A Montreal company allegedly served as a shell to allow Russian TV channel RT to secretly fund and broadcast pro-Kremlin propaganda on YouTube, TikTok and X.
The company Roaming Millenium Inc., based in Pointe-Claire, is indirectly mentioned in a 32-page indictment filed this week by the United States Attorney General against two Russian employees of the RT channel.
The Russian employees are accused of illegally funneling $10 million to companies owned by Quebec-born YouTuber Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan through a complex shell company scheme. The money was to be used to hire popular right-wing influencers to spread “content with Russian government messages and a hidden agenda” to an American audience, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The names of Mme Mr. Chen and Mr. Donovan were anonymized in the indictment, but several elements link the charges to their American company and its Canadian subsidiary.
The couple founded Tenet Media in 2023, a right-wing opinion channel on YouTube that is generally supportive of Russian policies and opposed to Western aid to Ukraine.
The document states that M’s Canadian companyme Chen, Roaming Millenial Inc., received $8,000 in transfers from a Czech front company for hiring commentators as part of the scheme. The secret Russian payments were eventually to reach “$25,000 per month” after signing contracts with two influencers.
Other sums were also allegedly used to directly pay for Ms.’s “consulting” services.me Chen.
Corporate documents related to Roaming Millenial indicate that Mme Chen and Donovan lived in Hudson, west of Montreal, in 2021, but the residence was never theirs, according to land records. Their company’s headquarters on the Trans-Canada Highway is a shared-space office used by dozens of companies, according to corporate documents.
Reached by La Presse at a telephone number in Tennessee, Mme Chen declined to comment. Neither she nor Mr. Donovan have been targeted by U.S. or Canadian justice charges at this point.
Several media outlets report that the couple have long lived in Nashville, where they operate their businesses.
An “empire of projects secrets »
The Kremlin-linked RT television network was banned in Canada by the CRTC in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The United States also banned it. RT then allegedly created an “empire of secret projects” to shape Western opinion on social media, according to the indictment by U.S. prosecutors.
Russian payments to Tenet Media were allegedly used to pay two influential commentators, but the latter were allegedly unaware of where the money came from.
Dave Rubin, a right-wing commentator with 2.45 million YouTube subscribers, claimed on X that he had no knowledge of where the funds came from. “These allegations clearly show that I and other commentators were victims of this scheme,” he wrote.
Following the filing of the charges, the Tenet Media channel was removed from YouTube for violating its policies.
Federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada is working with the United States on this matter. “I also condemn in the strongest possible terms the attempts by RT, a Russian state-owned media entity, to spread disinformation, influence election results, undermine democracy and the rules-based international order, and engage in information operations and provoke cyber incidents against Western targets,” he said in a statement.
“Any Canadian who unlawfully participates in Russia’s persistent attempts to use disinformation, criminal and covert activities and corruption to undermine our sovereignty and democratic processes will be punished to the fullest extent of Canadian law,” added Minister LeBlanc.