Allison Mack

Allison Mack was born on July 29, 1982, in Preetz, West Germany,[1][2][3] to Jonathan, an opera singer, and Mindy Mack.[2][3] Her American parents were in Germany at the time of her birth because Jonathan was performing there; they continued to live in Germany for two years.[4]

Mack married actress Nicki Clyne in February 2017. The marriage was alleged to have been a sham to get around US immigration laws, and only became public a year later during legal proceedings on the conspiracy and racketeering charges as part of her involvement with NXIVM.[13][14][15]

It was also alleged that Mack, along with another former high-ranking NXIVM member Lauren Salzman, were Raniere's sexual partners.[16]

The indictment of Mack and other NXIVM members

In 2010, Mack was reported to have been recruited to the Vancouver chapter of the multi-level marketing organization NXIVM, along with her Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk.[17] In a 2003 article from Forbes, advocates of NXIVM portrayed it as an organization focused on inspirational executive coaching, "like a practical MBA", while detractors accused the founder Keith Raniere of running "a cult-like program aimed at breaking down his subjects psychologically". [18] The group had a practice of branding their victims, which was first created by Mack.[19]

Former NXIVM member Sarah Edmondson stated in a 2017 New York Times exposé and a 2018 A&E special on cults that Mack recruited her into an enclave within NXIVM, "DOS," and that she had been branded in an initiation ceremony at Mack's house, under Mack's supervision.[20] In an interview with The New York Times, Mack took responsibility for having introduced the branding ritual to the DOS group. Some women had been branded with Mack's initials (AM) in addition to Raniere's initials (KR).[19]

Mack was arrested in Brooklyn by the FBI on April 20, 2018, on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy.[21][22] During her arraignment proceedings, prosecutors also accused her of entering a sham marriage with Nicki Clyne to help Clyne circumvent US immigration laws.[15][13][23][24] According to prosecutors, after she recruited women to join the organization, she used tactics such as blackmail to force them into engaging in sexual activity with Raniere against their wishes and enslaved them to do menial tasks, for which Raniere allegedly paid Mack. Mack is said to be second-in-command of NXIVM after Raniere.[25][26][27]

On April 24, 2018, Mack was released on a $5 million bond and held under house arrest under the custody of her parents in California.[28] She was charged with recruiting women into "DOS" or "The Vow", a sex cult propagated by NXIVM that presented itself as a women's self-help group.[29][30][31][32] If convicted of all charges, Mack and Raniere could each be imprisoned for a minimum of 15 years.[33][34][35] In late May, in an interview after hosting an A&E special on cults including NXIVM, journalist Elizabeth Vargas stated that Mack is negotiating a plea deal.[36] In March 2019, it was revealed in court that Mack and the other defendants in the case were in "active plea negotiations" as Raniere appeared in court to plead not guilty to child pornography charges related to the case.[37] On April 8, 2019, Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering charges, and was scheduled for sentencing in September 2019.[38][39] The conviction was postponed by the court to grant sufficient time to conduct pre-sentencing investigations.[16]

In 2019, Catherine Oxenberg produced the Lifetime television film Escaping the NXIVM Cult: A Mother's Fight to Save Her Daughter with actress Sara Fletcher as Mack.[40]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Allison Mack.

• Allison Mack on IMDb 
• Allison Mack at AllMovie