A former Vlog Squad associate is calling out the culture she witnessed during her time with the YouTube supergroup

• Casandra Ramos was involved with David Dobrik and the Vlog Squad between 2017 and 2019.
• She managed Dobrik's assistant Natalie Mariduena, and helped him make professional connections.

David Dobrik was at his peak in 2019. As the leader and most recognizable face of his hugely successful YouTuber collective known as the Vlog Squad, the creator racked up millions of views on his 4-minute-20-second vlogs, even earning a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award nomination. With his philanthropic gifts of cars and cash for friends and strangers alike, Dobrik became an aspirational figure to a huge fanbase of children and teens.

But this public persona was different to what Casandra Ramos, who was involved with Dobrik and the Vlog Squad for two years, says she experienced. While privy to the inner workings of the mega famous group between 2017 and 2019, Ramos said she felt slightly detached from the gang of childhood friends that grew into a larger cohort of party animals who churned out content about their hedonistic lifestyle in LA.

Ramos saw her relationship with Dobrik as a professional one — she worked for an agency and helped him make connections in the entertainment industry, she said, but would also run errands for him, buy his food, and was in a group chat with Dobrik's other assistants where they would plan the purchase of items for parties and stunts. Ramos said she was also involved in helping to hire assistants, and managed Dobrik's then-assistant Natalie Mariduena in her own influencer career for a period, in return for 10% of what Mariduena made on brand deals.

But things soured as Ramos' personal and business relationship with Mariduena fell apart, and Ramos started questioning what her role within the Vlog Squad was.

Ramos has not been in touch with Dobrik since New Year's Eve 2019. She said it took her quite a while to process her time with the Vlog Squad, only really looking back at her experience in a new light when the group was in the headlines with stories of dangerous stunts, sexual assault, and questions around Dobrik's intentions as the man almost always behind the camera.

At the time, Ramos said she was wrapped up in the fun of it all. But now, she struggles with the hand she played in helping the culture thrive, especially as people such as former Vlog Squad member Seth Francois, and a fan named Hannah* came forward about sexual assault last year.

"I have to go through this, because I know that I did something bad," she said. "I helped the wrong people."

Ramos now feels like she was complicit in a culture that caused harm

Ramos rarely appeared in Dobrik's vlogs, preferring to stay out of the camera's sight because she didn't want her involvement to affect her career later down the line. But despite her efforts, she said inappropriate behavior often bled into her professional life.

Women who applied for jobs within Dobrik's Vlog Squad would be sexualized, she said, and professional boundaries were crossed. In one message from Mariduena to Ramos, which Insider has seen, Mariduena appeared to say Dobrik wanted to hire one woman in Chicago because she "sucks his dick." In another message, Mariduena referenced a "Fanjoy girl" — a merch company used by many influencers — who "gave David a blowjob while we were all out partying."

Looking back, Ramos told Insider she realizes she was complicit in a culture that she now thinks caused harm to herself and others. Ramos said she regrets supporting the environment cultivated by Dobrik and members of the Vlog Squad — where an ongoing pattern of inappropriate behavior was disguised as comedy.

Ramos' claims follow sexual assault allegations made about Vlog Squad member Dominykas Zeglaitis, better known as "Durte Dom."

On March 19 last year, Insider's Kat Tenbarge published an investigation in which a woman accused Zeglaitis of raping her during the filming of a vlog. Ramos said she remembers when Dobrik received the message from the woman, who went by the pseudonym "Hannah" in the story, asking him to take down the vlog she featured in. In a group chat discussion, which Insider has viewed, Dobrik, Ramos, and two other Vlog Squad members discuss how Dobrik should respond to Hannah's message.

Back then, Ramos saw it as a professional favor. Now, Ramos finds her involvement in the whole situation more troubling.

Ramos said she was subjected to inappropriate sexual behavior

The camera can always go on when you're with the Vlog Squad. This was why when Ramos went to a party at the DJ Diplo's house with Dobrik and his influencer crew, she didn't think twice about how her work and social life were intertwined.

This night sticks out in Ramos' mind as the time she began to question whether the behavior she witnessed working with the Vlog Squad was appropriate.

On February 11, 2019, the DJ Diplo was hosting a party at his mansion. Ramos, Dobrik, Mariduena, Ilya Fedorovich, and two of Dobrik's friends, attended, according to Ramos. Dobrik spoke about the party a few days later on an episode of his podcast "Views" titled "Four Girls for Every Guy," where he mentioned the party was filled with marijuana-laced snacks. While it was a social event, Ramos knew the camera could turn on at any time, blurring the line between professional and personal.

Ramos had never done drugs, but accidentally ate a weed cookie at the party when it was handed to her by Fedorovich.

