YouTube closes Tenet Media channel run by Lauren Chen over alleged Russian money laundering connections: Report
YouTube on Thursday said that it is terminating the Tenet Media channel and four other channels run by its owner, Lauren Chen, following an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged connections with Russian state media network’s employees who face money laundering charges, Reuters reported.
The Justice Department filed money-laundering charges on Wednesday against two employees of the Russian state media network RT, alleging a scheme to use an American company to create online content to influence the 2024 presidential election, said the report.
Officials stated that the employees used shell companies and fake identities to funnel $10 million to an unnamed company in Tennessee to produce videos aimed at increasing political division in the U.S., stated the report.
Although the indictment does not specify the company, court documents indicate it is related to Tenet Media, a Nashville-based firm that has uploaded nearly 2,000 videos to YouTube in under a year, according to the Reuters report.
The indictment reveals that the company paid $8.7 million to the production firms of three online personalities it had hired, and the company's founders also received over $760,000. According to the Justice Department, the commentators, who are unnamed in the indictment, were not aware of the payments coming from RT.
Benny Johnson, one of the influencers who collaborated with Tenet, expressed his concern about the indictment in a statement to Reuters. He remarked that the indictment "shows that he and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme."
Tenet Media did not respond to a request for comment regarding its termination, it added.
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