Washington — Two Russians working for a news network controlled by Vladimir Putin’s government funneled millions of dollars to a U.S. media company that then supplied right-wing influencers with videos promoting Kremlin-friendly content, U.S. prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
An indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York charges Moscow residents Kostyantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva with conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The indictment came from the Justice Department. Widespread claims made public The Russian government has been accused of interfering in the 2024 U.S. election.
According to the indictment, the two defendants worked for a news organization called RT (formerly Russia Today), which is said to be funded and controlled by the Russian government.
Federal prosecutors say RT oversaw a series of “secret projects,” including funneling $10 million through a series of shell entities to a Tennessee-based company founded in 2023 that posts videos to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).
“Many of the videos posted by Company-1 contain commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy,” the indictment states. “While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Russian government’s interest in widening domestic divisions in the United States in order to undermine U.S. opposition to core Russian government interests, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine.”
The indictment doesn’t name the company, but prosecutors say the company describes itself as a “network of heretical commentators focused on Western political and cultural issues” and names six commentators as “talented.” Tenet Media uses the same phrase to describe itself on its website, and other details in the indictment are consistent with the company’s. The website names six right-wing figures, including Dave Rubin, who has more than 2.4 million YouTube subscribers; podcaster Tim Pool, who has more than 1.3 million YouTube followers; and Benny Johnson, whose YouTube channel has nearly 2.4 million subscribers.
In response to the indictment of the two Russians, Poole wrote on social media, “If these allegations turn out to be true, then I, like other figures and commentators, have been duped and a victim. I cannot speak for others in the company about what they do or what they have been instructed to do.” He said his podcast is licensed by Tenet Media and existed before the licensing deal. Poole also said he has full editorial control over the show and its content, which he said is “often apolitical.”
In a separate statement shared on social media, Johnson said the media startup approached his company a year ago to provide content as an independent contractor. He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard, neutral deal” that was later terminated.
“We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make it clear that I and other influential individuals were victims of this alleged scheme. My attorneys will take action against anyone who suggests or implies otherwise,” Johnson wrote.
According to Tennessee Secretary of State records, Tenet Media was founded on January 19, 2022, the same date as the indictment states, and is headquartered in Nashville. It was founded by Liam Donovan and his wife Lauren Chen. The founders are referred to in the indictment as Founder-1 and Founder-2, and prosecutors say they run the company jointly.
Claims
The indictment alleges that Tenet failed to disclose to its audience that RT was “funding and directing” it, and that neither the company nor its founders registered with the Department of Justice as agents of a foreign entity. CBS News has not received a response to a request for comment from Tenet.
The article claims that two RT employees and two founders of Tenet “duped” two American internet commentators — one with over 2.4 million YouTube subscribers, the other with over 1.3 million — into making videos for the company while hiding the source of RT’s funding. Pool appears to be one of the commentators, but it is unclear whether the second commentator is Johnson or Rubin.
The founders claimed that Tenet was backed by a fake private investor named “Eduard Grigoryan” who created a fictitious profile for him.
Prosecutors say one of the Tenet founders began recruiting two commentators to work on behalf of “Grigoriann” around February 2023. One, described as “Commentator-1,” said he needed $5 million a year to “get interested” in creating videos for the fake persona Grigoriann. The other, identified as “Commentator-2,” needed $100,000 per episode “to make it worth it,” according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say the two commentators eventually struck a deal. Commentator-1’s contract called for him to host and live stream four weekly videos on Tenet Media, for which he would receive $400,000 and $100,000 in monthly bonuses. Commentator-2 agreed to provide weekly videos for $100,000 each, the indictment states.
After the company launched in the fall of 2023, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva became involved in the company’s day-to-day operations. Kalashnikov was introduced to employees as an external editor, who, according to the indictment, “monitored internal communications of American Company-1 and edited content published by American Company-1, but did not disclose that he was an RT employee.”
In one case, the Justice Department alleges that Afanasyeva asked one of Tenet’s founders to criticize Ukraine and the United States. March terrorist attacks “It makes me even more suspicious why they wanted to hide in Ukraine,” he said, claiming the terrorists were detained at a Moscow concert as they headed to the Ukrainian border.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, and a U.S. official told CBS News at the time that the U.S. had intelligence confirming that the group had claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the indictment, Afanasieva was frustrated that paid commentators were not sharing enough Tenet videos or promoting the company. According to prosecutors, she created a fake persona that joined the company’s Discord server and forced the creators to share at least one company video per day.
Prosecutors said the founders of Tenet “admitted to each other in private communications that the ‘investor’ was actually a ‘Russian. ‘” At one point, Founder-1 Googled “time in Moscow” while waiting for a response to his message.
The DOJ alleges that between October 2023 and August 2024, RT transferred more than $9.7 million from offshore shell companies to Tenet, representing approximately 90% of the bank deposits. “The majority of these funds were paid by U.S. Company-1 to the contracted commentators, with approximately $8.7 million going to the production companies of Commentator-1, Commentator-2, and Commentator-3 alone,” the indictment states.
Tenet Media and RT did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment on the indictment on Wednesday. CBS News also reached out to the Russian Embassy in Washington but did not receive a response.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will not tolerate attempts by authoritarian regimes to use our nation’s free exchange of ideas to covertly advance their own propaganda, and our investigation into this matter is ongoing.”
Robert Regar, Julia Kimani Burnham and Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.
