Allison Mack, the “Smallville” star who pleaded guilty to her role in the sex trafficking case linked to NXIVM, has admitted she used her fame as a “power tool” in her first public comments since leaving federal prison two years ago.
In a new seven-part podcast produced by CBC’s Uncover, “Allison After NXIVM,” Mack chronicles her journey from child actor to top lieutenant in NXIVM, a purported self-help group in upstate New York led by Keith Raniere that prosecutors said was a sex-cult pyramid scheme that enslaved and branded women.
Mack, 43, was sentenced in July 2021 to three years in prison for her role in the group after pleading guilty to several crimes, including extortion and forced labor. She was released from a federal prison in California early in July 2023.
“I think that I capitalized on the things I had,” Mack said in one episode about using her celebrity to recruit women into NXIVM. “And so the success I had as an actor, I think I did capitalize on that, yeah. And it was a power tool that I had to get people to do what I wanted.”
At Raniere’s trial, former NXIVM members described how he established a secret sorority within NXIVM called DOS, in which women described as “slaves” were kept on near-starvation diets, branded with his and Mack’s initials, and ordered to have sex with him.
Mack and other leaders used nude photos and other compromising material as “collateral” to pressure members into complying, prosecutors said at the trial. In the podcast, Mack admits she was “very effective in moving Keith’s vision forward.”
“I was not kind and I was aggressive and I was abusive,” Mack said in one episode. “I was harsh and I was callous and I was aggressive and forceful in ways that were painful for people.”
But while Mack said in one episode that she admits she was “abusing my power,” she can’t “negate the fact that there was a part of me that was altruistic and was desperate to help people.”
She added that she “wanted to be better, and I was willing to do anything to be better in myself and to help other people be better.”
Mack also describes her sentencing hearing in Brooklyn federal court, where her family sat inside the courtroom as prosecutors described her crimes. At sentencing, prosecutors said the actress deserved less prison time for her cooperation in the case against Raniere, who is serving a 120-year prison sentence on a slew of charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering.
The self-improvement guru was sentenced on charges that he turned female members of the group into sex slaves and even branded some with his initials.
“Oh, my God, my poor brother behind me, having to hear this about his sister,” Mack said in one episode. “My poor mom! I’m so sorry, you guys … I don’t see myself as innocent, and they were.”
Since her release in 2023, Mack has gotten remarried and is pursuing a master’s degree in social work. In one episode, host Natalie Robehmed explains that while Mack has had countless opportunities to tell her story, she has turned them all down.
“Allison has not spoken publicly since her incarceration,” Robehmed said. “She’s had lots of offers, but always said no — until now. She wants to tell her story in podcast form, because she loves podcasts, and because she’s no longer comfortable in front of cameras like she used to be.”
Austin Mullen contributed.
