'Smallville' actress Allison Mack pleads guilty to racketeering in sex cult case

Actress Allison Mack has pleaded guilty for her role in an alleged sex cult.

What are the details?

Mack is best known for playing Chloe Sullivan, Clark Kent's friend/confidant on the Warner Bros. TV series "Smallville." In later seasons, Mack's character ran the poorly named "ISIS Foundation."

She was arrested in April 2018 and indicted on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. She pleaded not guilty. Mack was accused of being one of the leaders and founding members of an alleged sex cult called NXIUM (pronounced nexium). While masquerading as a self-help program, NXIUM would allegedly starve and brand women to prepare them as sex slaves for NXIUM's leader, Keith Raniere.

In a May 2018 interview with the New York Times Magazine, Mack admitted to coming up with the idea to brand the women, and compared it to getting a "tattoo." The brand included Raniere's initials.

Women were reportedly forced to recruit others in a sort of perverse pyramid scheme. Some of these women who testified at Mack's trial said that they had been blackmailed into being a part of this.

What happened Monday?

On Monday, she pleaded guilty to racketeering in connection with the cult. However, she still professed that she did not mean to hurt anyone.

"I believed Keith Raniere's intentions were to help people, and I was wrong," she said in court, according to The Associated Press, promising to "be a better person" in the future. She will be sentenced on Sept. 11, and could face up to 40 years in prison.

Raniere's trial is scheduled later this month. He has pleaded not guilty. Two other members of NXIUM have also pleaded guilty.