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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
National
Jami Ganz and Molly Crane-Newman

‘Smallville’ actress Allison Mack, who recruited victims for NXIVM sex cult group, sprung from prison early

Less than two years after she landed behind bars for recruiting women into a sadistic upstate New York sex cult, “Smallville” actress Allison Mack has been released from custody.

The one-time NXIVM member was sprung from a federal lockup in California on Monday, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records, more than a year shy of her three-year sentence.

The 40-year-old Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in April 2019, admitting to serving as one of convicted leader Keith Raniere’s top-level masters for the better part of a decade within the Albany-based NXIVM.

The actress known for her role as Clark Kent’s friend in the TV series “Smallville” faced between 14 and 17 1/2 years in prison before taking a plea.

Mack decided to flip on her longtime master on the eve of trial — as well as several others charged alongside Raniere — providing the feds emails, documents and an audio recording of Raniere hashing a plan to brand his victims with his initials in their pubic area.

Raniere, 62, who a jury convicted in June 2019, is serving a 120-year sentence for sex trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy charges. His victims included a 15-year-old girl he took explicit photos of when he took her virginity. Another victim who testified at his trial said she was tied to a table, blindfolded and subjected to an unwanted sex act by another “slave” while Raniere watched and filmed the assault.

Among the other NXIVM deputies facilitating Raniere’s abuse was Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, who also pleaded guilty before his trial.

Bronfman, worth an estimated half a billion dollars, bankrolled Raniere’s business ventures. She was sentenced to six years in prison for her role in the group.

The secret society known as “Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions,” or “The Vow,” saw Raniere lord over “masters” and “slaves” within a pyramid scheme of abuse. Slaves had to recruit other slaves to ascend the power structure.

Mack worked her way up to be one of eight top-level masters within DOS, a secret sub-group whose purpose was to supply Raniere with an endless stream of sexual partners, including his nine “first-line slaves” — blind followers of him and his cult.

In convincing women to join the group, Mack lied and said it was a women’s empowerment group or sorority, hiding that Raniere was at the helm.

Once they were in, Mack admitted to extorting Raniere’s victims through blackmail and psychological manipulation, instilling in them a fear that if they didn’t comply with demands, she would expose “collateral” they had to provide to join the group, including nude photos and “damaging confessions about themselves and loved ones.”

One of Mack’s victims compared the actress to prolific abuser Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

The only one to speak at sentencing, identified as Joan, said Mack felt like the older sister she never had until she began grooming her to be a sex slave “to her beloved Keith Raniere.”

“She sought me out like a predator stalking its prey,” Joan said in 2019, adding Mack calculatedly used her pain against her.

“Alison Mack is an evil sociopath, a menace to society and a danger to innocent human beings.”

Lawyers for Mack could not be reached for comment.

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