There is presently a debate over Allison Mack with many readers: Should she be dealt with harshly or leniently by the sentencing judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis?
She pled guilty in April 2019, just a month before she was scheduled to go to trial, to two felony counts, racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. The sentencing guideline was estimated to be from 3 to 5 years in federal prison.
The crimes she pled guilty to consisted of recruiting two women to join DOS and, firstly, taking property from them. They were identified as Jane Doe 5 [Nicole] and Jane Doe 8 [Jaye].
The property was called “collateral,” and consisted of credit card authorizations, false accusations against family members and friends, explicit photos and videos, and rights to assets and property. These DOS members would not want the collateral revealed because it would be personally damaging or ruinous to them. It was, as devised by Mack’s master and leader, Keith Alan Raniere, a form of blackmail.
Secondly, she obtained the labor and services in the form of so-called “acts of care” from Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 8.
These two [and others] provided, in fact, small duties for Mack, such as running errands for her, and performed other work for Nxivm, or DOS, while living under the specter of having their collateral released.
Thirdly, Mack worked with others: Raniere and the “First Line” slave masters of DOS, whereby they devised a scheme to conceal Raniere’s role as the head of DOS and characterized DOS as a women’s only organization, knowing full well that Raniere was the head of the organization.
This arguably is Mack’s most serious crime. And it is odd that the US Dept. of Justice, Eastern District of NY, did not seek charges against six of the nine conspirators in this ‘hide Raniere’ endeavor, although all of them were equally guilty, according to former AUSA Moira Kim Penza, and all were alleged as felons for this scheme.
Only Mack, Lauren Salzman, and Raniere were charged.
Of the three crimes committed by Mack, two of them she, in effect, committed against herself.
That is, she was a victim, for she too provided collateral to Raniere and performed “acts of care” for him, and I would venture she did far more acts of care for Raniere than she required of her own slaves.
However, she did have the distinct advantage of knowing Raniere was the head of DOS from the beginning of DOS.
Mack’s collateral was described by the FBI as consisting of:
(1) A letter regarding Mack’s mother and father that would “destroy their character.”
(2) A contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by Mack to Raniere, if Mack broke her commitment to Raniere.
(3) A contract that transferred ownership of Mack’s home if her commitment to Raniere was broken.
(4) A letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to Mack‘s nephews.
In addition to this, Mack provided many graphic, closeup naked photos of herself to Raniere.
In short, he had plenty of collateral on her that, if released, because of her celebrity, would be far more damaging and newsworthy than probably anyone else in DOS.
One can easily make the argument that giving him this collateral was an incredibly stupid decision on her part, yet it is apparent that she must have had immense trust in Raniere and a true belief that this was the right thing to do – at least at the time she gave it.
It is also possible that, like with the other women she is accused of victimizing, Mack may have given collateral in installments and, once in, she was pressured to provide more and more collateral until he owned her completely, which was the purpose of collateral.
One can also make the argument, therefore, that the same coercive factors that led to Mack’s conviction were also present when she performed his commands that were actions she was later charged for as crimes.
It was Raniere who ordered Mack to recruit women into DOS and it was he, having collateral over her, who ordered her not to tell the women about his secret role in DOS.
Allison was a pawn in his game.
Her plight provokes my sympathy, for she was charged with felonies while other, much more culpable Nxivm members, such as Sara Bronfman, Emiliano Salinas, Alex Betancourt, were not charged. And two leaders whose role was a thousandfold more nefarious than Allison’s – Nancy Salzman and Clare Bronfman – got off by pleading to lesser charges than Mack.
This is a complicated matter. It would be far easier to report this if she was either 100 percent victim or 100 percent perpetrator.
The more time I spend thinking of how she [and many others] were damaged in similar ways, it is clearer to me that she is more victim than perpetrator.
If nothing else is persuasive, then I would ask readers this question: What did Allison Mack get out of it?
We know Raniere got a lot. He lived a life of excess for decades, the sole, authoritarian, the man who everybody strove to please, even competing among each other to please him.
There is no question he was the chief perpetrator.
What did Allison get? She lost her acting career – she did give it up for him. She spent all her money serving Raniere and Nxivm, a sum estimated at $8 million when she joined Nxivm. She is now nearly destitute.
She went from being healthy and attractive to millions of fans to unnaturally thin and unhealthy and looking like, as some called her ‘a bobblehead”. [Happily, she has gained some weight after getting away from Nxivm and appeared far more healthy at a court appearance I attended].
Then, in the end, she wound up being arrested, pleading guilty to two felonies, and being placed on home confinement for more than two years. Her reputation has been destroyed. And her future, even when she gets out of prison, is not likely to be rosy.
And she will likely to be sentenced to prison, possibly for several years and live in a prison, with all the torment that entails. Following that, she will be on probation for three more years.
Yet, what did she really do? She persuaded some women to do what she herself had done: Give collateral. Join a secret society. Have sex with Raniere.
I think it highly likely that she did not want these women to have sex with Raniere. She probably wanted them not to have sex with him. But Raniere wanted to have sex with Nicole and Jaye and others in her circle. And so she obliged.
She even told Nicole that not only should she seduce Raniere, but she gave her permission to enjoy it. This was most likely something she was told by Raniere to say. She very likely did not want Nicole to enjoy it, or rather for Raniere to enjoy it too much.