Later on, they all went back to Dobrik's house for an afterparty. At the end of the night, Ramos said she saw Mariduena appeared to have passed out in a beanie chair. Shortly after, Ramos fell asleep in the living room too.

Ramos woke up and saw that Mariduena was no longer in the beanie chair. She said she looked over to the television where she saw porn was playing. Fedorovich and two others were watching, she said.

"I say, 'Are you guys watching porn in front of me?'" she said. "They started laughing and jumped on Ilya. And then Ilya starts laughing and goes like, 'Yes.'"

When she passed out and woke up another time, she said one of Dobrik's friends was "directly looking at me and masturbating."

The next morning, Ramos said she told Mariduena what she thought had happened in text messages. In the messages, which Insider has seen, Mariduena appears to say she "woke up during the porn session." When Ramos said she thought one of Dobrik's friends was masturbating, Mariduena replied "Oh wtf ew."

When Ramos texted Mariduena, she still wasn't sure about how weed affected her. But she has used marijuana a few times since, and has always remembered everything the next day.

"There was no hallucination," she said. "I was tired, but everything that I thought happened that night happened."

She also questions why someone would feel comfortable enough to masturbate while she was in the room.

"What were they doing when they were watching porn?" she said. "When I said, are you guys watching porn, they all jumped on top on Ilya. I think it was covering themselves."

Insider spoke to a longtime friend of Ramos who never met any of the Vlog Squad but knew Ramos well when she was involved with them. They confirmed Ramos would often speak to them about her time with the Vlog Squad, including this incident. The friend said Ramos first spoke about it in Spring 2019 and had reiterated it since. The source, who wanted to remain anonymous due to their corporate job, said it negatively affected Ramos' mental health for a long time.

Ramos said she tried to bring up the incident several times with Dobrik and other Vlog Squad members, but they either dismissed her or didn't take it seriously. Dobrik, she said, walked out of the room when she tried to raise it with him. She said when she tried to tell another of Dobrik's friends about what happened, he said she was "being crazy."

"This isn't me being crazy," she said. "This is me taking my respect back, because they abused my mental health, my career, and my self-respect."

Ramos said she's sure people will think she knew what she was signing up for with the Vlog Squad.

"But I wasn't like, oh yeah, guys, watch porn and please masturbate in front of me," she said.

Both of Dobrik's friends denied to Insider that anyone masturbated in front of Ramos that inight, but neither clarified whether or not they had been watching porn.

The experience is akin to other stories mentioned in podcasts and videos posted by Vlog Squad members

Dobrik, and other Vlog Squad members had referenced this kind of behavior before.

In one episode of "Views" from March 2019, titled "Watching Porn at a Sleepover," Dobrik told his co-host Jason Nash that "jerking off was like a normal thing" at his sleepovers with friends growing up.

In another clip from the podcast in December 2019, titled "Looking at My Friend's Butthole," Fedorovich is speaking with Dobrik, and said he would have "masturbation sessions" with his friends as a teenager.

"You guys are all hometown friends, so maybe in your hometown, that's fine," Ramos said. "But with me, I wasn't your hometown friend."

Ramos received criticism in September when she uploaded her first YouTube video in which she interviewed Zeglaitis. Many viewers could not understand why she would give a platform to someone who had been accused of rape. Ramos' intentions were complicated, but she said she wanted to show that Zeglaitis' behavior was partly due to the "Durte Dom" character in the vlogs getting out of control. She said she also found it disingenuous that Dobrik and other Vlog Squad members had only publicly distanced themselves from Zeglaitis after Insider's article came out.

"My decision was like, people were trying to interview him, why shouldn't I do it?" she said. "Because I wanted to know the truth."

Insider's Steven Asarch reported that Zeglaitis continued to make appearances in Dobrik's vlogs in 2018 and 2019. His last cameo was in September 2019. In texts between Mariduena and Ramos in July 2019, which Insider has seen, Ramos says "Dom maybe raped a girl," and says she called a lawyer for advice.

In recent months, Ramos has also posted several screenshots that she says show text conversations herself and other Vlog Squad members on her Instagram story. Afterwards, she received cease and desist letters from lawyers representing Mariduena and Vlog Squad member Zane Hijazi saying her posts contain "false information" and "private facts" of a "misleading nature" that cast them "in a false light." Both letters state Mariduena and Hijazi will pursue "all available legal remedies," and "such legal action will be considerable." Neither Mariduena or Hijazi have filed any legal action yet, according to Ramos.

Ramos, who believes everyone in the Vlog Squad is aware of her allegations about the night of the Diplo party, said she's angry that nobody took the time to talk to her about it back then.

However, Ramos said she can't say she had a horrible time being friends with the Vlog Squad, because she didn't. When times were good, they were really good. But the more time passes, the more she questions what she was a part of.

"I think I always unconsciously knew that something was wrong," she said.