More arrests expected in sex-trafficking probe involving actress

NEW YORK — Authorities expect to make more arrests in the sextrafficking investigation of a selfhelp group that has already resulted in charges against former Smallville actress Allison Mack and the group’s leader, a prosecutor says.

Assistant U.S. attorney Moira Penza told a judge at a pretrial hearing in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday that the government plans to file a revised indictment naming more defendants.

Prominent backers of upstate New York-based group NXIVM have said they were in the dark about allegations that women were forced to have sex with leader Keith Raniere.

Friday’s hearing marked the first time that Mack and Raniere had seen each other since his arrest in March in Mexico, where they were staying together in a villa in Puerto Vallarta. The actress, free on bail but under home detention, sat two chairs away from Raniere at the defence table, but there was no interaction. Raniere remains jailed.

Both have pleaded not guilty to charges they coerced women into joining a secret society within the group and becoming Raniere’s sex “slaves.” Some of the women were branded with a symbol that prosecutors said contained Raniere’s initials.

Mack, 35, is best known for playing Chloe Sullivan, a teenage friend of Superman, on the CW network’s Smallville.