The key point, to me, is that she manipulated or commanded no woman to do anything she herself was not more than willing to do.
She was eager to have sex with Raniere. She did not command Nicole to do something she would not have gladly done herself in her place.
Even the giving of collateral was something she did herself. The branding she did herself.
Most times, maybe in every case I can think of, perpetrators get their victims to do something they would never want done to themselves.
But Allison [and Lauren Salzman, as far as her role in DOS] is unique: Mack only got her victims to do what she wanted to do herself. This proves to me that she was not malicious or truly ill-intended.
She desired for her so-called victims something she believed was good for them. She thought that this secret organization to create so-called “badass women”, this strict discipline of DOS, was actually good for women. She thought that having sex with Raniere was a spiritual experience.
As foolish as that sounds, it was her belief. She wanted the women of her circle – and actually ordered them to do – what she herself had done and wanted more of for herself.
Yes, she may have gotten some prestige or influence in Raniere-world through her work in DOS. She might have enjoyed having little favors done for her by her “slaves” and might have been at times bitchy and even lorded over her “slaves” at times.
But she was a slave.
She was not a perfect angel by any means. But she was no devil either. She was lost and confused, who thought a bastard named Keith Raniere would make her a better person.
Think of what she told the judge when she pled guilty of her two crimes:
“I became close with Keith Raniere. I joined NXIVM first to find purpose. I was lost and I wanted to find a place, a community in which I would feel comfortable. Over time, I truly believed that I had found a group of individuals who believed, as I did, and who were interested in trying to become better people and in doing so make those around them better. And when I came to that realization, misguided though it was, my purpose shifted from trying to help myself to helping other people. Through it all, I believed that Keith Raniere’s intentions were to help people, and that my adherence to his system of beliefs would help empower others and help them.
“I was wrong. And I now realize that I and others engaged in criminal conduct. My misguided beliefs and dedication of what I believed were the principles underlying NXIVM, Keith Raniere’s teachings, resulted in my agreeing to support the criminal enterprise that is alleged in the indictment.”
That is the key also. She was trying to be a better person, to help others, and not a sadist criminal like him.
Therein lies the difference. It is all in intent.
She was trying to help others and was led astray. She did not realize by how much until her world fell apart.
Raniere, on the other hand, was always trying to be evil and destructive. He was successful. More successful than even he planned for he not only destroyed others, he wound up destroying himself.
But mark this well: Allison set out to destroy no one. She set out to help herself and others. In turn, she should not be fully destroyed. She should be helped to redeem herself.
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
The teachings of Ayn Rand attract sociopaths that are incapable of empathy, and that prize power over others through exploitation. What would a vapid narcissist get out of all this? The validation she requires to feed on and the vehicle to recruit followers.
Your observations are simplistic and don’t include the information about her status in the entertainment industry. She and the others are relatively low hanging fruit, nobodies. While their “celebrity” members hold sway for those impressed by minor visibility, they didn’t really have careers to give up. They weren’t in demand, they aren’t connected to get jobs or lead bigger fish in.
Your observation ignores that these women chose to pursue a Randian MLM career, and position of authority in a very hierarchical organization, apparently these idiots didn’t connect that “spiritual Amway” was slimy and exploitative? I don’t buy it, not for a second. These personalities wanted validation for their wealth and entitlement, and an excuse for not feeling bad about it. They’re Manson Children with money, that have degrees and zero critical thinking skills or self-awareness.
Mack positioned herself in the feudal society she was helping to build. Isn’t her wife, Squeaky Clyne dancing bald outside the jail? Absolutely, all of the people you listed should do life, or very long sentences in jail. That doesn’t mean Mack is not entirely responsible for her own actions, especially when it’s plain to see exactly how she expanded on it and benefited from it.
As to the “destitution”, they’re eyeball deep in bitcoin and Bronfman cash. They all knew who the mentally ill cash cow was and what to do to keep an unsustainable business model afloat.
I really think most of them would find meaning and purpose in working at Walmart. I don’t feel sorry for her at all, or most of them. They wanted meaning and purpose in shallow lives in which they didn’t have to work hard. Let them get their wish. Oh, that’s right, the whole point was that they were the “good people that should hold wealth and power”.
Good people don’t have slaves. Good people don’t give a pass to those that create them.
Any sentence handed down to Allison Mack should include some heavy duty de-cultifying and anti-cult psychological fortification instruction, maybe even a requirement to attend college. The judge and jury should all be required to watch that video of Raniere talking to Allison, where she confesses to feeling lost and sort of regrets never having been to college. The guy is sick and slick to the nth degree. Some real education MIGHT have fortified her against this type of manipulation in the first place. One “job” she might be able to do in the future is to become a writer and public speaker about her experience and work to provide insight to others to help prevent nut jobs like Raniere from getting a hold on people in the future. She certainly has public speaking abilities, or one would think so.
(On the other hand, with the way today’s colleges and universities are, it might make things worse. Better make sure she gets help from people who have not been brainwashed themselves into the “woke” culture or any other extremism. She needs close supervision while she gets a new brain.)
