(Bloomberg) -- Eduard Grigoriann was a picture of wealth and sophistication. In a moody image that accompanies his resume, he’s wearing a dark blazer, jeans and gazing out the window of a private jet. Through his globe-trotting, the Brussels-born financier and philanthropist had become attuned to bias in mainstream media, the resume said. He was looking to fix this by starting a conservative news outlet better aligned with his “distinctive and alternative perspectives.”
According to US authorities, Grigoriann’s perspective was Russian and Grigoriann himself a fake, part of an elaborate scheme by the Russian government to use US influencers to spread propaganda and deepen divisions in American society.
The Grigoriann persona is central to an alleged plot laid out in indictments that were made public Wednesday, charging two employees of state-controlled Russian media outlet RT with money laundering and being unregistered foreign agents. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, RT has ceased formal operations in the US, UK, the EU and Canada, and in response, created an “empire of covert projects” to shape public opinion in the West, according to US prosecutors.
In one of those schemes, the RT staffers used the fictional European investor and a network of shell companies to funnel nearly $10 million to an unnamed American media firm that publishes videos on social media channels such as TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube, and that paid influencers to produce videos, court records show. The views expressed in the videos aren’t uniform, according to the US, but are “often consistent” with the Russia government’s interests.
Two of the influencers recruited to the company were deceived about the true source of its funding, the US said.
Court records don’t identify the media company by name, but the descriptions it offers match Tennessee-based Tenet Media, which has a roster of right-wing influencers including Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool.
Tenet and Liam Donovan, who describes himself as its president on X, didn’t respond to requests for comment. But after the indictments were made public, several of the people listed as “talent” on its website distanced themselves from the firm and denied being directed or influenced by Russia.
“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical,” Pool wrote in a post on X.
Johnson also posted about the indictments on X, saying, “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.” Rubin said he “knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity.”
Pool, Rubin, Johnson and the other three people listed as producing content for Tenet didn’t respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
Following the indictment, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube is terminating the Tenet Media channel and four channels operated by its owner, Lauren Chen, “as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations,” according to a YouTube spokesperson.
Chen, who describes herself as Donovan’s wife on X, didn’t respond to requests for comment via email and her website.
While the effort was foiled months ahead of the November presidential election, the scheme highlights the evolving tactics the US says Russia is prepared to use, including funding home-grown media personalities whose views serve Moscow.
James Lewis, senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Justice Department’s indictment showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin spent $10 million on a plan that could potentially sway the election, further divide Americans and reduce support for Ukraine.
“The Russians take advantage of the First Amendment. There’s no penalty, and they have these groupies so why stop?” he said, in an email. “It’s a cheap way to sway the election, and it’s more effective than anyone would like.”
Brian Liston, a senior analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future Inc., said in an email, “Using unwitting individuals and manipulating the trust of their substantial audiences is another classic Russian influence tactic with an established pattern.
“As we would expect, Russian influence operations are adapting to an evolving media landscape by focusing on non-traditional media versus standard media consumption,” he added. “This has the potential for Russian propaganda messaging to reach younger and more politically engaged audiences.”
The indictment describes the company involved in the plot as based in Tennessee and using “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Tenet, which is based in Tennessee, uses the same language on its website.
Prosecutors say that the RT employees’ efforts to recruit influencers began in late 2022, when supposed representatives of Eduard Grigoriann began negotiating terms of payment with one of the founders of the Tennessee-based online content company. By early the next year, the indictment says, the founder was soliciting commentators, using the resume depicting Grigoriann as a jet-setting financier for recruitment.
The resume, which is reproduced in court documents, describes Grigoriann as having been born in Brussels in 1975 to a Belgium mother and French-Armenian father. While wooing the influencers, both media company founders presented Grigoriann as their backer. But the indictment says they knew the money was actually coming from Russia.
“I’m gonna ask the russians about hiring [a producer] this coming week,” one founder wrote to another on the messaging platform Discord in May 2023, according to the court document. The indictment doesn’t identify the company’s founders. It says the two founders are foreign nationals who reside in the US and jointly operate the online media company. It also says that prior to operating the company for RT, they worked directly for the Russia media outlet and its affiliates.
Chen, whose political and social commentary has attracted a large online following, is listed on RT’s website as a contributor.
In September 2023, Chen posted on X looking for a video editor and telling people interested to email Donovan. Her latest RT piece is from February 2022 and is titled, “If you’re American and oppose war with Russia, expect to be smeared as unpatriotic.”
(Updates with comment from YouTube in 11th paragraph.)
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