Truth or Fraud: Is Damon Brink’s broadcast a felony? Part 1

Damon Brink deplores those who hate Keith Raniere

Evidence published on Frank Report may have serious consequences for Damon Brink.

That evidence is a video Mr. Brink broadcast in February 2014.

The matter falls within the six-year statute of limitations for criminal and civil fraud in New York State, although it’s also possible that federal laws may have been broken.

SOP members who paid money toward SOP Weekend #7 may be entitled to actual and punitive monetary damages.

The question of criminal fraud hinge on statements made by Mr. Brink on his video broadcast.

He said

For those of you that don’t know, our founder, Keith Raniere, has built more than 1,000 millionaires in his life. He has built multi-million dollar businesses in a short amount of time and at one point was making more than $100,000 per hour coaching the highest level business executives in the world.

At the time of the broadcast, Mr. Brink was a member of the High Council of SOP. The purpose of the broadcast was to pitch attendance to a “Weekend” seminar costing in excess of $1,000 where Mr. Raniere was scheduled to teach in Clifton Park, New York.

The broadcast was directly tailored to membership of SOP, a multi-level marketing company whose principal office of business is in Clifton Park, NY.

The question of whether or not the evidence contained in the broadcast meets the elements of criminal and/or civil fraud is contingent on whether Mr. Brink’s claims about Mr. Raniere are true.

If Mr. Brink’s statements are true, there would be no fraud evidenced from the broadcasted video. However, if the claims are false, several more questions need to be answered to determine whether the evidence contained in the broadcasted video is properly submitted for civil and/or criminal resolution.

If the statements are false, these questions need to be asnwered:

Did Mr. Brink believe his claims about Keith Raniere to be true when he broadcast them?

If Mr. Brink did believe they were truthful, how did he become so informed so as to believe they were true, prior to his broadcast solicitation?

Did Keith Raniere – or someone else – inform Mr. Brink that his stated claims about Mr. Raniere were true?

Was this information in writing or orally conveyed to Mr. Brink?

Did Mr. Brink exercise a reasonable standard of due diligence to verify the claims prior to his broadcasted solicitation?

To what extent did Mr. Brink profit [or could he have anticipated profiting] from immediate sales to SOP members to the Weekend or from long term, recurring attendance to future SOP trainings based on representations made about the ability of the teacher and creator of the material taught in the seminars?

Is it Civil Fraud or Criminal Fraud?

If Damon Brink deliberately and knowingly broadcast false claims about Mr.Raniere, he has likely committed fraud.

If  he thought he was broadcasting factual information, yet his claims were nevertheless false, Mr. Brink may be liable civilly for actual and punitive damages.

A civil case may turn on whether the jury believes that Mr. Brink was negligent when he ‘innocently’ broadcast falsehoods that a reasonable person would find suspicious on their face and, of necessity, require due diligence and vetting prior to soliciting money based on those statements.

Of course, this series is predicated on the statements being false.

In our next post on this subject Frank Report will explore that question more fully.

 

About the author

Frank Parlato

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About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi's "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM," which aired January, 2023.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

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