[…] Thank you for publishing In Defense of Allison Mack: She Ordered No ‘Slave’ to Do What She Did Not Do Herself. […]
Thank you for putting out there something I was thinking of doing myself. Though the points are not exactly the same, because I think it’s possible that the only person who should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law was the ringleader. Yet, one other might have needed serious prosecution if the intent was to use rather than help the women coming into the group. And you’d think that someone might have thought “Why would we need something to hold over someone?”, but if you look at some secret organizations, military groups, Frats and Sororities’ practices, tattoos and shaming while someone is being initiated isn’t uncommon. And sadly, evidence of such moments is out there. Raniere was just giving into his demons and in the end, proved it was for his benefit only. I even doubt his is the only group that branded and had master-slave sexual relationships, but the difference is that most people doing something like that know ahead of time what they are getting into, and his group focused on high profile people. He probably saw himself as a mover and a shaker, not a manipulator and abuser. Narcissistic people don’t ever want to see what they do as wrong. And he crossed the wrong point decades ago, and I would not be surprised if he studied how to manipulate and control people as far back as the ’80s. I don’t think I would have the heart to prosecute anyone but him unless I knew one of the others just liked destroying people. Yet, this media circus we have in the USA likes to point fingers, cause as long as the pointed finger isn’t at them, they are entertained and self-righteous. After all, who was it that really broke trust in all this? The puppets, or the puppeteer? All young actresses and actors are lost for a while after they are no longer a part of that show that made them famous unless they have someone really looking out for them. Perfect people to manipulate, right?
I mean this 100% legitimately. Are you insane? Are you aware of what Keith Raniere was convicted of? She co-signed to ALL OF THAT! She was a accomplice to ALL of that, complicitly… you are insanely trying to intimate she’s been somehow Stockholmed, even though never ever held captive, unlike others they victimized… she was famous, she used her fame to help him with EVERYTHING… again are you insane citing her as a victim equal to those she and he victimized? Being a self serving dimwit accomplice does not afford you the level of irresponsibility to her acts you claim. Unbelievable. Get help.
Keep in mind she is an actress who professionally studied how to present convincing lies. It’s quite possible her original choice of career was because of childhood tendencies and proclivities – whose full depths may not have become public until after the cult broke.
It would be interesting to investigate her high school and college years to check out if she was previously involved with similar activities on a lesser scale. Unfortunately, these lesser activities are in the news fairly regularly to the point many universities are repeatedly considering banning Greek societies for ‘hazing”. While it’s the deaths that make the big public news – careful reading reveals that activities almost exactly like what Mack is being jailed on are even more common Greek hazing activities. The only difference being that due to the rotating four-year cycle of college education, such Greek hazing activities seldom gel around a single leader and really cannot be sustained in the same group of people more than a couple of years before turnover changes who is the master and who is the lowest slave.
The judge has a difficult issue with Allison Mack. Because sending her to a normal women’s prison will be a gift.
Mack will just recruit and set her cult up again in prison. She already has the worst women’s prison gang leadership mindset. She will bring extensive education and practical experience into breaking anyone who might otherwise go more or less straight. Her release from prison slaves will like take revenge on any court official who irritates her. The woman Mafia Don ruling from jail.
Instead, she needs to go to maximum security with minimal human contact for her entire sentence. Pretty bad when a judge really needs to consider how to leverage things to protect women murderers and thugs from a sick mental mastermind posing as a frail misunderstood type.
Don’t think she has “extensive education.” She has extensive training and brainwashing.
Your getting soft on me , Frank.
Re The Victim Allow Mack:
The photos are bleak and disturbing. Allison Mack is a victim and a criminal as well. I believe 1-2 years is the correct punishment for someone who acting coerced and black mailed other woman into “special missions” or “special assignments” to seduce and sexually gratify Raniere.
Allison Mack “It’s okay to enjoy it”[sex with Raniere] and “you have a nice pussy” [Allison stated when getting a group of women to pose for a group photo with their legs spread out and vulvas showing] and “let’s see your vaginas spread”.
Do any of those quotes sound like someone, who is purely a victim?
So what if she enjoyed it herself. So did Joseph Goebbels supposedly. That is what makes for the worst of the worst. To force people into your own sick past times and just “little” further and definitely more frequently and without choice.
It’s never as simple as people as some people might think to make sense of someone like Allison, what she’s been through, and what she’s done. That’s why it takes a number of professionals to look at the facts of the matter.
The judge will take into consideration all the opinions these people submit to him. He will not rush to judgement.
That is what he is trained to do.
He will approach it with neither love nor hate.
Just as he should.
There is presently a debate over Allison Mack with many readers: Should she be dealt with harshly or leniently by the sentencing judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis. — The readers can debate all they want, the only one who counts is the judge, and he isn’t reading this website. LOL
She pled guilty in April 2019, just a month before trial was set, to two felony counts, racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. The sentencing guideline were estimated to be from three to 5 years in federal prison. — That sounds about right, for a first-timer, the severity of the crimes, number of people involved, and length of time they were abused by Mack.
The crimes she pled guilty to consisted of recruiting two women to join DOS and, firstly, taking property from them. They were identified as Jane Doe 5 [Nicole] and Jane Doe 8 [Jaye]. — These are serious crimes, and it wasn’t simple stealing, it was part of a much larger racket.
The property was called “collateral,” and consisted of credit card authorizations, false accusations against family members and friends, explicit photos and videos, and rights to assets and property. These DOS members would not want the collateral revealed because it would be personally damaging or ruinous to them. It was, as devised by Mack’s master and leader, Keith Alan Raniere, as a form of blackmail. — It was called collateral by NXIVM, but in the real world it is called blackmail, not “a form of blackmail.”
