Smallville star Allison Mack who recruited girls for Nxivm sex cult freed from jail early

5 July 2023, 13:15 | Updated: 5 July 2023, 13:45

'Smallville' actor Allison Mack, who was jailed for jailed for three years for her role in a sex-trafficking case tied to the cult group NXIVM, has been released from prison a year early.

Mack, who began serving a three-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, in September 2021, was released on Monday, according to federal prison records.

Best known for her role as a young Superman's close friend on Smallville, Mack, 40, pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges that she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.

Mack spent less than two years at the low-security women's prison perhaps most famous for holding actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman for their roles in the US college admissions scandal.

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She avoided a longer prison term by cooperating with federal authorities in their case against Raniere who is serving a 120 year sentence for sex-trafficking offences.

Mack helped prosecutors build evidence against Raniere showing how he brainwashed women who were branded with his initials and forced to have sex with him.

In addition to Mack, members of the group included an heiress to the Seagram´s liquor fortune, Clare Bronfman, and a daughter of TV star Catherine Oxenberg of 'Dynasty'.

Mack had faced between 14 and 17 and a half years in prison after she pleaded guilty in April 2019 to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges that included extortion and forced labour relating to her role in NXIVM, a cult that claimed to be a multi-level marketing company and leadership program.

Days before her sentencing, the star issued an apology to her victims.

Read More: Nxivm guru Keith Raniere sentenced to 120 years in prison

In a letter to the judge days after she handed prosecutors a tape of Raniere discussing a branding ritual she said: "It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.

"I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself."

Mack started acting and modeling at the age of four but landed her first acting gig on a TV show when she was 15 and in 2001 went on to play Chloe Sullivan, the best friend of a young Clark Kent, in Smallville.

The series ran from 2001 to 2011 and earned Mack two Teen Choice Awards and multiple TV award nominations. It was while Smallville was filming that Mack first attended a NXIVM meeting back in 2007.