Happy 38th Birthday, Allison Mack

Today, July 29, is the 38th birthday of Allison Christin Mack.

She has spent her last three birthdays at her parent’s home in Los Alamitos, California, subject to home arrest. She was initially arrested in April 2018 – and charged with sex trafficking and racketeering. She pled guilty a year later to two felony counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy in exchange for the feds dropping the more serious sex trafficking charges.

She joined Nxivm in 2006, recruited by her costar, Kristin Kreuk, of the hit TV series Smallville. And her life went to rack and ruin in the succeeding years as she quit acting and moved to Albany, NY, to be near her cult leader, Keith Alan Raniere.

This must be another sad birthday for Mack, who is awaiting sentencing for her crimes.  She may not leave home without permission of the court and she wears an ankle monitor to safeguard that.

Soon she will fly to Brooklyn and be sentenced by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, who presided over her plea deal and the trial of her former lord and master, Keith Alan Raniere.

The likelihood is she will go to prison. There was no guarantee when she took her plea deal of what the sentence would be. The judge can sentence her to a prison term of 40 years – since both racketeering charges come with a maximum sentence of 20 years and he can, if he chooses, sentence her to the max on both and have them run consecutively.

He can also sentence her to nothing, or probation, or anything he chooses, anywhere from zero to 40 years.

At the time of her pleading guilty, it was estimated that her sentencing guidelines would suggest a prison sentence of between 3- 5 years.

It is impossible to know what the judge will do. He may go within the sentencing range or veer upwards or downwards. We do not know the judge’s mood on all things Nxivm. He has six defendants to sentence.

He seemed to show some sympathy for one Nxivm defendant, Lauren Salzman who testified at the trial of Raniere.  On the other hand, he put on the record that he was considering sentencing Clare Webb Bronfman to a longer sentence than what the sentencing guidelines suggested.  Bronfman’s original sentencing guidelines were estimated at from 21-27 months. It seems the judge will make an upward departure from that original estimate.

Happily for Mack, she will not be the first one sentenced. That privilege appears to be going to Bronfman, who is scheduled to be sentenced on September 30.  Bronfman is also subject to home arrest on a $100 million bail. [Mack is out on a $5 million bond].

According to sources, Mack has been vacillating between hating Raniere and being repentant for wasting years of her life with a scoundrel – and, again, missing the life she led with her sister-wives in Nxivm and getting the commands of her glorious master.

I was told she had a nervous breakdown at one point and that on a happier note, she had a boyfriend.

It is not known if she is completely out of Nxivm – at least in heart and spirit, although her bail conditions require her to not have any contact with anyone associated with Nxivm – at least not anyone who is or was a coach or higher in Nxivm as of 2017.

Many people may think that Allison had a bad day when she was arrested – on April 20, 2018. I have always thought of that day as one lucky one for her. For it was, in a sense, a kind of second birthday, the day when she was forcibly stopped from following Raniere. Up until that time, she was his ardent slave – a slave by her own admission.

She admitted in court that it took her about a year to finally realize the man was a cad.  So she celebrated her 34th and 35th birthday as a DOS slave.  Her 36th birthday she celebrated under house arrest but still as a follower of Raniere, and as a DOS slave.

Prior to her 37th birthday, she renounced Raniere publicly. And today is her 38th birthday. She is still a young woman and if the judge is not too harsh in sentencing her, she may be out sometime around age 40 or 41 – still young enough to start over again.

She should be thankful for her arrest, for had she not been arrested, had Raniere not been stopped, almost certainly Allison would still be in DOS, trying to recruit sex slaves for Raniere and getting blackmail material on them and getting them branded.

Add to that her sleep deprivation and semi-starvation diet required by Raniere and its likely consequent ill health, she was a perfect candidate for disposal by Raniere, either by murder or ill health – like cancer – like so many of the other women when they aged out – as Allison would have done very soon.

Just before he was arrested, about a month before her, she was feverishly recruiting younger women for his bed, which is what actually got her into trouble.  Had she not been arrested, she would likely still be recruiting young women – perhaps even underage girls – to satisfy the inordinate perversions of her master this very day.

On her birthday, but for his and her arrests, she would be spending the day trying to please her master, perhaps participating in a group blow job, or commanding some 20-something woman to go on a walk with Raniere and to do anything he commanded, or giving a slave a seduction assignment – to seduce a horrible, fetid, sweaty, flabby old pervert, with erectile dysfunction, and the decided absence of regular bathing, adding, ” I give you permission to enjoy it.”

Decades would have passed like this and a life totally wasted in the service of a monster who really hated her deep down and wanted her to take the fall for his disgusting master-slave group. He wanted to blame her, coward that he is.

Poor Allison, she even told the New York Times that it was her idea to brand women, an outright lie – in order to help her master.

Now soon she will be sentenced and likely headed to prison and following her completion of that sentence, when she finishes whatever prison sentence the judge gives her, she will then have three years’ probation.

But one day, she will return to normal life, not as a slave of Raniere or a slave of the government.

