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| Allison Mack exits the United States Federal courthouse on Tuesday in New York City. The former "Smallville" star pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking Friday. File Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI |
By Ray Downs, UPI
A federal judge in Brooklyn set actress Allison Mack's bail at $5 million Tuesday as she faces charges for sex trafficking for an alleged cult leader.
The 35-year-old actress, best known for her role on Smallville, will be allowed to serve home detention at her parents' house in Los Alamitos, Calif.
Variety reported Mack is likely to cut a deal with prosecutors to provide information on Keith Raniere, the founder of Nxivm, an Albany, N.Y.-based self-help group whose stated goal is to "empower people," but that prosecutors allege was a cult that coerced women into sex and forced labor.
Raniere was arrested last month on federal charges of sex trafficking, sex-trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. He denied the charges.
"The picture being painted in the media is not how I know our community and friends to be, nor how I experience it myself," Raniere said in a statement last month.
Mack was arrested on Friday on the same charges. She pleaded not guilty.
"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. "The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants' benefit."
Mack hasn't commented publicly on the charges.
Prosecutors described Nxivm as the umbrella organization of a secret sex cult known as DOS, a Latin acronym that loosely translates as "Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions."
Prosecutors said women were coerced into taking sexual photos and making embarrassing confessions on video, which would then be used to blackmail the "slaves" into performing acts ranging from getting coffee and cleaning to having sex with Raniere.
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