'Smallville' Actress Allison Mack May Testify Against Alleged NXIVM Cult Leader

Allison Mack, a former star of the TV series “Smallville,” may testify against the leader of the alleged sex cult NXIVM after pleading guilty to her role in the organization's abuse of women. 

Opening arguments in the trial of Keith Raniere are set for Tuesday at a federal court in Brooklyn.

Raniere is accused of founding and running NXIVM, which framed itself as a self-help group but which prosecutors say was really a cult-like organization that coerced female members into sexual fealty to Raniere.

Among the more sensational allegations: Some women "slaves" in a secret NXIVM sorority were branded with Raniere's initials as part of their initiation. Others were threatened with the release of their collateral - nude photos and other embarrassing material that female members turned over to their "masters" to ensure obedience and silence - if they didn't have unwanted sex with him.

Prosecutors have been tight-lipped about who will testify about the sorority, called DOS, an acronym for a Latin phrase roughly translated as "Lord/master of obedient women." There's speculation that former members of Raniere's inner circle including Mack and Lauren Salzman, the daughter of the group's top executive, could take the witness stand against him.

Mack pleaded guilty last month to charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group's spiritual leader.

"I believed Keith Raniere's intentions were to help people, and I was wrong," Mack told a judge while pleading guilty to racketeering charges.

Actress Allison Mack departs the United States Eastern District Court after a bail hearing in relation to the sex trafficking charges filed against her on May 4, 2018. Photo: Getty Images

As for Raniere, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis has yet to rule on a request by prosecutors to protect the privacy of some alleged victims, referred to as "Jane Does" in court papers, by only using their first names, nicknames or pseudonyms while they testify — measures needed to protect them from "potential harassment" and "undue embarrassment."

Raniere, 58, has pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking and other charges. His lawyers have opposed what they call "unusual and dubious" protections that would violate his constitutional right to confront his accusers. They add it would "unfairly signal to the jury that, in the court's view, the witness is a victim of a sex crime who is in danger."

Either way, the case has resulted in a dramatic downfall for Raniere from a time when he was known as "Vanguard" by devotees in the United State and Mexico.

Promotional material for the now-disbanded NXIVM once hailed him as a "scientist, mathematician, philosopher, entrepreneur, educator, inventor and author" who has "devoted his life to developing new tools for human empowerment, expression and ethics."

Last year, after a New York Times expose on the group and reports that investigators were interviewing some women who had defected from DOS, Raniere fled to Mexico. He was ultimately found staying with Mack and other women in a luxury villa in Puerta Vallarta and taken into custody on a U.S. warrant.

Mack, best known for her role as a young Superman's close friend on the series "Smallville," also was charged, along with Clare Bronfman, an heir to the Seagram liquor fortune who bankrolled NXIVM. Salzman and two others also faced charges.

But after prosecutors added child exploitation charges against Raniere earlier this year based evidence he had sex with a 15-year-old girl, all of his co-defendants pleaded guilty .

Salzman admitted in her guilty plea they she held a Mexican woman hostage in an upstate home for more than two years under threat of having her deported, "if she did not complete labor requested by myself and others."

Authorities say the branding was done using a cautery pen without anesthesia by a doctor who is now under investigation by state health officials.

Eight "Jane Does" in that case have refused to answer questions, saying through their lawyers "the branding was a voluntary free expression of personal beliefs."

In the court papers, defense lawyers have similarly claimed the alleged victims were never abused.

The women are instead described as "independent, smart, curious adults" in search of "happiness, fulfillment and meaning."

But legions of NXIVM defectors and detractors have called the self-help rhetoric a brainwashing device that has destroyed lives.

Among the most vocal opponents has been TV actress Catherine Oxenberg of "Dynasty" fame, whose daughter is a former NXIVM member who once revealed to her mother she had been branded and considered it "character building."

Hearing that, "My heart broke into a millions pieces," Oxenberg said at a recent forum on the subject. "I knew I had lost her."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.