NEW YORK (AP) — A television actress best known for playing a young Superman’s close friend was charged with sex trafficking, after federal prosecutors said she worked as a slave “master,” recruiting unsuspecting women to a cult-like group led by a man who sold himself as a self-improvement guru to the stars.
Allison Mack was accused in an indictment unsealed Friday in federal court in Brooklyn. She was scheduled to appear in court later in the day.
Mack, 35, starred in The CW network’s “Smallville,” ending in 2015, but has played only minor roles since then. Prosecutors said she helped recruit women for leader Keith Raniere and his cult-like organization called NXIVM. She told the women they were joining what was purported to be a female mentorship group, prosecutors said.
But “the victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor,” according to federal prosecutors.
“Mack and other … masters recruited … slaves by telling them that they were joining a women-only organization that would empower them and eradicate purported weaknesses the NVIVM curriculum taught were common in women,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said she required women she recruited to engage in sexual activity with Raniere, who paid Mack in return.
In March, federal authorities raided an upstate New York residence near Albany where NXIVM was headquartered. The organization also ran programs in Mexico.
Raniere, 57, was arrested in Mexico, brought to the U.S. on March 26 and is being held without bail in Brooklyn.
The FBI has filed sex trafficking charges against him, saying that with the help of mostly female assistants, he blackmailed and coerced women into unwanted sex. Prosecutors hinted in earlier papers that Mack was one of the co-conspirators; it’s not clear who else may be charged.
Raniere’s attorney has said the facts would show Raniere did not compel or pressure anyone to do anything. He says everyone was acting in accordance with his or her free will at every instant.
Raniere sold himself as a self-improvement guru to the stars and his core disciples who include actresses, wealthy heiresses and a son of the former president of Mexico.
Mack’s “Smallville” co-star Kristin Kreuk says she was involved with one of the group’s self-help programs but left about five years ago. She wrote on Twitter last month that she didn’t experience any “nefarious activity” and was “horrified and disgusted” by the allegations.
