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Allison Mack talks about joining Nxivm in a discovery interview

December 29, 2022

Actress Allison Mack leaves the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse after being charged with sex trafficking and racketeering related to the NXIVM cult case. (Photo: Reuters)

Uncovered interview with Allison Mack makes headlines as Smallville The star explained why she joined NXIVM. In 2021, Mack was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in Keith Raniere’s criminal organization, which was described as a “sex cult”.

Journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis spoke with Mack and Raniere in 2017, weeks before he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and other crimes. On his new podcast Infamous: Inside America’s Biggest ScandalsGrigoriadis plays for the first time the interviews that were conducted in NXIVM’s secret hideout in Mexico.

“I moved to Albany to fill that void and find my soul, if that makes sense, because it had fallen apart,” Mack says in an excerpt obtained by Page Six. (NXIVM headquarters was there in New York.) “I asked Keith if he would help me become a great actress again because I felt like a fraud.”

Raniere co-founded NXIVM in 1998 and introduced the organization as a self-improvement group. It attracted a number of famous and wealthy members, like Mack. The actress rose through the ranks and became one of Raniere’s closest confidants, recruiting women to join the cult group. Within NXIVM was a secret sisterhood consisting of “slaves” and “masters”. Mack enlisted some of the “slaves” to engage in sex acts with Raniere, according to statements by some of the women. The victims bore the initials of Mack and Raniere. In the 2017 interview, Mack denied any wrongdoing and told Grigoriadis that Raniere was “not the leader of a harem.”

“I don’t recruit nubile young women to be his sex slaves,” Mack said. “You know it’s the crucibleit’s the McCarthy trials, it’s just like throwing accusations and spreading like wildfire.”

Mack admitted friends feared she was being “brainwashed” and involved in a cult.

“I’m like, ‘Talk to me for a few minutes. Let me tell you what we do,’” he added. Honey, we’ve shrunk star continued.

“I was just like walking with myself and thinking, ‘Am I crazy? Am I one of those horrible people you’ve heard of who does horrible things and thinks they’re doing things for God? I’ve had a lot of conversations with myself like that,” Mack added.

“In the end, I just sat down and looked at my life and looked at my relationships and looked at all the things that I had written, the journals that I had kept – the things that I had done over the past few years. And it was so good,” she explained.

Mack eventually took responsibility for his role in the illegal NXIVM operation. In 2019, she pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy as part of a settlement with prosecutors.

“I’m so sorry,” Mack wrote in a letter before sentencing. “I threw myself into Keith Raniere’s teachings with all I had. I believed with all my heart that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources and, ultimately, my life to him. It was the biggest mistake and the biggest regret of my life.

Mack apologized to “those of you I brought into NXIVM”.

“I’m sorry that I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I’m sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly,” she continued. . “I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having abused your trust, leading you down a negative path. I am sorry for those of you I’ve spoken to in a harsh or hurtful way. At the time, I believed I was helping. I believed in tough love and thought that was the way to love. personal empowerment. I was so confused. I never want to be someone who is seen as mean, but those aspects of my humanity were revealed in all of this; it was devastating to come to terms.”

Mack added, “I felt overwhelming shame as I worked to come to terms with and understand all that happened and all that I chose.”

The actress also apologized to her family and friends who tried “to show me the truth about NXIVM and Keith, but I didn’t listen.”

“The list of those who have been hurt by the collateral damage of my destructive choices continues to grow as I become more aware of how my choices have affected those around me. I am grateful to ‘to have survived this process and to have been arrested when I was,” she concluded. “Know that I am dedicated to spending my life fixing the hearts I have broken and continuing to transform into a more loving and compassionate woman.”

Mack faced a maximum of 40 years in prison, 20 years on each count, but only received three as she assisted prosecutors in their case against Raniere. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison, which an appeals court has just confirmed.

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