‘Smallville’ Actress Charged With Helping Sex Cult That Included Bronfmans

Image by Youtube/Facebook

By Reuters April 20, 2018

“Smallville” actress Allison Mack was arrested Friday on charges that she allegedly aided self-help guru Keith Raniere in running a secret society that enslaved women and branded them with his initials, including some members of the Bronfman family of Jewish philanthropists.

Mack, 35, has been charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue in Brooklyn. She is expected to appear in Brooklyn federal court Friday afternoon.

U.S. authorities have accused Mack of recruiting women to join what purported to be a female mentorship group but was actually a secret society led by Raniere. Prosecutors said recruits were forced to have sex with Raniere and were branded with his initials.

Two members of the Bronfmann family are among Raniere’s adherents.

Raniere was arrested in March. Prosecutors said he coerced women by threatening to release personal information and taking their assets.

Raniere, 57, has run a network of self-help groups based in Albany, New York called Nxivm over the past 20 years.

The women in his secret society, who numbered as many as 50, were forced to adhere to strict diet to stay thin, prosecutors have said.

Upon joining, they were required to provide information about family and friends, nude photographs and rights to their assets – so-called collateral used to threaten them if they left, prosecutors said.

The women were taught that the society would empower and strengthen them, according to prosecutors.

Mack helped force the women to have sex with Raniere and received financial and other benefits from Raniere in exchange, prosecutors said.**

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 22.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO