Actress Allison Mack arrives at the Hollywood FX Summer Comedies Party in Los Angeles, California June 26, 2012. (Reuters)
“Smallville” actress Allison Mack was arraigned on Friday at a federal courthouse in New York following her arrest on sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor charges as part an alleged sex cult, Fox News confirmed Friday.
The 35-year-old was last seen in March running after purported cult leader Keith Raniere as police hauled him away from a $10,000-a-week Mexican villa where the pair had reportedly been hiding out.
"I have no comment on the arrest this afternoon of Allison Mack," a rep for the star told Fox News. But the New York Post reported that Mack pleaded not guilty.
Raniere, the co-founder of the self-help organization and alleged cult NXIVM, stands accused of keeping numerous women as slaves and branding his initials into their skin.
He was was arraigned last week on the same charges as Mack and was denied bail as he awaits his next court appearance on April 27.
Mack appeared in "Smallville," a TV series about a young Clark Kent, from 2001-2011, before dedicating her life to NXIVM and Raniere.
“As alleged in the indictment, Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere,” U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said in a statement. “The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants’ benefit."
According to NXIVM’s former publicist, Frank Parlato, Mack came up with the idea of a secret society of women within the organization who would be branded near their groin area.
“She was the principal recruiter of young slaves for Raniere,” Parlato told Fox News on Friday. “They nicknamed her Pimp Mack.”
Mack's fellow "Smallville" co-star Kristin Kreuk was also accused of helping to recruit women as sex slaves into Nxivm. She has denied the allegations.
The 35-year-old said in a statement posted to Twitter in March that she took a NXIVM course when she was 23 to help battle her “shyness” but left the group about five years ago.
“When I was about 23, I took an Executive Success Programs/NXIVM ‘intensive,’ what I understood to be a self-help/personal growth course that helped me handle my previous shyness, which is why I continued with the program,” Kreuk wrote. “I left about five years ago and had minimal contact with those who were still involved.”
The actress denied she had any influence within the group and was not involved in its “Dominus Obsequious Sororium” (DOS), which translates from Latin to “Master Over the Slave Woman.”
“The accusations that I was in the ‘inner circle’ or recruited women as ‘sex slaves’ are blatantly false,” Kreuk said. “During my time, I never experienced any illegal or nefarious activity. I am horrified and disgusted by what has come out about DOS.”
Raniere is accused of masterminding and overseeing a system in which women were told the best way to advance was to become a "slave" overseen by "masters."
They also were expected to have sex with him, do menial chores for masters, and to keep the arrangement a secret — or face public humiliation, the criminal complaint against him states.
Investigators said Raniere preferred exceptionally thin women, so "slaves" had to stick to very low-calorie diets and document every food they ate.
Women who didn't follow orders were required to attend classes where they were "forced to wear fake cow udders over their breasts while people called them derogatory names," or threatened with being put in cages, court papers say.
“He needs to be held accountable for every woman and every underage girl that he has harmed,” Catherine Oxenberg told Fox News. “This is a long time coming.”
Oxenberg, an actress known for her role on the 1980s prime-time drama “Dynasty,” has a daughter, India, who is currently in NXIVM.
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