Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in federal prison, a stunning downfall for the fresh-faced actor who spent a decade as a fan favorite on “Smallville” but then became a key figure in the NXIVM cult led by convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere.
Mack, 38, learned her fate Wednesday morning in federal court in Brooklyn from U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis. She was arrested in April 2018 in Brooklyn after a wild trek with Raniere and others to Mexico, where Raniere was arrested in a villa outside Puerto Vallarta in March of that year.
“I made choices I will forever regret,” Mack told the judge, according to the Associated Press, adding that she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”
Mack also received a $20,000 fine and was ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. She will surrender to authorities on Sept. 29. Her attorneys have requested that she be allowed to serve time in a federal prison on the West Coast as her family lives in Orange County.
During the hearing, one unnamed NXIVM victim made a statement via video. Actor Jessica Joan appeared in person in court to give a victim’s statement.
Prosecutors had asked the judge for leniency, emphasizing Mack’s role in helping to seal their case against Raniere on multiple sex trafficking, racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges. Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison last October. The lengthy prosecution of Raniere and his NXIVM associates including Mack, Seagram Co. heiress Clare Bronfman, Raniere partner Nancy Salzman and her daughter, Lauren Salzman. Bronfman was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison on identity theft and immigration fraud charges last October. Nancy and Lauren Salzman are awaiting sentencing next month.
Sentencing guidelines called for Mack to serve 14 years to 17-and-a-half years. The actor asked the judge to spare her prison sentence and allow her to continue her studies. She has been pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and Psychology from UC Berkeley since spring 2020 while on house arrest.
But a chilling portrait of Mack emerged through the NXIVM prosecutions as a young woman deluded by a mad man and eager to recruit others into an abusive cult revolving around emotional manipulation and coerced sex with Raniere.
Prosecutors detailed how Mack and Raniere went so far as to form a social club for women in the NXIVM orbit 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 strange tasks and limit their caloric intake. Mack has been described as a ringleader of the shocking decision to scar members with a human branding ritual using a symbol that incorporated Raniere’s and Mack’s initials.
Mack described her 11 years in the NXIVM organization led by Raniere as a form of brainwashing, and she has condemned his “twisting influence” on her life. Prosecutors credited Mack with providing an audio recording and other details that helped convict Raniere.
Mack’s mother told the judge of her daughter’s slow unwinding from the NXIVM cult after her April 2018 arrest. The actor has been on house arrest at her parents’ home in Orange Country since then. Mindy Mack, in her sentencing letter to the judge, told him that her daughter veered from staying in bed and weeping to “rage and then feel regret for losing control.”