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Smallville star Allison Mack has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with an alleged sex cult in New York.

The actress, 36, was accused of being involved with controversial group NXIVM, and jury selection had been due to start today ahead of her trial at Brooklyn federal court.

However, she changed her plea to guilty at the last minute after reportedly striking a deal with prosecutors.

She had been facing charges of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking.

It is not yet known which charges she has pleaded guilty to, but she's said to admitted to at least two.

(Image: Channel 4/Getty)

Prosecutors had claimed Mack, who had been facing life in prison, helped the group's spiritual leader, self-help guru Keith Raniere, recruit women to work as sex slaves within NXIVM.

She was said to have lured in women to join what purported to be a female mentorship group but was actually a secret society run by Raniere.

The actress is best known for played a teenage friend of Superman in the CW network's Smallville.

She's said to have joined the group after becoming dissatisfied with the way her acting career was going.

(Image: PETER FOLEY/EPA)

NXIVM hit the headlines last year after the arrest of Raniere , 58, who was detained in Mexico over sex trafficking allegations.

It is claimed women were branded with his initials, put on extremely restrictive diets and forced to have sex with him.

NXIVM on its website calls itself "a community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human."

(Image: Getty Images North America)

Raniere said he was "deeply saddened" and denied "abusing, coercing or harming" anyone in a letter posted on the site.

Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Raniere, had said he is "confident these allegations [against him] will be soundly disproven."

Raniere's case is due to go to trial later this month.

Two other women, former NXIVM executive Nancy Salzman and her daughter, Lauren, have previously pleaded guilty to charges connected with the case.

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