Reports indicate that actress Allison Mack, a former member of the NXIVM cult, was released from prison in California earlier this week.
According to The New York Times, on Monday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a statement confirming the release of Mack from a correctional facility located in Dublin, California.
Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis sentenced Mack to three years in prison in 2021, stating that she was “an essential accomplice” to Keith Raniere. One of the female cult victims compared Mack’s role in assisting Raniere within the secret group called “Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS)” to the role of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in aiding the late Jeffrey Epstein.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the investigation into Raniere and Mack was initiated in part after several women came forward and claimed they were forced into submission by the group, abused, and branded with a painful cauterizing device that left Raniere’s initials on them. Rainere, known as “Vanguard” within the group, is the leader who oversaw the barbaric treatment of women, who he reportedly referred to as slaves.
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Mack was apprehended in 2018, then pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges of racketeering and conspiracy. Despite facing a potential maximum sentence of 17 years in prison, she received a reduced sentence due to her cooperation with prosecutors, providing them with evidence for their case against Mr. Raniere.
Mack served several years under house arrest prior to her prison sentence, at her parents’ California home. In 2020, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years for sex trafficking and other offenses.
During Mack’s 2021 sentencing in Brooklyn, a federal judge told Mack that she utilized her status as an actress to entice women into her circle and “recruit and groom them as sexual partners” for Raniere.
Mack’s attorneys said in a filing that she spent several months in denial about the true nature of the cult and Raniere’s intentions, despite her decade-long devotion to him, CNN reports. Being confined to her parents’ home for years after her arrest “likely saved her life by leaving her no choice but to reintegrate into her family.”
In an apology letter submitted prior to her sentencing, Mack wrote that she fully recognized her accountability. She also acknowledged repeatedly lying to protect the delusions she was deeply committed to believing.
“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. From the deepest part of my heart and soul, I am sorry.”
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[Feature Photo: FILE – Television actor Allison Mack leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 8, 2019, after pleading guilty to racketeering charges in a case involving a cult-like group based in upstate New York called NXIVM. Mack has been released from a California prison, according to a government website. Online records maintained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons said she was released Monday, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)]
