Vehicles of Russian state-controlled broadcaster Russia Today (RT) are seen near the Red Square in central Moscow, on June 15, 2018.GLEB GARANICH/Reuters
A Quebec right-wing social-media personality and her partner are at the heart of a U.S. investigation into an alleged multimillion-dollar Russian state-sponsored influence campaign, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.
The criminal indictment alleges that a scheme designed to “shape public opinion,” which was hatched by officials from RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet that has been banned in Canada and Britain since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, relied heavily on a right-wing Tennessee-based company with several links to Canada.
Those RT officials allegedly directed nearly US$10-million “through a network of foreign shell entities” to the Tennessee digital media company. That media outlet goes unnamed in the indictment, but prosecutors’ descriptions match that of Tennessee-based Tenet Media, which was registered by social-media influencer Lauren Chen and her spouse, Liam Donovan. The indictment does not refer to Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan by name, but rather as “Founder-1″ and “Founder-2.″
Ms. Chen, a high-profile Canadian YouTuber with more than 500,000 subscribers, has appeared on Fox News and with right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, and is formerly known as the “Roaming Millennial.” She is Mr. Donovan’s spouse, according to social-media posts.
Neither Ms. Chen nor Mr. Donovan have been charged with a crime. The indictment is against two officials from RT – Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva – who prosecutors allege committed money laundering and contravened laws that required them to register as foreign agents.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Kalashnikov and Ms. Afanasyeva enlisted Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan to help them promote messages that are advantageous to Russia, and to “sow domestic divisions and thereby weaken opposition to Government of Russia objectives.”
Text-message exchanges noted in the indictment indicate that Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan were aware of where the money was coming from, regularly referring to their funders as “the Russians.”
Ms. Chen declined to comment when reached by phone on Thursday afternoon. “We’re not giving out any comments one way or another, but thanks for reaching out,” she said.
The document also alleges that the RT officials worked with Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan to deceive two online commentators, who are not identified in the indictment, about the source of their funding. The indictment alleges they told the commentators, who have a combined 3.7 million YouTube subscribers, they were backed by a private investor who prosecutors say was fictitious. One of the commentators was promised a monthly fee of US$400,000 for producing “four weekly videos,” the document alleges.
Tenet Media has published content from stars in the right-wing media ecosystem, including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern, a Canadian YouTuber who ran for federal Parliament in 2015 with the Libertarian Party.
In an attempt to address the allegations, Mr. Johnson said in a social-media post Thursday that he was approached by what he called a “media startup” and asked to provide content. He said the arms-length contract was later terminated. “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme,” he said.
Both Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan have significant connections to Canada. Ms. Chen often references her Canadian roots in her content, and corporate records for Roaming Millennial Incorporated, a Canadian corporation, list the two as directors with a shared residential address in Hudson, Que., a suburb of Montreal.
A Globe and Mail reporter visited the property on Thursday but was unable to determine whether Ms. Chen or Mr. Donovan live there. The Globe also visited two other Montreal-area addresses tied to Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan, but was unable to locate them.
Marcus Kolga, an expert on Russian foreign interference and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said that if Canadians were working with RT, they would be in violation of the current sanctions regime.
“That prohibits any Canadians from any sort of financial transactions with RT,” he said. “The fact that RT is paying North Americans to push their content – that’s not surprising. But the extent of the Canadian connection, that took me by surprise.”
Until recently Canada has not required foreign agents seeking to influence the government to register themselves publicly. The federal Liberal government has previously said it will take another year before it launches the Foreign Influence Transparency Registry. Mr. Kolga said that once launched, any Canadians working with arms of the Russian government will be required to disclose their work.
“I hope that Canadian authorities are now investigating it. I hope they have been investigating it. And if there has been a violation of Canadian sanctions law, or any other laws, then I think charges have to be laid,” he said.
Public Safety Canada could not be reached for comment.