Secondly, she obtained the labor and services in the form of so called “acts of care” from Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 8. — The so-called “acts of care” were in actuality a form of of slavery and extortion.
These two [and others] provided, in fact, small duties for Mack, such as errands for her and performed other work for Nxivm, or DOS, while living under the specter of having their collateral released. — Can we drop the NXIVM euphemism for blackmail and call it what it is, blackmail and extortion?
Thirdly, Mack worked with others: Raniere and the “First Line” slave masters of DOS, whereby they devised a scheme to conceal Raniere’s role as the head of DOS and characterized DOS as a women’s only organization, knowing full well that Raniere was the head of the organization. — This is the nature of a racket and conspiracy, lots of lies being told as a group effort, in order to make them sound more believable. Amway and other MLM scams do the same thing, all for the greater good of the racket.
This arguably is Mack’s most serious crime. And it is odd that the US Dept. of Justice, Eastern District of NY, did not seek charges against six of the nine conspirators in this ‘hide Raniere’ endeavor, although all of them were equally guilty, according to AUSA Moira Kim Penza, and all were alleged as felons for this scheme. — Perhaps more charges are forthcoming as those who plead guilty will turn on their fellow “bad-a$$ warrior b!tches.”
Only Mack, Lauren Salzman and Raniere were charged. — As stated before, it comes down to evidence and political influence.
Of the three crimes committed by Mack, two of them she, in effect, committed against herself. — Mack didn’t commit crimes against herself, that is an absurd notion. She merely committed the “Golden Turd” rule – Do unto others as was done unto you, an example of a fraternity/sorority initiation that was both extreme and permanent. Raniere probably tried to join some fraternities when he was in college and was rejected by all of them, for obvious reasons. He didn’t go to RPI, because people who attend never refer to it as that, they always say all three words, very slowly, with the nose held up in the air, for maximum effect – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
That is, she was a victim, for she too provided collateral to Raniere and performed “acts of care” for him, and I would venture she did far more acts of care for Raniere than she required of her own slaves. — It makes little difference in the eyes of the law that she victimized others after being victimized herself.
However, she did have the distinct advantage of knowing Raniere was the head of DOS from the beginning of DOS. — Not only distinct, a significant advantage and the source of the racketeering crimes she plead guilty to.
Mack’s collateral was described by the FBI as consisting of: — Again, let’s not try to put whipped cream on a turd, it was blackmail.
(1) A letter regarding Mack’s mother and father that would “destroy their character.” — It is ridiculous to think this letter would be anything but a bit embarrassing if it was made public, it’s such a joke.
(2) A contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by Mack to Raniere, if Mack broke her commitment to Raniere. — Another ridiculous document that would never stand as a legitimate contract in a court of law.
(3) A contract that transferred ownership of Mack’s home if the commitment to Raniere was broken. — See #2.
(4) A letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to Mack ‘s nephews. — See #1.
In addition to this, Mack provided many graphic, closeup naked photos of herself to Raniere. — These would be embarrassing in past times, now it’s just another person with nude pictures on the internets.
In short, he had plenty of collateral on her, that, if released, because of her celebrity, would be far more damaging and newsworthy than probably anyone else in DOS. — Hardly. And it’s blackmail, not “collateral.”
One can easily make the argument that giving him this collateral was an incredibly stupid decision on her part, yet it is apparent that she must have had immense trust in Raniere and a true belief that this was the right thing to do – at least at the time she gave it. — Correction: blackmail. And it wasn’t “immense trust,” it was stupidity.
It is also possible that, like with the other women she is accused of victimizing, Mack may have given collateral in installments and once in, she was pressured to provide more and more collateral until he owned her completely, which was the purpose of collateral. — Blackmail, not “collateral.” That is the nature of blackmail.
One can also make the argument, therefore, that the same coercive factors that led to Mack’s conviction were also present when she performed his commands that were actions she was later charged for as crimes. — Word salad.
It was Raniere who ordered Mack to recruit women into DOS and it was he, having collateral over her, who ordered her not to tell the women about his secret role in DOS. — It takes two to tango, and she was more than willing to follow his “orders.”
Her plight provokes my sympathy, for she was charged with felonies while other, much more culpable Nxivm members, such as Sara Bronfman, Emiliano Salinas, Alex Betancourt, were not charged. And two leaders whose role was a thousandfold more nefarious than Allison’s, Nancy Salzman and Clare Bronfman, got off with lighter charges than Mack. — She gets zero sympathy from me. Again, it comes down to evidence and political influences.
Yes, Mack lied to other women in order to recruit them into DOS, yet, in so doing, she strove faithfully to follow her master’s orders, as she had vowed. This may have been partly because he had collateral on her and also because she very likely believed DOS to be good for her and for the women she recruited. — Blackmail, not collateral. Collateral is having a mortgage and giving up your house if you don’t make the payments. Why the insistence on using NXIVM fairy tale language? To soften the blow on Mack? It’s never good to lie.
This is a complicated matter. It would be far easier to report this if she was either 100 percent victim or 100 percent perpetrator. — It’s actually quite simple.
The more time I spend thinking of how she [and many others] were damaged in similar ways, it is clearer to me that she is more victim than perpetrator. — The law didn’t care about Patty Hearst, why Mack?
If nothing else is persuasive, then I would ask readers this question: What did Allison Mack get out of it? — She got power.
