A debate has been ongoing on this website as to what role Kristin Kreuk had in NIXVM. Whether it was just, as she says, a minimal role or an aggressive one – is one of interest to readers.
Kreuk has made only one statement – on Twitter – just days after Keith Raniere was arrested in late March:
“When I was about 23, I took an Executive Success Programs/NXIVM “intensive,” what I understood to be a self-help/personal growth course that helped me handle my previous shyness, which is why I continued with the program. I left about five years ago and had minimal contact with those who were still involved. The accusations that I was in the “inner circle” or recruited women as “sex slaves” are blatantly false. During my time, I never experienced any illegal or nefarious activity. I am horrified and disgusted by what has come out about DOS. Thank you to all of the brave women who have come forward to share their stories and expose DOS; I can’t imagine how difficult this has been for you. I am deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with NXIVM. I hope that the investigation leads to justice for all of those affected.”
There are some who say her statement is misleading and her role was deeper than she suggests. What is not in dispute is that Kreuk was on the NXIVM Stripe Path. She was a NXIVM coach who rose to the rank of Yellow Sash with Two Stripes. This means she took many courses and spent perhaps as much as $100,000 in courses during her seven or so years with NXIVM.
It means she coached and taught people the NXIVM teachings. Her role as a coach is something she fails to mention in her Twitter statement – leading people to believe she was just a student and nothing more.
It is quite possible she never saw anything illegal, as she says, and never suspected things were amiss or foul. She may not, as she says, have been in the inner circle. Yet she was close to those in the inner circle – and was invited to attend a meeting of select NXIVM members – many of whom were in the inner circle – at Necker Island. She was also quite close to Nancy Salzman, the president of NXIVM, who guided her in many of her NXIVM endeavors.
There are other curious aspects concerning Kreuk’s involvement in NXIVM. Kreuk publicly claimed to have co-authored a college survey [along with Allison Mack] that was posted online on a website owned by NXVIM inner circle member, Karen Unterreiner. The survey sought to learn about college students’ spending habits and was almost certainly meant to be used by NXIVM for recruitment.
Kreuk headlined an a-Cappella concert organized by Keith Raniere. NXIVM was criticized by college students, some of whom claimed that when they expressed interest in performing in the concert, they were pitched to join NXIVM. Kreuk said nothing in rebuttal then.
Also troubling is her role in a teen group called Girls By Design – along with other NXIVM members. GBD was alleged to have been a NXIVM recruitment tool for girls – although no dispositive proof has been offered to date.
What is troubling about this is that Keith Raniere is an alleged pedophile with a penchant for underage teen girls. Kreuk, an actress and coach for NXIVM, is involved in a program that sought to reach out to teen girls and get them to attend various events. It sounds suspicious but it could be a coincidence.
The Girls by Design Facebook, still online, has as a “related page” – with Jness, Raniere’s women’s group that teaches that women are monogamous and men polygamous. The Facebook for GBD seems to have been active in 2013. The website for GBD is password protected like most NXIVM related sites
Many defend Kreuk’s role in GBD, saying she had no way of knowing Raniere was a pedophile prior to a February 2012 story in the Albany Times Union that exposed him. If Kreuk’s statement about leaving is accurate, she left one year after the story of his pedophilia was revealed publicly.
None of this means Kreuk was involved in anything nefarious. Although there are some who say “enough coincidences make a fact.” There are others who say the extended discussion of this topic on this website is unfair to Kreuk, who used to be shy until she took NXIVM courses to “…handle my previous shyness, which is why I continued with the program.”
Kristin Kreuk was one of NXIVM’s most high profile members. She was used – even if inadvertently on her part – to recruit new members. She allowed her name and image to be used in support of NXIVM repeatedly. She never explained her full role, or exactly why she left. There are still some she knew, and possibly recruited, who are still in NXIVM – a group, she said, she was “…deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with”
Perhaps it might help those who are still in NXIVM to disassociate from the cult – ifshe explained why she left.
On the other hand, there are those who say she owes no one an explanation. She left NXIVM and others who left did so without having to give their reasons. There are some who think NXIVM might have collateral on her, something they could use to blackmail her. This might be the reason she is silent. There are others who suspect Clare Bronfman is behind the attacks on Kreuk as a way to divert attention from her co-defendant Allison Mack. Clare might even be doing this as a message to Kreuk to keep her mouth shut or else.
Opinions are divided. One thing is sure – readers are interested. Kreuk is a public figure. She is not only a public figure but in a sense a public cost. She is supported by Canadian taxpayers; she stars in a taxpayer-funded TV show, Burden of Truth. The show, evidently not good enough to make it to air based on normal commercial considerations, requires the government to tax Canadians – whether they like it or not – to pay for her appearances. For that reason alone – the people who un-voluntarily pay might argue they have a right to know if the woman they are paying to act was really a cult figure – who is trying to downplay her past.
On her taxpayer-funded show, Kreuk plays a heroic, outspoken and fearless female lawyer who stands up to Big Pharma, big time lawyers and corrupt politicians to protect weak and vulnerable girls. Some find it curious that Kreuk does not speak up just a little more about NXIVM. It is not as if she does not speak out about causes. She is a virtue signaller extraordinaire, expressing her opinions on all kinds of women “victims” all over the globe.
Kreuk used her image and fame to get special treatment at NXIVM, and, in turn, was used by NXIVM to recruit new members [she recruited Allison Mack].
She says she is interested in the truth coming out. She says herself, “I hope that the investigation leads to justice for all of those affected.”
As we continue to debate the truth or falsity of the proposition that she knows something “illegal or nefarious” about NXIVM, we are reminded of what she herself said of others who spoke out, “Thank you to all of the brave women who have come forward to share their stories and expose DOS.”
Has she any stories about NXIVM that might help expose it? Or did she only see good in it? If so then why is she “…deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with NXIVM.”
Meantime, I wish to thank a reader for sending me the following photographs.
Below is the reader’s comments. The captions are also those of the same reader who sent the pictures. Perhaps other readers can help identify some of the people who are unnamed.
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Hi Frank
I have a few snaps of NXIVM actress Kristin Kreuk with her fellow cult members. In the snaps, you see Kreuk with Lauren Salzman, Emiliano Salinas, Allison Mack, Siobhan Hotaling, Nicki Clyne, and others. One of them looks like it was taken at a NXIVM course.
1 and 02: Sima Kumar (recruited by Kreuk), Marissa Cepelinski, Kreuk, Unknown, Unknown, Mack.
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03: Kreuk, Edmondson, Omar Boone[?] Lauren Salzman
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Tabatha Chapman (Smallville fan recruited into NXIVM by Allison Mack. She was involved with GBD, was a website designer for Kreuk and Mack, she is on IMDB having done an interview as a Smallville fan) Sarah Edmondson [?], Marissa Ceplinski, Unknown, Unknown, Kendra Voth, Kristin Kreuk, Mark Hildreth
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05: Kristin Kreuk, Sarah Edmondson, Nicki Clyne, Michel Chernitzky
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06: Kristin Kreuk, Siobhan Hotaling
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07: Quite a few in there. I’m sure you can name them. Kreuk, Hildreth, Emiliano Salinas, Alejandro Benecourt, Mark Vicente, Sarah Edmondson, and others
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Not sure where photos 01 and 02 are from. Photos 03, 05 and 07 come from the Facebook page of Michel Chernitzky. 06 is from Siobhan Hotaling’s Facebook page. You can find other pictures there of her with Allison Mack. Not sure about photo 04, possible from Tabatha Chapman’s Facebook page.
There are other relevant photographs. If you chose to publish these photographs, please don’t say where you got them from.
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