Allison Mack was “a seeker”: “Infamous” host on being NXIVM’s chosen reporter, interviewing members

Published January 14, 2023 By admin with Comments 1

Afew years ago, Vanessa Grigoriadis started to tell the story of a lifetime. That story would take her to a suburb north of Albany, New York, and to a mysterious location in Mexico. That story would put her in front of people from Clare Bronfman, heir to the Seagram’s fortune, to “Smallville” actor Allison Mack. All in pursuit of the tale of NXIVM, a group first founded as a (now defunct) corporation by Keith Raniere, which peddled personal development courses and videos for a price.

Starting as a multi-level marketing company, NXIVM offered seminars like the “Executive Success Programs,” and eventually had an estimated 16,000 members. Women within the organization were used to recruit more women for secretive groups inside the group, which used coercive techniques including threats and blackmail. Women were branded and sexually assaulted.

Grigoriadis was selected by the group to tell their story. As such, she was given unparalleled access to their headquarters, to members and to the group’s leader himself, Raniere. Grigoriadis reported her findings in a series of high-profile, long-form articles for The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair.

Now, Grigoriadis is telling the story in a new miniseries for “Infamous,” her podcast with fellow journalist Gabriel Sherman. The five-episode series includes exclusive interviews with Raniere, Bronfman and Mack. For her involvement, Mack was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of probation, after pleading guilty to racketeering and other charges. Bronfman was sentenced to almost seven years in prison, more than the recommended sentence, and Raniere is serving a sentence of 120 years after his conviction on charges including federal sex trafficking and procession of child pornography.

Content retrieved from: https://www.salon.com/2023/01/14/nxivm-infamous-allison-mack-vanessa-grigoriadis/.