'Smallville' actress Allison Mack gets 3 years in prison in NXIVM cult case

ALBANY, N.Y. – Allison Mack, the actress who spent years as a key member of the cult-like NXIVM organization, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for her role in a master-slave group whose followers were branded.

Mack, 38, pleaded guilty in April 2019 to felony counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy for her actions in a master-slave group within NXIVM, the Albany self-help group led by since-convicted leader Keith Raniere, 60, known by his followers as "Vanguard."

The actress, best known for playing Chloe Sullivan on the CW's "Smallville," was a top-line master in the all-women subgroup known as DOS or "The Vow," in which "slaves" were branded with Raniere's initials on their pubic area and required to pledge a lifetime of obedience to their "masters."

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis handed down the sentence Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Mack will also face a $20,000 fine.

In his sentencing memo, Garaufis noted Mack collected potentially damaging collateral from her "slaves" to ensure they would not leave the organization. She also instructed several of them to seduce Raniere or otherwise have sex with him.

"Mr. Raniere could not have done that without you," Garaufis wrote. "You did that together. The evidence presented at his trial demonstrated that you were not a begrudging or passive enabler, but rather that you were a willing and proactive ally."

Mack, a longtime Raniere devotee who has since disavowed him, faced a maximum of 40 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines called for between 14 and 17 1/2 years.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn sought a lenient sentence that fell below the guidelines. The prosecutors noted Mack cooperated with them and eventually provided key evidence for the case against Raniere, including a taped conversation in which he laid out how he wanted the branding process to go.

Garaufis ultimately agreed, noting that Mack herself was both a victim of Raniere and his co-conspirator.

"That is something that weighs on me," he wrote. "It is hard to determine an appropriate sentence for a perpetrator who is also her co-conspirator’s victim."

Allison Mack apologizes in letter to victims

In her own court filing, Mack's attorneys included a letter from the actress in which she accepted responsibility for her actions and apologized to those she harmed.

"I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man," Mack wrote, referring to Raniere. "I am 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 misused your trust, leading you down a negative path."

Prosecutors said Mack used the threat of extortion to force lower-level DOS members to give up personal collateral, including nude photographs and damaging confessions about themselves or family members. If a "slave" were to break from DOS, it came with the threat of having their collateral released.

Some "slaves" were groomed for sex with Raniere, whose involvement in the group was known to Mack but not others in the group.

More: Allison Mack calls role in NXIVM sex cult case her 'biggest mistake' days before sentencing

Raniere secretly led DOS master-slave group

In the taped conversation provided to prosecutors by Mack, Raniere laid out his vision for a sacrificial branding ceremony in which women were told to strip naked before a logo with his initials was burned into them with a cauterizing pen.

"(They) should say, 'Please brand me it would be an honor' or something like that. 'An honor I want to wear for the rest of my life,'" Raniere said on the tape. "And they should probably say that before they’re held down so it doesn’t seem like they’re being coerced."

Raniere is currently serving a 120-year sentence in federal prison for his role leading NXIVM, having been convicted of seven felonies including sex trafficking, racketeering and forced labor conspiracy.

NXIVM and Raniere were recently the subject of HBO's documentary series, "The Vow," and the Starz series "Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult."

More: 'The Vow': Everything you should know about alleged cult NXIVM, subject of HBO's docuseries

Jon Campbell is the New York State Team editor for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at JCAMPBELL1@Gannett.com or on Twitter at @JonCampbellGAN.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Allison Mack, 'Smallville' actress sentenced 3 years in prison