We know Raniere got a lot. He lived a life of excess for decades, the sole, authoritarian, the man who everybody strove to please, even competing among each other to please him. — They both got power.
What did Allison get? She lost her acting career – she did give it up for him. She spent all her money serving Raniere and Nxivm, a sum estimated at $8 million when she joined Nxivm. She is now nearly destitute. — She got power. Those who measure value only in terms of dollars are wrong.
She went from being healthy and attractive to millions of fans to unnaturally thin and unhealthy and looking like, as some called her ‘a bobblehead”. [Happily she has gained some weight and appeared far more healthy at a court appearance I attended]. — Not that attractive, especially when her cankles are showing. Also, having an ugly personality takes away from any pleasing physical looks.
Then, in the end, she wound up being arrested, placed on home confinement for more than two years. Her reputation destroyed. Her future, even when she gets out of prison, is not likely to be rosy. — She will fit in with the rest of Hollyweird when she gets out of prison.
And she will likely to be sentenced to prison, possibly for several years and live in a prison, with all the torment that entails. Following that she will be on probation for three more years. — That’ is one of the many purposes of prison, to discourage her from doing stupid and illegal ever again.
Yet, what did she really do? She persuaded some women to do what she herself had done: Give collateral. Join a secret society. Have sex with Raniere. — If someone robbed a bank and then had someone rob another bank, do those two wrongs make a right, or is only the first bank robber a criminal?
I think it highly likely that she did not want these women to have sex with Raniere. She probably wanted them not to have sex with him. But Raniere wanted to have sex with Nicole and Jaye and others in her circle. And so she obliged. — I think it highly likely we don’t have a clue what was going on between Mack’s ears, and she probably doesn’t either. Trying to make logical sense of insanity is in itself insanity.
She even told Nicole that not only should she seduce Raniere, but she gave her permission to enjoy it. This was most likely something she was told by Raniere to say. She very likely did not want Nicole to enjoy it, or rather for Raniere to enjoy it too much. — See previous comment.
The key point, to me, is that she manipulated or commanded no woman to do anything she herself was not more than willing to do. — See bank robbery story above.
She was eager to have sex with Raniere. She did not command Nicole to do something she would not have gladly done herself in her place. — See above comment.
Even the giving of collateral, was something she did herself. The branding she did herself. — Blackmail, not collateral, how many times has the word “collateral” been used in this story to soften the blow what was, in the real world, blackmail? Also, see comment above.
Most times, maybe in every case I can think of, perpetrators get their victims to do something they would never want done to themselves. — Then you don’t understand Amway and other MLM scams work. NXIVM was an MLM scam, except it performed obvious illegal activities rather than the typical withholding of information from their marks. You don’t understand how Ponzi scams often use the early investors to vouch for later investors. Think Bernie Madoff.
But Allison [and Lauren Salzman, as far as her role in DOS] is unique: Mack only got her victims to do what she wanted to do herself. This proves to me that she was not malicious or truly ill-intended. — Just because Mack didn’t/couldn’t/would’t identify clear blackmail when she saw it and was willing/able to lie by omission that Raniere was involved does not make it any less a crime. Insanity is a legal defense, stupidity isn’t.
She desired for her so-called victims something she believed was good for them. She thought that this secret organization to create so-called “badass women”, this strict discipline of DOS was actually good for women. She thought that having sex with Raniere was a spiritual experience. — If Mack is a victim, then her “so-called” victims are even more victims vs. criminals, because they didn’t know Raniere was involved and many of them never had chance to commit crimes on their downline slaves and many of them didn’t even have a downline to abuse.
As foolish as that sounds, it was her belief. She wanted the women of her circle, and ordered them to do what she herself had done and wanted more of for herself. — If ignorance of the law is no excuse, how can being stupid and a liar be an excuse?
Yes, she may have gotten some prestige or influence in Raniere-world – through her work in DOS. She might have enjoyed having little favors done for her by her “slaves” and might have been at times bitchy and even lorded over her “slaves” at times. — “At times” was probably quite a few times, she was really into it.
But she was a slave. — She was an MLM downline to some and an MLM upline to others.
She was not a perfect angel by any means. But she was no devil either. She was lost and confused, who thought a bastard named Keith Raniere would make her a better person. — Very few people are perfect angels or devils, but very few people do the crimes she did as well.
Think of what she told the judge when she pled guilty of her two crimes: — There is no need to think about she told the judge, it was written by her lawyer for maximum sympathy effect.
“I became close with Keith Raniere. I joined NXIVM first to find purpose. I was lost and I wanted to find a place, a community in which I would feel comfortable. Over time, I truly believed that I had found a group of individuals who believed, as I did, and who were interested in trying to become better people and in doing so make those around them better. And when I came to that realization, misguided though it was, my purpose shifted from trying to help myself to helping other people. Through it all, I believed that Keith Raniere’s intentions were to help people, and that my adherence to his system of beliefs would help empower others and help them.
“I was wrong. And I now realize that I and others engaged in criminal conduct. My misguided beliefs and dedication of what I believed were the principles underlying NXIVM, Keith Raniere’s teachings, resulted in my agreeing to support the criminal enterprise that is alleged in the indictment.” — This is one of many factors the judge will consider when he sentences her. Maybe she’ll get lucky and find out that he’s a pro-cankles kind of guy.
That is the key also. She was trying to be a better person, to help others, and not a sadist criminal like him. — Most criminals try to minimize the nature of their crime and are very sorry. Sorry they got caught.
