Conservative influencers were allegedly “tricked” into working with Russian assets while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for their videos under a $10 million “covert project” by Kremlin-backed RT, federal officials said Wednesday.
The explosive indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York accuses RT employees Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva of implementing a scheme to pay nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based company to produce videos “consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying America’s internal divisions.”
Although the indictment does not name the Tennessee-based media company, its details match exactly those of Tenet Media, which employs well-known conservative personalities such as Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson.
Its president, Liam Donovan, is the husband of Lauren Chen, a Canadian influencer who is listed as a contributor to several opinion pieces for RT between 2021 and 2022.
But conservative media outlets were unaware of the plan, and at least two of them were given false information about the company’s source of funding.
Influential conservatives including Dave Rubin and Tim Pool were allegedly ‘tricked’ into working with Russian assets
A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday suggests Tenet Media received hundreds of thousands of dollars from RT journalists
“The company never disclosed to influencers or their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges against RT employees for conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
“Instead, defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor, but that that private investor was a fictitious person,” Garland said.
They were told that the company was sponsored by a private investor named ‘Eduard Grigoriann’, who the defendants described as a ‘successful financial professional’ who held positions in a multinational bank in both Brussels and France. according to NBC News.
However, in their own online communications, the company’s founders reportedly referred to their backers as “the Russians.”
Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are at large and it was not immediately clear whether they had lawyers who could speak on their behalf.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Tenet Media and RT for comment, but in response to a request for comment from NBC News, an RT spokesperson wrote: “Hahahaha!” and “We have to earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow.”
RT is known to have Kremlin backing, and two of its journalists are now charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The indictment alleges that conservative voices were collecting large sums of money from the Russian duo.
A whopping $8.7 million was reportedly sent “to the production companies of Commentator-1, Commentator-2 and Commentator-3 alone.”
Commenter 1 is now believed to be Dave Rubin, while Commenter 2 is likely Tim Pool. The description in the indictment does not make it clear who Commenter 3 might be.
An exchange cited in the indictment also claims that Commentator-1 said the contract “would have to be closer to $5 million a year for him to be interested,” while Commentator-2 said “it would take $100,000 per weekly episode to make it worth it.”
One of Tenet’s founders reportedly said the $100,000 fee would make it “very difficult” for the company to “recover costs” based solely on advertising revenue from web traffic or sponsors, but they decided to go ahead with the deal anyway, NBC reports.
Meanwhile, another unnamed influencer’s contract reportedly included a $400,000 monthly fee, a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus.
In the end, the Russian payments allegedly accounted for 90 percent of the deposits made into the company’s accounts.
When contacted for comment by NBC News, an RT News spokesperson wrote: “Hahahaha!” and “We have to earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow.”
As the money poured in, the indictment alleges, Russian backers pressured Tenet’s American commentators to share Russian-funded content with their broader audiences.
They even openly worried about how little of their “raw videos” were being posted by some of the company’s talent, the indictment says.
Still, Tenet became a home for staunch Trump voices, with many of its commentators interviewing the former president and his family as they criticized U.S. funding of Ukraine and downplayed the events of January 6, 2021.
Pool, who hosted Trump on his podcast earlier this year, published in X last month that “Ukraine is our enemy” in response to an allegation that a Ukrainian man was involved in underwater exploration in 2022 that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
Rubin, a self-described libertarian who previously hosted the liberal news commentary show The Young Turks, has also been a vocal critic of Ukraine, arguing that they “can’t win” the war against Russia.
Federal officials now denounce Russian interference in US elections
But conservative influencers have since insisted they had no knowledge of Tenet’s ties to Russia, as its six leading conservative voices have amassed more than 7 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 7 million followers on X.
“These allegations come as a complete shock to me and the other presenters at Tent Media,” Taylor Hansen said. he wrote in a lengthy statement on X.
‘I want to be as clear as possible, I was never ordered to report on any topic and I had complete freedom and control over my reporting at all times.
‘I would never agree to any arrangement where I wasn’t the sole person in charge of the stories I cover and the content I create.
“I’ve had complete freedom to cover what I wanted at Tenet, unlike any other media organization I’ve worked for and certainly more so than left-wing outlets and (mainstream media) who are ordered to cover certain stories and punished if they don’t.”
Rubin He also argued that the indictment “clearly” shows that I and other commentators were victims of this scheme.
“I knew absolutely nothing about any of these fraudulent activities. Period,” he said.
Similarly, Tim Pool, wrote:If these accusations turn out to be true, I and other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.
Commentators have denied any knowledge of Russian backing of Tenet Media.
He noted that his Culture War podcast was licensed by Tenet Media, but it already existed before then.
‘At no time has anyone other than me had full editorial control of the show, and the show’s content is typically apolitical. Examples include discussions of spirituality, dating, and video games.
That being said, we still don’t know what’s true, as these are just accusations,” Pool continued.
He concluded by saying that “Putin is a scoundrel” and that “Russia is shit.”
Benny Johnson, for his part, saying Tenet’ proposed that my company provide content as an independent contractor.
“Our lawyers negotiated a standard agreement, which was later rescinded,” he said.
“We are disturbed by the allegations contained in today’s indictment, which make clear that I and other influential individuals were victims of this alleged scheme,” he wrote.
And Matt Christiansen saying‘At no point has anyone ordered me what to say or not to say, and I would never agree to anything different.
“My videos and livestreams for Tenet are exactly the same as the videos and livestreams on my personal channels,” he said. “Every word is mine and mine alone.”
