NXIVM case update: Allison Mack sentenced to 3 years in prison

NEW YORK (AP) -- TV actor Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader, the Associated Press reports.

Mack, best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend on the series “Smallville,” played a key role in the scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM.

Mack had previously pleaded guilty to the charges and began cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. Prosecutors credited her with helping them mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.

“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM,” Mack wrote in a letter filed with the court last week. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”

Keith Raniere, 60, was sentenced in October 2020 to 120 years in prison.

TRUE CRIME DAILY: NXIVM case coverage - TCD

Raniere turned female followers into brainwashed "slaves" who were branded with his initials and coerced into having sex, authorities alleged in charging him with sex-trafficking.

According to the complaint, Raniere - known within the group as "Vanguard" - oversaw a barbaric system in which women were told the best way to advance was to become a "slave" overseen by "masters." They also were expected to have sex with him and do menial chores for masters, and to keep the arrangement a secret or be publicly humiliated, the complaint says.

Many victims reportedly participated in videotaped ceremonies where they were branded in their pelvic area with a symbol featuring Raniere's initials.

Investigators said Raniere preferred exceptionally thin women, so "slaves" had to stick to very low-calorie diets and document every food they ate. As punishment for not following orders, women were forced to attend classes where they were "forced to wear fake cow udders over their breasts while people called them derogatory names," or threatened with being put in cages, court papers say.

Raniere was ultimately found staying with several women in a luxury gated community in Puerta Vallarta, where authorities took him into custody on a U.S. warrant.

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