Therein lies the difference. It is all in intent. — Yeah, just like Hellary THE Horrible not “intending” to break the law when she mishandled confidential information when she was Secretary of State. Sure.
She was trying to help others and was led astray. She did not realize by how much until her world fell apart. — As I said above, we don’t know what was going on between her ears. All we do know is it wasn’t very much.
Raniere, on the other hand, was always trying to be evil and destructive. He was successful. More successful than even he planned for he not only destroyed others he wound up destroying himself. — So were the evil vultures who constantly circled him, and Mack ended up being one of the more recent “recruits” to be raised to that level.
I have softened somewhat with regards to Allison Mack. I wonder how Allison is feeling. A lot of time has gone by since being separated from the cult. Hopefully, she is healing mentally and will be in a healthier position to just accept her punishment, whatever that may be. I really hope she is getting help from a deprogrammer and therapist. I have read it is common for people exiting one cult to end up falling in with another. They are vulnerable to it. Perhaps the public nature of her association with this one added a shaming element and it prompted her to get such help.
She should be released and given the chance to explain what happened to her. She could help a lot of people with her story. Unfortunately, horrible things like that happen to a lot of people; we just don’t hear about it.
So, she should be released so she can brand more women like cattle and turn more women into sex slaves?
Frank, you should show more sympathy to Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.
Elizabeth Holmes is exactly like Allison Mack.
They were both trying to make the world a better place.
Holmes managed to swindle investors out of 900 million dollars.
Mack managed to swindle women out of their freedom and humanity.
Both Holmes and Mack face 20 years in prison.
“Secondly, she obtained the labor and services in the form of so called “acts of care” from Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 8.”
And this is a problem as the trial showed it’s not true…
She never obtained from the services…except once from Nicole.
And raniere’s lawyer asked her a proper question:
Allison help her 3 times, did she felt like Allison deserved to be paid?
She said no.
So why does Nicole think she deserved to be paid for 1 service?
Forced labor is absurd BS…atleast, it didn’t happened with Allison.
India did ask Jayes for services and more (the jewel that india asked Jayes to pay).
“This arguably is Mack’s most serious crime.”
In reality, it’s not a crime…if Allison was proven to know the details of DOS, it could be seen as a crime-ish…but here , during trial, they showed the contrary.
Between the fact that Allison didn’t asked anything related to crimes directly (but the collaterals) and the fact that the message between cami and raniere showed that Allison wasn’t in the confidence…
And to this extend, let’s not forget that Jayes almost recruited under the SAME CIRCUMSTANCES…without saying that raniere was involved.
And Sylvie recruited under the SAME CIRCUMSTANCES…
They aren’t considered as guilty of anything so why Allison should?
Let’s never forget the power of the coercion raniere had on Allison…she was fully coerced (as explained by the trial).
If someone with a couple of small coercive material against them accepted fully to recruit while hiding the truth are considered as non guilty…Allison who was more abused, more coerced than them is certainly not guilty either.
“That is, she was a victim, for she too provided collateral to Raniere and performed “acts of care” for him, and I would venture she did far more acts of care for Raniere than she required of her own slaves.”
Well she didn’t do it on herself…much like the other , she was coerced.
It started innocently and then raniere dragged her into a dark cage…she was inprisonned (metaphorically and physically)by raniere.
The coercion started before DOS…And when dragged in DOS, she was already more coerced than when the other victim considered that they could not leave.
“However, she did have the distinct advantage of knowing Raniere was the head of DOS from the beginning of DOS.”
Is it really an advantage? i mean , she didn’t had any power against him…raniere was doing what HE wants.
If anything, it’s probably more traumatic for Allison…It bring her some kind of inner guilt she doesn’t deserve.
She was stuck and not in a shape to make proper decisions…
“In short, he had plenty of collateral on her, that, if released, because of her celebrity, would be far more damaging and newsworthy than probably anyone else in DOS.”
Thanks for pointing it as i feel many ignore this fact.
“It is also possible that, like with the other women she is accused of victimizing, Mack may have given collateral in installments and once in, she was pressured to provide more and more collateral until he owned her completely, which was the purpose of collateral.”
I know as a fact it’s the case…and actually, some of her friend pointed that before DOS…
We also know as a fact that Allison never knew the purpose,the reason for DOS…
“One can also make the argument, therefore, that the same coercive factors that led to Mack’s conviction were also present when she performed his commands that were actions she was later charged for as crimes.”
At this level, it’s not just an argument, it’s a fact…
She should never have been arrested as a culprit…but seen as a victim.
But when the DOJ and FBI launched this case, they didn’t knew much and Prosecution even called her the master…then when proofs came out, they just stopped telling this but never backed away from the other accusations.
It’s either a case of “i don’t want to admit that we made a mistake as it would mean judicial mistake and potentially another trial against the DOJ” or a case of “we need a culprit and even if it doesn’t fit, we’ll make it fit…”
The second is the likeliest…Penza was trying to drag Allison into crime she never committed (including the pedophilian accusation that happened BEFORE she was in the cult)…
Penza also willingly tried to put Allison at false toward the court by retaining the change of schedule (it happened around september 2018…the judge Garaufis scolded her for it)
“It was Raniere who ordered Mack to recruit women into DOS and it was he, having collateral over her, who ordered her not to tell the women about his secret role in DOS.Allison was a pawn in his game.”
