Actor Allison Mack released from prison early after sex trafficking ‘cult’ case
Allison Mack has been released from prison before the end of her sentence, a government website has indicated.
The Smallville star was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to charges that she'd manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for cult leader Keith Raniere.
Records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons say that Mack was released from prison on Monday (3 July), after completing around two years of her sentence.
The cult leader Raniere had been sentenced to 120 years behind bars for sex trafficking and Mack avoided a longer prison sentence by co-operating with the authorities.
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She provided evidence on Raniere's activities, helping prosecutors lay out how he brainwashed and branded women that were forced to have sex with him.
Ahead of her sentencing at a court in New York, she said she had 'remorse and guilt' for her part in the cult.
UNILAD has contacted the Federal Bureau of Prisons for comment.
Last year, Raniere attempted to appeal against his sentencing but in December 2022, a federal appeals court affirmed the charges of sex trafficking, the sexual exploitation of a child and a forced labor conspiracy.
A six week trial in 2019 had found the cult leader guilty on all counts after he was charged with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.
He was the founder of NXIVM, a New York cult which contained a group that branded women with his initials.
The group operated between 1998 and 2018 before reports of abuse led to Raniere and five others being arrested.
At her sentencing, the judge said they believed Mack's statement of apology was sincere but said she had been 'a willing and proactive ally' and an 'essential accomplice to Raniere's monstrous crimes' and thus deserved a serious sentence.
"I made choices I will forever regret," she said in a statement filed with the court apologising to her victims.
“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."
Advisory sentencing guidelines would have seen her facing between 14 and 17 years in prison, but her co-operation with the investigation into Raniere and his cult led prosecutors to agree that a prison term should be below this level.
Following the failure of Raniere's attempts to appeal his conviction, the Independent reported that his next course of action would be to get the case before the supreme court.
The publication also noted that as an approach this would be unlikely to succeed.
Joe Harker