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Associated Press

A Smallville actress accused of recruiting women into a sadistic sex cult in upstate New York pleaded guilty on Monday to racketeering and conspiracy charges.
Allison Mack, 36, was charged with duping women into joining NXIVM by telling them it was a self-help group. The Albany-based operation was founded by Keith Raniere, who is also accused of possessing child pornography.

A contrite-sounding Mack admitted Monday that she had been “wrong”.
“This past year has been one of introspection and self-examination,” she said. “It’s been a year of looking at what I’ve done the past four years.
“Through it all, I believed that Raniere’s intention was to help people,” she continued. “I was wrong.”
It’s been a year of looking at what I’ve done the past four years
Allison Mack, actress
Prosecutors said that within NXIVM was a secret society known as “Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions”, or “The Vow”. The group was filled with “slaves” and “masters” and Raniere was at the top.
To climb the ladder and become a master, slaves had to recruit slaves of their own, according to prosecutors. Mack, authorities said, was a top-level master.
Many of the slaves were branded with a symbol that incorporated Raniere’s initials. Mack was charged with instructing her “slaves” to have sex with Raniere in exchange for financial benefits for the actress.

Mack, who pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of racketeering, will face a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count when she is sentenced on September 11, though sentencing guidelines will likely call for less than the maximum.
The plea came the same day jury selection began in federal court in Brooklyn. That trial is scheduled for later this month. Raniere is a defendant in the case, as are Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman and the cult’s long-time bookkeeper Kathy Russell.
A federal judge has ruled that the jury hearing evidence against members of the alleged sex cult will be anonymous and “semi-sequestered”.
Two weeks ago, another woman implicated in the NXIVM sex trafficking case pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Lauren Salzman, who entered the plea, is the daughter of Nancy Salzman, 64, co-founder of an alleged sex ring associated with NXIVM.

In March, Nancy Salzman pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy for her role in the operation. The mother, who was known to NXIVM underlings as the “Prefect”, is facing 33 to 41 months in prison at her July 10 sentencing. Prosecutors charge that she developed a women’s empowerment program called “Explorations of Meaning” that was used to manipulate cult members.


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Clare Bronfman, left, a member of Nxivm, an organization charged with sex trafficking, leaves Brooklyn Federal Court with her lawyer Mark Geragos after she received medical attention while in court, Wednesday March 27, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

FILE PHOTO: Nancy Salzman, exits following a hearing on charges in relation to the Albany-based organization Nxivm at the United States Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn at New York, U.S., July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

FILE- In this April 13, 2018 courtroom sketch Keith Raniere, second from right, leader of the secretive group NXIVM, attends a court hearing in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Lawyers for the jailed founder of the purported self-help group say he's being persecuted by the government's "morality police." The accusation was made in court papers filed late Tuesday, June 5 seeking Raniere's release on $10 million bond. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)

Actress Allison Mack leaving Brooklyn federal court on April 8, 2019, in New York. Photo: AP

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David Berg (seated) founded the Children of God cult whose members included River and Joaquin Phoenix and Rose McGowan when they were children. Photo: Alamy

MXDR2B David Brandt Berg (February 18, 1919 ? October 1, 1994), known as Moses David, was the founder and leader of the California-based new religious movement initially called Teens for Christ (1968), then later The Children of God (1969), now called The Family International. During the first 25 years of this movement, the Family International claims they shared their message with over 260 million people in over 100 countries. According to The Family International, 18 million of those people became followers of Christ. Photo : ALAMY

MNGJ1F RAJNEESHPURAM, OREGON, USA - Religious leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh drives by and greets followers from his Rolls Royce. 1984 Photo : ALAMY

MNGHPK RAJNEESPURAM, OREGON, USA - Rajneeshees, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, participate in Dynamic Meditation. 1982 Photo : ALAMY

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 4, 2018, actress Allison Mack (R) departs the United States Eastern District Court after a bail hearing in relation to the sex trafficking charges filed against her in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Clare Bronfman, American heiress to the Seagram liquor fortune, was arrested and charged Tuesday, July 25, 2018 in connection with a secretive society of women sex slaves, before being released on a $100 million bond, US prosecutors said. Allison Mack, a television actress, was also arrested in April on sex trafficking charges for allegedly recruiting women to the purported mentorship group, whom US prosecutors say were forced to have sex with its leader. Members were allegedly treated as slaves -- branded with Raniere's initials while being pinned down naked and filmed at initiation ceremonies. / AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Jemal Countess

Keith Raniere, the founder of NXIVM. PHOTO: HANDOUT

Mary Ellen and Wilbur Tracy Photo / HANDOUT [FEATURES 2018]

MNGHT6 PORTLAND, OREGON, USA - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, cult leader, center, and personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela, left, departing Immigration and Naturalization Services building. 1982 Photo : ALAMY

epa01988906 Goel Razon (C), a 60-year-old Israeli, is brought to court in Tel Aviv, Israel on 14 January 2010 accoused of sexual enslavement, rape , extortion and sexual assault. The man is supposed to have 17 wives, though has never been legally married, and has fathered 38 children. Many of the women who he lives with in southern Tel Aviv have threatened violence if he was arrsted. EPA/YOSSI ZELIGER ISRAEL OUT

Postmag May 20, 2018 Quiz

MXDR2C Yung Myung Seok, founder in 1980 of the Providence Christian Gospel Mission.in South Korea. Following accusations against him by South Korean police of rape, fraud, and embezzlement, Jung fled the country in 1999 and lived as a fugitive in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China before being arrested by Chinese police in May 2007. In April 2009, the Supreme Court of South Korea sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. Jung was scheduled for release on parole in early 2018. Photo : ALAMY

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(FILES) This picture taken 01 April 2004 shows Gregorian Bivolaru (L), the spiritual leader of MISA sect (The Movement for Spiritual Integration in the Asolute) evacuated from a Court in Bucharest, by the special police forces. Bivolaru was arrested and detained shortly in the spring of 2004 before he was released by meanings of proceadure. Yoga teacher and founder of a movement which counts thousands of followers in Romania, Bivolaru, 54, was accused of " sexual relations with an underage girl, sexual perversions and human traffic". Swedish Justice was given the statut of politycal asylant to Bivolaru, past week, after they rejects a request of extradition from Romanian authorities. AFP PHOTO STRINGER / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER

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She allegedly duped women into joining NXIVM by telling them it was a self-help group
Mack faces up to 40 years in jail for telling ‘slaves’ to sleep with group founder for her financial benefit


She faces up to 40 years in jail for duping women into becoming sex slaves by telling them to join ‘self-help group’.


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