Absolutely…and the trial showed that ANYTHING she did (wrong) was exclusively after raniere gave the order…while she was coerced.
AND we know he used it as he did with the interview, to force her to take the blame. Something that is know to be false.
So no doubt it is the coercion that justify her actions…she was already in a terrible shape, not one that allow her to think straight…but she was coerced by him.
And remember that she started to do the crime she is accused for ONLY AFTER BEING FULLY COERCED…the crime happened in 2016…but her collaterals were taken from her in 2015.
“Yes, Mack lied to other women in order to recruit them into DOS, yet, in so doing, she strove faithfully to follow her master’s orders, as she had vowed. This may have been partly because he had collateral on her and also because she very likely believed DOS to be good for her and for the women she recruited.”
Not may have been partly…it’s fully.
It’s a fact that he was clearly coercing her. sometime in FRONT of OUTSIDERS (like V grigoriadis (sorry if the name isn’t spelled properly))
“What did Allison Mack get out of it?”
Some will say “her statut in the cult”…which was, i remind to those with a faulty memory …”SLAVE”.
Quite a nice statut…it give her so much rights…like the right to be abused, the right to pay more, the right to take the blame, to give up all her money and her life (and her freedom), the right to obey…
The right to be the scapegoat for BOTH raniere the monster and the PSEUDO judicial system who decided that they needed someone to put the blame on…
They aren’t the only guilty of this, some of the nxivm members like edmondson did the same (but maybe because she didn’t knew the truth…) but also, India’s mother.
Who instead of taking the blame for her stupid love for “new age ish” cult prefered to blame a young girl about the age of her daughter…
A girl who was victim of the same exact things as her daughter…
Allison is just an easy target because she isn’t allowed to defend herself at all…she was deprivated from that right for the last 5 years.
“Her future, even when she gets out of prison, is not likely to be rosy.”
Don’t worry about this…She is going to be fine.
“Have sex with Raniere.”
No she didn’t…this i can’t let you say.
“I think it highly likely that she did not want these women to have sex with Raniere. She probably wanted them not to have sex with him. But Raniere wanted to have sex with Nicole and Jaye and others in her circle. And so she obliged.”
Once again, you make up stuff,frank.
SHE NEVER DID THIS, she never asked…Only jayes is saying that Allison asked her to seduce but i don’t believe her accusation as it was aimed at India at first…
And her chronology of the event don’t fit with Allison displacements…
I doubt she even met with Allison at all.
Nicole , on the other hand was in contact with Allison and she never said that Allison asked her to have sex with raniere… It’s raniere that asked for it. It’s in the trial, during the testimony of Nicole.
You can read it again, it’s never stated that Allison asked (and It’s also said, after the abuse, that Allison reacted strongly when she discovered the truth)
“She even told Nicole that not only should she seduce Raniere, but she gave her permission to enjoy it.”
False, she supposedly said this to Jayes and her testimony is debatable at best as it was aimed at India at first…
“She was eager to have sex with Raniere. ”
No she wasn’t…she was forced to have sex, read the mail properly , it’s clear she is not willingly doing it…
“She thought that having sex with Raniere was a spiritual experienc”
Come on frank…this is BS and you know it…you make up stuff based on nothing…
“he might have enjoyed having little favors done for her by her “slaves” and might have been at times bitchy and even lorded over her “slaves” at times.”
Nothing is true here…she didn’t obtained favors for herself…only once for raniere (the text review by Nicole)…Nothing here is true.
“She was not a perfect angel by any means.”
You obviously don’t know her…until she was FORCED in DOS, she was a pure angel…never did something to hurt anyone.
“But mark this well: Allison set out to destroy no one. She set out to help herself and others. In turn, she should not be fully destroyed. She should be helped to redeem herself.”
She don’t need outside help…or if she does, it’s not from here but from people who understand her ordeal, what she was a victim of…Here, she should just be left alone and forgotten
Especially since you still have some problem with the facts…it’s a good step in the right direction to see the facts but if you make up stuff about her implication and the why, it’s useless…
1 step forward, 2 steps back.
Stick with what is known, please.
We know little about the crimes Mack committed, she wasn’t on trial. LOL
However, I suspect we will find out more when the sentencing hearing is held. LOL
No big deal, eh?
NXIVM DOS was just Allison Mack empowering young women and herself, eh?
No children were involved, eh?
How did Allison Mack and her friends help women by having them confess to involvement in a child prostitution ring?
Part 8: Secret recording: Emiliano Salinas and Toni Zarattini: Text from woman saying she is in child prostitution ring; Ceci Salinas explains it is collateral
Frank Parlato
After Emiliano Salinas explained to Toni Zarattini how a NXIVM woman kept to her Raniere-inspired, low calorie diet by taking a video of herself masturbating – then giving it to someone as ‘collateral,’ with instructions to release the video if she ever gained weight – Emiliano went to on tell Toni about the next thing he found out.
Emiliano Salinas: Three years later we are in Mexico and one of my proctors [An Orange Sash-NXIVM teacher] tells me, ‘Hey, I got a text [from a NXIVM member] that shook me up. I wrote to the person [who texted] and she said: “No, sorry, that text was not for you. Please, I ask you to erase it and forget it”. My proctor told me, “I cannot forget [the text]. She [the proctor] then tells me, ‘then look, I brought it to you.’