Perhaps by the time, when she is in her mid-40s, with a little luck, she will be free, like she was before Kristin Kreuk recruited her and the Bronfman sisters and Nancy Salzman told her about this wonderful man with his wonderful teachings.

No doubt when she is free again her money will be all gone. It may already be gone. She came to Nxivm with an estimated $8 million net worth and, of course, Raniere bled it all out of her.

If anything is left of that original bundle, she is being sued by some 80 plaintiffs, she and the other Nxivm leaders, and they are likely to prevail.  She will be bankrupt by the time she emerges from prison if she is not bankrupt already.

Soon also Allison will be living in a prison. After more than two years at her parent’s home, she will go to prison most likely, hopefully, a low-security prison, where she won’t have to suffer too much, or at least not more than necessary.

Perhaps the judge will be lenient.  Perhaps he has come to realize that Raniere was the monster and that he made victims of all the women he caught in his web. Maybe he will let Allison off with home confinement – since she was a victim too.

I see no need to put her in a cage or prison. Maybe she has learned her lesson and maybe she can articulate that to the judge at sentencing and maybe he will exercise mercy and allow her to remain at home to serve out her sentence.

That is my wish for her on her birthday. That the judge exercises leniency. And that she free herself from all attachment to Keith Raniere.

Though she still has scars of his initials on her pubic region, I hope her mind becomes clear of Raniere and finds something positive, something strengthening from her experience. Perhaps she could help others who are caught in horrible cults. She knows every inch of the way.

Perhaps she can help other prisoners. She has experience in teaching. Not everything she learned in Nxivm is bad.  She could be a voice for the underprivileged. She has enough of a name that any good cause she undertakes in prison, would be listened to, would attract attention. Maybe she can be a force for good in prison.

With her fame and winsome ways [and she is winsome and charismatic], she could use her talents to bring joy to others, even in prison.

If that is too maudlin for some readers’ taste, then I will only say this: She did not kill anybody. She believed in a cause and was deceived – like other victims – so she is a victim. She is not an angel but she is not a devil and she does not need to be in prison in order to heal, I think. She does not need to be in prison to protect society [like Raniere].

When she was just a few months shy of 37, she wept in front of the judge, then composed herself and said in part [and I know she is an actress who can cry at will]:

This past year has been one of introspection and self-examination, but, also, a year of understanding and acceptance. It has been a year of looking at what I had done for the past ten years, looking at my relationships with other members of NXIVM, friends, family, and associates, looking closely at the decisions I made, the people I trusted, and, more importantly, those who placed their trust in me. And having done so, I am prepared to take responsibility for acts in which I was involved, some of which I now recognize were wrong.

As Your Honor is aware, I dedicated years of my life to an organization in which I and others truly believed, NXIVM. In the course of my time with NXIVM, I became close with many individuals, many of whom are wonderful people, and some of whom I now realize are not.

But relevant here, 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.

The goal of the enterprise that I joined was to further and promote the objectives of Keith Raniere.

Allison went on to describe the crimes she pled guilty to.

… certain racketeering [acts]…   At Raniere’s direction, I and other women sought to recruit other women to join DOS… I knowingly and intentionally took and withheld property [collateral] from Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 8… 

I encouraged Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 8 to deliver this collateral to me, through my participation in a scheme that was designed to instill in them a fear that if the property was not delivered, we would expose collateral previously given to the organization, which could have been embarrassing and personally damaging to themselves or others, if released.

…  I knowingly and intentionally obtained the labor and services in the form of so-called acts of care from Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 8…  through, among other things, being part of a scheme, namely DOS, designed to make them believe that if they did not perform the requested acts of care, they could suffer …  the release of their collateral, which they had pledged in order to join the organization.

…  I knowingly and intentionally worked with others and devised a scheme to make materially false representations …  I concealed Keith Raniere’s role as the head of DOS and characterized DOS as a women’s only organization, knowing that Keith Raniere was the head of the organization…

Your Honor, having reviewed the charges against Keith Raniere in the most recent indictment and having many months to reflect on my own actions and motivations of others, I have come to the conclusion that I must take full responsibility for my conduct. And that is why I am pleading guilty today.

I am very sorry for the victims of this case. I am also very sorry for the harm that I caused to my family. They are good people who I have hurt through my misguided adherence to Keith Raniere’s teachings. I apologize to them from the bottom of my heart, and I am truly very sorry for what I have done. Through this plea and the help of others, I have begun the process of healing and repairing the relationships in my life.

I wish to thank the Court, Your Honor, the prosecutors, my lawyers, and, most importantly, my family for their role in this process. I know that I am and will be a better person as a result of this.

***

So, if she is a better person for this – for her arrest and conviction – and the time she spent at home contemplating her mistakes, and if she is sincere, and if her goal from the start was to be a better person – which I think it was – then I wish for her on her birthday that she obtain leniency from the judge and complete dissociation from Nxivm and from all lingering thoughts of hope or love or enslavement from the monster that ruined her life, the beastly Keith Alan Raniere.

Frank Parlato