Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland held a press conference Wednesday to announce the indictment of two members of Russian state media outlet RT for using covert donations to a US-based media company to shape US political opinion.
Over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV, a/k/a "Kostya," and ELENA AFANASYEVA, a/k/a "Lena," the defendants, have deployed nearly $10 million, laundered through a network of foreign shell entities, to covertly fund and direct U.S. Company-I. U.S. Company-I publishes English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube. Using multiple fake personas, AFANASYEVA edited, posted, and directed the posting by U.S. Company-I of hundreds of videos. Many of the videos published by U.S. Company-I contain commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia's interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.
I want to add this disclaimer up front. This post is based on the DOJ indictment attached at the end. I'm not making any representation that I know the allegations to be true and it is up to the DOJ to prove that they are.
Who is Company-1?
Company-1 is not identified in the indictment, but the document contains enough information that you don't have to be a genius to figure it out. It is the conservative, Tennessee-based Tenet Media.
The indictment, unsealed in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, doesn't identify the Tennessee company, but descriptions in the indictment match those of Tennessee-based Tenet Media.
The indictment states the company described itself on its website as "a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues." Tennessee-based company Tenet Media has the same message on its homepage. The indictment states the Tennessee-based company was incorporated around Jan. 19, 2022, which matches records from the Tennessee Secretary of State's Office. The indictment says the company applied to the Tennessee Department of State to conduct business on May 22, 2023.
Who is Tenet Media?
Tenet Media describes itself as
Tenet Media is a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues. Our goal is to support creators who question institutions that believe themselves to be above questioning. In our view, all issues du jour merit rigorous and honest discussion if one wants to come closest to the truth. For those interested in authentic coverage of the topics that matter most, Tenet Media is your home for content : fearless voices live here.
It was founded by Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan. It is the home to Lauren Southern, Tim Pool, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson.
What's the Beef?
The indictment alleges that Tenet management knew they were working for Russian state media and pushed content literally produced by the Russians, getting paid a lot of money in the process.
Starting in approximately August 2023, Founder-I and Founder-2 typically submitted two invoices each month to Persona-I on the Investor Discord Channel: one invoice for U.S. Company-1 's expenses, such as its payments to its commentators, and another invoice for Founder-I and Founder-2's own fees and commissions. Between in or about August 2023 and in or about June 2024, Founder-I and Founder-2 invoiced U.K. Shell Entity-I more than $9.3 million for U.S. Company-1 's expenses, which they asked to be paid to the U.S. Company-I Bank Account. Founder-I and Founder-2 also invoiced U.K. Shell Entity-I more than $760,000 for their own fees and commissions, some of which they asked to be paid to Canadian Company-I's bank account in Canada, and some of which they asked to be paid to the U.S. Company-I Bank Account in the United States.
When two of the Tenet content producers asked hard questions about who was funding them, Tenet management deceived them.
KALASHNIKOV, AFANASYEVA, Founder-I, and Founder-2 also worked together to deceive two U.S. online commentators ("Commentator-I" and "Commentator-2"), who respectively have over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers. Founder-I and Founder 2 contracted with Commentator-I and Commentator-2 to produce videos, using Commentator-1 's and Commentator-2's own names and leveraging their existing audiences, for license and publication by U.S. Company-I. KALASHNIKOV, AFANASYEVA, Founder-I, and Founder-2 worked together to mask U.S. Company-1 's true source of funding - i.e. , RT - by falsely portraying to Commentator-I and Commentator-2 that U.S. Company-I was sponsored by a private investor named "Eduard Grigoriann." In truth and in fact, Grigoriann was a fictional persona. For example, during contract negotiations, Commentator-I requested that F ounder-1 provide a profile or article on "Eduard Grigoriann." In response, F ounder-1 sent Commentator-I a one-page profile, provided to Founder-I by another fictional persona purporting to ·represent "Eduard Grigoriann," falsely describing "Eduard Grigoriann" as an "accomplished finance professional" who had held various positions in Brussels and France at a multinational bank ("Bank-1"), including "Director of Private Banking [D]ivision and Wealth Management." After receiving the fictitious profile, Commentator-I agreed to work with U.S. Company-I and produced approximately 130 videos that were published on U.S. Company-1 's platform.
So far, the two RT employees are the only people under indictment, but I think it is safe to assume that more indictments will follow this and that Tenet Media will not be the only company caught up in this mess.