An actress of the American TV series "Smallville" was arrested on charges of sex trafficking, for recruiting women for a supposed self-help group in which they were forced to have sex with their leader, according to justice.
Allison Mack, 35, arrested on Friday, was recruiting women as a mentor to the group, US Attorney Richard Donoghue told the media.
The leader of the group, arrested in Mexico last month, was Keith Raniere, also known as "Vanguard," he added.
"The victims were exploited, both sexually and working for the benefit of the accused," said the prosecutor.
The "slaves" were tattooed with a symbol with the initials of the leader of the group, which had been established in Albany, capital of the state of New York.
Rainiere was arrested for sex trafficking in Mexico last March, after operating during the past 20 years a series of supposed self-help programs in the framework of an organization called "Nxivm" (pronounced NEX-i-um). In addition to centers in the United States, I had representations in Mexico, Canada and South America.
Based on a pyramid organization, the five-day courses cost $ 5,000 and the participants, who were often in debt, had to work for the organization.
One of the missions of the slaves was to have sex with the "teacher" and they were encouraged to recruit others to climb the hierarchical ladder.
Mack, at the second level of the pyramid, is accused of creating a parallel Nxivm program for which he recruited actors.
As detailed in court documents, in 2015, Raniere created a secret society within Nxivm called 'DOS,' an acronym for a Latin phrase that could be translated as 'Lord of obedient women' or 'The Vow'. DOS operated with levels of 'slave' women led by 'teachers'. "
Slaves were supposed to become teachers by recruiting their own slaves, who should then "serve not only their own teachers but also the teachers of the upper levels in the DOS pyramid," according to the court statement.
Mack played Chloe Sullivan in "Smallville," a series about Clark Kent's childhood in Smallville, Kansas, before being known as Superman. The series lasted for 10 seasons.