Founders of Tenet Media, Lauren Chen and her husband, were raided by federal investigators as the DOJ announced that two Russian-state actors were indicted for laundering $10 million to their media company. They have not been charged.
Update: Shortly after this report was published, Tenet Media announced privately to its staff that it was ceasing operations, effective immediately.
The founders of Tenet Media, the right-wing media startup accused by the U.S. DOJ of illegally taking nearly $10 million from Russian state actors to launder Russian influence, were raided on Wednesday as the indictment was unsealed, according to sources who spoke exclusively with The Post Millennial.
The sources, who are not authorized to publicly speak on record, said the authorities confiscated the electronic devices belonging to Tenet Media owners Lauren Chen, also known as Lauren Yu Sum Tam, and her husband, Liam Donovan, around the time the Biden-Harris administration announced the indictment on Wednesday.
"I don’t think the owners had any idea [about the investigation]," one source said. "[The raid] just came out of nowhere."
Sources said the couple, who are Canadian nationals living in Tennessee, had recently returned from a trip abroad.
Liam Donovan and Lauren Chen, also known as Lauren Yu Sum Tam. Photo: X
Chen, a right-wing YouTuber and social media personality, and her husband have not commented publicly. The company’s social media accounts were still posting content just before the indictment was unsealed.
Sources tell TPM that Tenet Media staff have been kept entirely in the dark since the indictment’s announcement, with the founders not communicating at all with any employees or contributors.
Update: On Thursday evening, Donovan wrote a message to staff announcing that Tenet Media was over: "As most of you may know by now, there is a federal investigation surrounding Tenet at the moment. There have been no indictments against us or the company. We have hired legal counsel and are working through the legal issues. We hope to provide more clarity soon. However, it is clear that given the nature of the investigation, we have no choice but to stop all work on Tenet. I do not foresee it coming back."
Tenet Media has not issued any public comment except for one post on their X account, apparently unauthorized, that was deleted within a few seconds on Wednesday.
The deleted post read: "[F]ired employee here access still. there [sic] is evidence we were actually funded by Russia and it’s a disgrace. we [sic] are traitors to America."
A post by TENET Media on X was deleted within a few seconds on Sept. 4
The DOJ alleges that two at-large Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, illegally laundered nearly $10 million to Tenet Media to push "discord and division" in the U.S. in favor of Russian state interests. They are also accused of violating FARA, the federal law that requires agents of foreign countries to register their activities.
Chen and Donovan were not charged in the indictment, nor were the six public-facing talents that created content under contract for Tenet Media. Those content creators included Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Matt Christiansen and Tayler Hansen.
Except for Southern, who has not commented publicly, the content creators released statements saying they had full editorial control over their content.
The indictment alleges some of them were misled by the two Russian defendants and the company’s founders about the funding source.
Some of the former content creators for Tenet Media
Rubin was allegedly paid $400,000 a month for a weekly video, along with a $100,000 signing bonus. Pool was allegedly also paid $400,000 per month for a weekly video.
The revelation about the raid runs counter to online speculation that the founders had been cooperating with federal investigators for months and were anticipating charges. Sources with knowledge said that until recently, the founders pursued new content creators to grow the company's reach.
Tayler Hansen, a field reporter for Tenet Media, has so far been the only content creator to publicly release a statement that does not lay immediate blame on his bosses.
"I’m gonna reserve judgment until I know the details," Hansen told TPM. He says the couple has been supportive of him and his colleagues in pursuing their work free from editorial interference.
Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan
The DOJ alleges that the two indicted Russian nationals work for RT, a Russian state propaganda media company, to gain access to a large American audience through the influencers that were contracted to provide content for distribution by Tenet Media.
RT America ended its broadcasting in the U.S. after television distributors dropped the network following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. RT is also banned in the UK and EU. The Biden-Harris administration also announced on Wednesday that it had seized that were alleged to be acting on behalf of Russia to foster division and influence the coming presidential election.
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Chen was an official contributor to RT between 2021–22.
The DOJ alleges that Chen and her husband invoiced a shell entity financed by Russia for over $760,000 to pay themselves. The other content creators were allegedly collectively paid over $9.3 million in a span of only ten months.
The indictment alleges that by June 2024, the two Russian handlers were given full authorization "to post content directly on U.S. Company-1’s platform, bypassing U.S. Company-1 employees altogether."
On Thursday, Semafor reported that Chen had been fired as a contributor to Blaze Media, where she had contributed videos for years. With over a million followers combined between YouTube and X, Chen was also an influencer and contributor to conservative activist group TPUSA.
On Thursday, TPUSA removed Chen’s contributor profile page from their website but otherwise has not commented publicly.
By Thursday evening, Chen and Tenet Media’s YouTube accounts were deactivated.
Chen and Donovan were reached for comment.
Reporter’s note: This reporter was interviewed in 2019 by Chen for her then-Blaze Media podcast.