Allison Mack is a former Smallville actress who rose to fame for an entirely different reason in the last few years: her apparent involvement with Nxivm, a multi-level marketing organization that billed itself as an empowerment training center and was accused of being a cult with a sex-slave ring, led to her pleading guilty to several crimes in April. Now, Mack is awaiting her sentencing hearing. She is not in prison yet.
Mack was arrested in March 2018 and released on $5 million bail. She was originally supposed to receive her sentencing in September, but that hearing has since been postponed to an undisclosed date. She faces up to 40 years in jail.
Mack’s role at Nxivm takes the center stage in a new Lifetime movie about actress Catherine Oxenberg’s attempt to save her daughter, India, from Nxivm. Mack is played by Sarah Fletcher in the film.
Nxivm leader and “Grand Master” Keith Raniere was convicted of several crimes, including: racketeering, sex trafficking, conspiracy, forced labor, sexual exploitation of a child, identity theft, and possession of child pornography. He faces anywhere from 15 years to a lifetime in jail; his sentencing hearing, too, was scheduled for September and postponed indefinitely.
Here’s what you need to know:
Mack Pled Guilty to Several Charges in April, & Admitted to Luring Women into Nxivm
Allison Mack Instagram
During her trial in April, Mack pled guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges, per The New York Times. She was also originally charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and forced labor; it’s not clear if she entered a plea deal with the government, but those charges were not addressed during her trial.
Mack also offered up a bevy of information about Nxivm and her role within the organization during her trial. She admitted to luring women into the organization, and said that she personally had become involved with Raniere at a point in time where she was very dissatisfied with the trajectory of her acting career.
Mack was also involved in DOS, the alleged females-only society within Nxivm that billed itself as a female mentorship program but has since been revealed to involve a number of nefarious things, including the branding of Raniere’s initials on women’s bodies, the creation of a “master-slave” dynamic between women, and the requirement of women to offer up damaging information or photographs as “collateral.” During her trial, Mack admitted to being involved in that blackmailing process; she was accused by prosecutors of enticing women to join the group, then pressuring them to have sex with Raniere. She didn’t address those accusations during her trial.
At one point, per The Times, Mack said, “I was lost…I must take full responsibility for my conduct.”
At another point, according to the Associated Press, Mack said, “I believed Keith Raniere’s intentions were to help people, and I was wrong.” She also added, “I know I can and will be a better person.”
In June 2019, Raniere was convicted guilty of all counts against him, including racketeering and sex trafficking. His sentencing, like Mack’s, has been indefinitely delayed; he faces up to a lifetime in jail. His lawyer has indicated their intention to appeal the convictions.
Mack Is Accused of Having Direct Involvement With India Oxenberg via Nxivm
Mack is featured prominently in the new film because of her alleged involvement with India Oxenberg while the young women was involved with Nxivm. Per The New York Post, one witness at Mack’s trial who was known as “Nicole” claimed that Mack would use Oxenberg as a way to keep her in line. She said, ”When India and I became close, they would use her to make me behave.”
She continued, “Alison was trying to have [Oxenberg] get down to a certain weight, and they decided that goal weight was 107 pounds…it was just really hard to watch sometimes.”
Nicole further testified that when she tried to leave Nxivm herself, Mack then used India as a weapon against her. She said, per The Post, “The first thing Allison said is ‘Look what this is doing to India, she hasn’t eaten since she got your email. And India said ‘Well, that’s not entirely true.’”
Mack reportedly had nicknames for all of her “slaves,” Nicole said at the trial. She was nicknamed “the brat,” she claimed, and Oxenberg was nicknamed “the princess.”
Mack has not offered any public statements on the upcoming film, nor on Catherine Oxenberg’s original memoir. She does have a public Instagram, though she rarely posts on it. Her bio reads, “Storyteller, question asker, music lover, theatre goer, movie obsessor, Shakespeare studier, globe trotter, food inhaler, woman of 35 and counting….”
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