019 conviction on sex trafficking, forced labor, conspiracy, and racketeering charges.
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence for what they said was Raniere’s “immeasurable damage” to victims over 15 years of crime and exploitation, while defense attorneys asserted his “complete innocence.”
Mack recruited women as part of a subgroup of the NXIVM cult. Women were approached to be a part of the “self-help group” but prosecutors maintained Raniere collected female “slaves” who were branded with his initials and coerced into having sex with him after giving him nude photographs or revealing embarrassing secrets.
The latter was considered “collateral” in order to prevent them from leaving the “secret society” or disclosing its existence to others, prosecutors said.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
