A Quebec influencer and her husband were allegedly paid handsomely by the Kremlin to create a website used to spread Russian propaganda, according to new revelations from American authorities.
“Nobody here understands what they were doing because we never saw them. We all wonder if we lived next to Russian spies today,” jokes a resident of Hudson, a small town of about 5,000 souls in Montérégie.
The couple’s luxurious home appeared uninhabited when our representative visited on Friday.
Francis Pilon / JdeM
THE Newspaper met Friday with the neighbors of Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donavan. The residents declined to identify themselves for fear of reprisals from the couple who founded Tenet Media, a far-right website accused of having carried out Russian interference operations in the United States. They reportedly lived until very recently on Cameron Street in Hudson, Quebec. When we visited, the house appeared uninhabited.
The lovers have not been formally charged at this time. However, the U.S. Justice Department filed charges Wednesday against two Russian nationals who paid $10 million to “Company 1,” according to court documents seen by THE Newspaperthe anonymized company is ultimately indeed Tenet Media.
In this video, the Quebec influencer explains why she left Canada:
Pro-Trump and Pro-Kremlin
Lauren Chen, 30, is a well-known social media influencer for her far-right views. She was born in Quebec and is believed to have grown up in Hong Kong.
According to the Business Registry, she and her husband, Liam Donovan, owned a luxurious home in Hudson. However, they reportedly moved to Nashville, USA, with their daughter in recent years.
Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donavan, founder of Tenet Media at the heart of this controversy.
Photo taken from thelaurenchen Instagram account
The lovebirds founded Tenet Media together in January 2022. They describe their website as “a network of heterodox commentators who focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Their content consisted mainly of pro-Kremlin and pro-Trump propaganda, according to the notice of complaint.
According to the US prosecutors, Chen and Donovan were aware that their operations were funded by Russian money. “So we bill the Russians out of the company, right?” says a text message between the couple, revealed in the court documents.
Very profitable
The American justice system specifies that one of the founders of Tenet Media even offered up to 2 million dollars to an influencer to make videos on behalf of the company.
“It would have to be closer to 5 million a year for him to be interested,” wrote the company’s other founder.
Laurent Chen’s YouTube account with nearly 570,000 subscribers. The channel was deleted in the wake of the controversy this week.
Screenshot from YouTube
The court document also states that one of the founders was paid up to $25,000 a month for his work at Tenet Media. Money transfers were made, among other things, by wire transfer from a company in the Czech Republic.
Influencer Lauren Chen’s social media accounts have been inactive since the revelations by the US authorities on Wednesday. YouTube also closed her page this week with more than 570,000 subscribers.
With Anne-Caroline Desplanques, JdeM
