Washington – Two Russian nationals working for a news network controlled by Vladimir Putin’s government funneled millions of dollars to an American media company that paid right-wing influencers for videos promoting stories favorable to the Kremlin, US prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
N Accusation Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, both based in Moscow, were unsealed in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The accusation came as the Department of Justice Unveiled sporadic allegations Accuses the Russian government of meddling in the 2024 US election.
The two defendants worked for RT, a media outlet formerly known as Russia Today that is funded and controlled by the Russian government, the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors said RT oversaw a series of “covert projects” that included $10 million in funding through a series of shell entities launched in 2023 to a Tennessee-based company that ran videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter. publishes.
“Many of the videos published by US Company-1 comment on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy,” the indictment said. “While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the content and content of the videos are often consistent with the Russian government’s interest in increasing US domestic division to undermine US opposition to the Russian government’s core interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.”
Although the company was not named in the indictment, prosecutors said it described itself as a “network of heterodox commentators focused on Western political and cultural issues” and identified six commentators as its “talents”. Tenet Media describes itself using the same phrase on its websiteAnd other details in the indictment align with the generation. Its website lists six right-wing personalities, including Dave Rubin, who has more than 2.4 million YouTube subscribers; Tim Poole, a podcast host with more than 1.3 million YouTube followers; and Benny Johnson, whose YouTube channel has nearly 2.4 million subscribers.
In response to the accusations of the two Russians, Poole wrote On social media, “If these allegations prove to be true, I as well as other personalities and critics were duped and victimized. I cannot speak for anyone else in the company about what they do or what they are instructed to do. He Said his podcast was licensed by Tenet Media and existed before the license agreement. Poole also said he had full editorial control of the show and its content, which he said was “often apolitical.”
Johnson said in a separate statement Shared on social media That his company was pitched a year ago by a media startup to provide content as an independent contractor. He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard, arms-length deal” that was later terminated.
“We are troubled by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make it clear that I and other influencers were victims of this alleged scheme. My attorneys will handle anything anyone says or suggests otherwise,” Johnson wrote.
records Records with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office show that Tenet Media was incorporated on January 19, 2022, the same date of incorporation mentioned in the indictment, and is headquartered in Nashville. It was founded by Liam Donovan and his wife Lauren Chen. The charge has identified the founders as Founder-1 and Founder-2 and prosecutors said they jointly run the company.
allegations
The indictment alleges that Tenet never disclosed to its audience that it was “funded and directed” by RT, and that neither the company nor its founders registered with the Department of Justice as agents of foreign principals. CBS News did not receive a response to a request for comment from Tenet.
It claims that two RT employees and two Tenet founders “deceived” two US Internet critics – one with more than 2.4 million YouTube subscribers and the other with more than 1.3 million subscribers – and hired them to make videos for the company, masking their source. Funding from RT. Poole appears to be one of the critics, although it is unclear whether the other is Johnson or Rubin.
The founders claimed that Tenet was sponsored by a private investor named “Eduard Grigorian”, a fake person, and created a fictitious profile of him.
Prosecutors said one of Tenet’s founders began soliciting two commentators for work on behalf of “Gregorian” around February 2023. One of the individuals described as “commentator-1” said $5 million a year would be needed “for their interest.” Creating videos for the fake personality, Grigorian. Another, known as “Commentator-2”, allegedly needed $100,000 per weekly episode to “make his time worth it”.
The two critics eventually entered into an agreement, prosecutors said. The contract for Commentator-1 called for four weekly videos that he would host and livestream through Tenet Media in exchange for $400,000 per month and a $100,000 signing bonus. Commentator-2 agreed to provide weekly videos for $100,000 each, the indictment states.
Once the company launched in the fall of 2023, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva were involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. Kalashnikov was introduced to employees as an outside editor, and, according to the indictment, “monitored US Company-1’s internal communications and edited material published by US Company-1, without disclosing that he was an RT employee.”
In one instance, the Justice Department alleges that Afanasyeva sent one of Tenet’s founders to Ukraine and the US. March terrorist attack at a music venue in Moscow, claimed the terrorists were detained on their way to the Ukrainian border, which she said “makes it even more suspicious why they want to hide in Ukraine.”
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and a US official told CBS News at the time that the US had intelligence confirming the Islamic State’s claims of responsibility.
Afanasyeva became frustrated that paid commentators were not sharing Tenet’s videos enough or promoting the company, the indictment said. She created fake personas who connected to the company’s Discord servers and forced the creators to share at least one of the company’s videos, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Tenet’s founders “admitted to each other in their private communications that their ‘investors’ were, in truth and in fact, ‘Russians’.” At one point, Founder-1 searched for “Moscow in time” on Google while waiting. Message response.
The Justice Department said that between October 2023 and August 2024, RT sent wire transfers from overseas shell companies to Tenet totaling more than $9.7 million, representing about 90% of its bank deposits. “US Company-1 distributed the majority of these funds to its contracted commentators, including approximately $8.7 million to the production companies of Commentator-1, Commentator-2 and Commentator-3 alone,” the indictment said.
Tenet Media and RT did not immediately respond to CBS News requests for comment on the allegations Wednesday. CBS News also reached out to the Russian Embassy in Washington and did not receive a response.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit the free exchange of ideas in our country to covertly advance its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into the matter is ongoing.”
Robert Legere, Julia Kimani Burnham and Nicole Sanga contributed reporting.
Stephen Beckett is the managing editor of politics for CBSNews.com. Stefan has covered national politics for more than a decade and helps oversee teams covering the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, immigration and federal law enforcement.
Post US says Russia funded company that paid right-wing influencers millions for videos appeared first CBS News.