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Metro

Nxivm lawyers use Scientology to dispute forced labor allegations

By
Priscilla DeGregory and
Ruth Brown
Published Dec. 28, 2018, 8:14 p.m. ET
Television actress Allison Mack leaves federal court in New York.
Television actress Allison Mack leaves federal court in New York. AP

If Scientology isn’t guilty of forced labor, sex-slave cult Nxivm isn’t guilty of forced labor.

That’s the argument lawyers for actress Allison Mack are making in their latest effort to get sex trafficking and forced labor charges against the “Smallville” star tossed out of Brooklyn Federal Court.

Mack and Nxivm leader Keith Raniere are accused of duping women into joining a master-slave group by getting them to hand over damaging “collateral” like naked photos of themselves and accusations against their loved ones, then forcing them to work for free and have sex with Raniere.

But in court papers filed Friday, Mack’s lawyers argue that the threat of releasing those photos and statements doesn’t rise to the threat of “serious harm” required to prove someone engaged in forced labor.

“The government argues that Ms. Mack obtained forced labor through ‘threats of serious harm,’ with serious harm being the embarrassment that would result from the exposure of one’s collateral,” her lawyers write.

“Courts have found, however, that such an outcome, albeit embarrassing, does not amount to serious harm under the statute.”

They cite a 2009 case in which a couple unsuccessfully tried to sue the Church of Scientology for forced labor.

“The court did not find that plaintiffs were compelled to remain in the organization even though, if they chose to leave, they would be ‘excommunicated’ from their friends and family and labeled a ‘dissenter,'” Mack’s lawyers write.

“The threat of reputational damage and isolation from loved ones therefore did not qualify as serious harm.”

Mack’s lawyers argue the circumstances of this case bear “no relation” to other cases where forced labor was found, like “squalid living conditions, extreme isolation, threats of physical harm, lack of immigration status, lack of education, and unfamiliarity with English.”

Nvixm’s alleged victims were “educated, English-speaking adults, who were not forced or compelled to join the organization, nor kept physically isolated, and who could leave the organization at any time,” they argue.