More arrests expected in sex-trafficking case
NEW YORK — Authorities expect to make more arrests in the sex-trafficking investigation of a self-help group that has resulted in charges against former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack and the group’s leader, a prosecutor said Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza told a judge at a pretrial hearing in federal court in Brooklyn that the government plans to file a revised indictment naming more defendants in the coming weeks.
Prominent backers of upstate New York-based group NXIVM (pronounced NEX’-ee-um) have said they were in the dark about allegations 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 this past March in Mexico, where they were staying together in a villa in Puerto Vallarta. The actress, who is free on bail but under home detention, sat two chairs away from Raniere at the defense table, but there was no interaction. Raniere is 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.”