She showed me the text and the text was a confession by this person, it was a woman, a confession that [she] belonged to a child prostitution network and she was confessing it [in the text]. I said ‘no way,’ this is the last thing we need! I looked for Alex [Betancourt] and told him, ‘look we have this text and she was also a person who had taken the program a couple of years ago. I think she had taken Jness’. I told the proctor go back to this person and tell her that you can’t ignore it, you can’t forget it and she has to explain to you what is happening. Then she [tproctor] did it. Then [the woman who texted she was in a child prostitution ring] told her, ‘Look whatever is on the text is not true, but please, I ask you not to ask me, and forget this topic.’
And suddenly Ceci [Salinas, Emiliano’s sister and daughter of former president Carlos Salinas. Ceci is a NXIVM High Rank {Green}] came in. We were in my office and I explained the situation and she told me, “Just let me check that this is not one of the topics of the women’s group, this is it,’ and I was like, ‘what woman group?’ She says, ‘a group of women that put commitments and support each other to transcend issues that they have not been able to manage to transcend and they put this type of collateral.’
I said, ‘Ah’ It made sense to me and in my head I said, ‘Ah, well, I know where this was born,’ you know? I do not know if it was born there or not [with the woman who made the video of her masturbating so she would not eat cookies], but I already had that previous experience. Now there are several women who are there [in this group], right? Making this kind of commitment to their word, and I said, ‘Oh, OK’ and said, ‘Well, shoot, you guys have to be very careful in how you send your shitty collaterals because, damn, we could have an explosion here in Mexico, eh?’ And then that was all.
https://frankreport.com/2018/05/28/part-8-secret-recording-emiliano-salinas-and-toni-zarattini-text-from-woman-saying-she-is-in-child-prostitution-ring-ceci-salinas-explains-it-is-collateral/
How does this prove that Mack was involved in this incident? LOL
Allison is a woman who has never lived in the real world. She’s lived in the media bubble, and in NXIVM. Neither of those provide an environment that fosters growth. Hence, she has displayed an immaturity that is unusual in a person of her age.
I hope that the time she has spent in home confinement has given her an opportunity to think and reflect, even though that isn’t quite an experience of the real world.
She has an awful lot of catching up and growing to do. With some long-term therapy, she should do OK. By long-term, I mean 2-4 years. She’ll have to work through her own trauma, and that which she inflicted on others. That can’t be done quickly.
If all goes well, she might be able to have her first experience of the real world, and find a productive place in it.
I hope she can.
“Allison is a woman who has never lived in the real world. She’s lived in the media bubble, and in NXIVM. Neither of those provide an environment that fosters growth. Hence, she has displayed an immaturity that is unusual in a person of her age.”
Actually, it’s not true…she was extremely down to earth. Sadly, her problem was an absurd lack of confidence and a need to be better.
This is the perfect target for those culty “life coach”…
Something I hate as I consider that no one can (should) tell you how to live your life…
“She has an awful lot of catching up and growing to do. With some long-term therapy, she should do OK. By long-term, I mean 2-4 years. She’ll have to work through her own trauma and that which she inflicted on others. That can’t be done quickly.”
I don’t think it’s going to take that long for her to heal…with the help of her friends (and despite the pending sentence), she is going better and better.
She still needs support and to heal (some of the wounds are extremely deep and might never fully get away) …a therapy could always help her, that is for sure but anyway, it’s not like she is allowed to do so at the moment.
“If all goes well, she might be able to have her first experience of the real world, and find a productive place in it.”
Once again, she was thinking properly before Nxivm…her mistake was to try to be a better person and trusting the wrong person…
But she wasn’t living in a bubble, she was extremely sane before Nxivm…and she is fine now (just hurt, but fine).
She’ll do it, she is strong and resilient. She is a survivor.
Down to earth and an absurd lack of confidence do not fit together. LOL
Some people should be told how to spend their lives and Mack is a perfect example of that – now the judge won’t just tell her how to spend her life, he will force her as well. LOL
How do you know Mack is getting better and her friends are helping her? LOL
Mack is allowed to get counseling right now. LOL
Mack was thinking properly and extremely sane when her rock band boyfriend tattooed “Will You Marry Me?” on his chest? LOL
Mr. Johnson-
—Down to earth and an absurd lack of confidence do not fit together. LOL
You should shorten your sentences by using vocabulary words. LOLA
Example: Down to earth and an absurd lack of confidence are incongruous. LOLA
She should have shopped around a bit more. Maybe enrolling in UCLA would have been a better choice. If she did not have the grades for that, then perhaps some place less demanding. But something more mainstream should have been offered, Where were her parents? Her family? Real friends? WTH?
“I was just ordering followers.”
She might not make an excuse. She might just say what happened. The time, place, form, and events. I did this, and this is what happened. She might not want to make an excuse. You have nothing to base your assumption on. Nothing that you’ve explained. It would be interesting to hear why you think she might do that.
Yeah right…too bad you refuse to see the facts…continue your life in you twisted world while others are opening their eyes.
You might not like the fact that Allison is a victim but she is …even more than Frank is pointing (as some things are inaccurate)
After watching “The Vow”, it’s crazy to think that a modern cult can still operate by hurting people by manipulating their human beliefs in themselves…Everyone can be tricked by a trickster as there will always be someone smarter than yourself.
Be careful.
By Tris from United Kingdom. 13/10/2020. 10am