American actress Allison Mack
US actress Allison Mack has pleaded guilty to charges linked to an alleged sex trafficking operation disguised as a mentoring group.
Appearing in Brooklyn federal court, Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges related to the suspected sex cult Nxivm. In a statement, Mack admitted to recruiting women by telling them they were joining a female mentorship group.
“I must take full responsibility for my conduct,” she said.
Mack, known for the US television series Smallville, is one of six people facing criminal charges as part of an investigation into Nxivm.
Nxivm, pronounced ‘nexium’, is a group that started in 1998 as a self-help programme and says it has worked with more than 16,000 people, including the son of a former Mexican president and Hollywood actresses such as Mack.
On its website, Nxivm describes itself as a “community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human”.
Despite its tagline of “working to build a better world”, its leader Keith Raniere stands accused of overseeing a “slave and master” system within the group.
According to the group’s website, it has suspended enrolment and events because of the “extraordinary circumstances facing the company at this time”. Prosecutors allege the group mirrors a pyramid scheme, in which members paid thousands of dollars for courses to rise within its ranks. Mr. Raniere is alleged to be at the top of this structure as the only man, but Mack served as one of his top female deputies.
Female recruits were allegedly branded with Mr. Raniere’s initials and expected to have sex with him, as part of the system.
“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,” Richard Donoghue, US attorney for the Eastern District in New York, said in a statement last year.
–BBC