Organization details
- Brand name
- Tenet Media
- Legal business entity
- Roaming USA Corp (Tennessee corporation, operated as Tenet Media)
- Founded
- January 19, 2022 (corporation)
- Assumed name
- Tenet Media, registered May 2023
- Trademark
- U.S. application 98232398 filed October 20, 2023; owner named as Roaming USA Corp
- Public launch
- November 2023
- Headquarters / base
- Nashville, Tennessee, United States
- Founders
- Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan
- Corporate president
- Liam Donovan (October 2023 trademark filing)
- Historical video contributors
- Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, Matt Christiansen, Tayler Hansen
- 2024 DOJ case
- United States v. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva (SDNY, 24-CR-519)
- Alleged foreign-sourced funds
- Approximately $9.7 million, October 2023–August 2024 (indictment)
- Publication status
- Tenet channel terminated in September 2024; corporate legal dissolution not independently verified
Former Tennessee-based political-video network and trade name of Roaming USA Corp, co-founded by Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, central to a 2024 federal case alleging undisclosed RT financing.[1][3][4]
Corporate formation and ownership
Tenet Media was the operating name of a Tennessee political-media business legally identified in business and trademark records as Roaming USA Corp. The company was incorporated January 19, 2022 and applied to do business under the Tenet Media name in May 2023. The October 2023 U.S. trademark application, serial 98232398, identifies Roaming USA Corp as the owner and was signed by Liam Donovan as president. The brand, the Tennessee corporation and the Canadian production company described elsewhere in the 2024 criminal indictment are not interchangeable entities.[2][3][4][10]
The company was co-founded by Donovan and his wife Lauren Chen. The founders are described as “Founder-1” and “Founder-2” in the federal indictment; contemporary reporters linked their identities to Chen and Donovan and confirmed the corporation's creation and location from state records. Chen handled much of the public presentation, while Donovan performed behind-the-scenes executive work.[2][4][5][11]
Business model and contracted creators
Tenet publicly launched in November 2023 as a syndication and production network for commentary about Western politics and culture. The company promoted six commentators: Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, Matt Christiansen and Tayler Hansen. Their relationships with Tenet were content-licensing or contractor arrangements, not ownership or corporate employment automatically inferred from their appearances. Their independent organizations and contracts must be examined individually before assigning specific payments or editorial duties.[5][7][8]
The federal complaint stated that the company released nearly 2,000 videos viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube before September 2024, with distribution also on X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other channels. Videos focused on domestic politics, cultural conflict, immigration, inflation and U.S. foreign policy. The company's commercial concept was to leverage established personalities with large audiences under a common brand, supported by external financial arrangements.[1][2][5]
Alleged RT funding and transfer records
Federal prosecutors alleged that personnel working for the Russian state-directed broadcaster RT provided covert funding and direction for the company. According to the indictment, approximately 30 wire transfers totaling $9.7 million reached Tenet's business bank account between October 2023 and August 2024. The transfers came from seven foreign entities based in or connected to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Mauritius. A different United Kingdom intermediary appeared as the contractual counterparty; prosecutors alleged that invoice descriptions disguised transfers as transactions for electronics.[1][2]
The $9.7 million figure represented nearly 90% of the company's deposits during that interval, according to prosecutors. Approximately $8.7 million was allegedly disbursed to the separate production companies of three commentators. The indictment also describes more than $760,000 in invoices by the founders for their own fees and commissions between August 2023 and June 2024, but invoiced fees are not proof that $760,000 was personally received by either individual. The media company's receipts, payments to contractor companies and founder-fee invoices must remain separate financial records.[2]
Alleged identities, editorial controls and operating methods
The 2024 indictment named RT employees Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva as defendants and alleged that they operated under false online identities as outside editorial personnel. Prosecutors say the founders also described the supposed investor to at least two commentators as a wealthy private financier, “Eduard Grigoriann”; the government alleged this persona was fictional. Its assertions are allegations from a criminal charging document, not a conviction of Chen, Donovan, or any Tenet creator.[1][2][7]
According to the indictment, Afanasyeva supplied hundreds of video links to Tenet personnel during the first half of 2024; in March, she asked that a commentator advance a narrative blaming the United States and Ukraine for a deadly Moscow concert-hall attack. The indictment describes a producer's objections to another Russia-themed video, the founders' involvement in handling objections and expanded direct posting access for the RT-linked staff. No individual contributor should automatically be described as having followed instructions knowingly; some content creators stated that they were misled about the underlying funding.[2][7][8]
Legal case: what was charged and what was not
The Department of Justice unsealed the case on September 4, 2024. The two named defendants, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, were charged with conspiracies involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act and money laundering. Tenet Media, Chen and Donovan were not charged in that indictment. The original government press release states the conduct as allegations, and the presumption of innocence applies to those charged until conviction. No later adjudicated finding as to the founders' knowledge or personal criminal liability was independently established in the sources reviewed through November 2026.[1][2][5]
Several creators, including Pool, Johnson and Rubin, publicly denied knowing about concealed Russian funding and described themselves as deceived or victims. The 2024 charging document also alleges deliberate deception of at least two commentators through the false investor description. The six publicly listed talent arrangements should not be converted into blanket criminal allegations about each creator.[2][7][8]
Platform action, closure and subsequent developments
YouTube terminated Tenet Media's channel and additional channels associated with Chen in September 2024. Reports said the company stopped publishing its established network programming soon after the indictment. This operational shutdown is separately documented from any official dissolution of the Roaming USA Corp legal entity, which has not been established in the records reviewed for this page.[5][7][8]
In 2025 Chen and Donovan stated that visa and banking difficulties had disrupted their business and forced them to leave the United States. In December 2025 they returned with reported assistance from State Department consular adviser Joe Rittenhouse. That assistance and their April 2026 attendance at a White House Easter event concerned the founders personally and do not show that Tenet Media reopened or that the 2024 indictment was vacated.[5][6][9]
Corporate and network context
The network's direct documented relationships are the two founders, a set of independently contracted content creators and a reported financial flow that prosecutors attributed to RT and intermediary corporations. The 2024 government investigation is a documented legal event. Historical affiliations belonging to Chen individually, such as Turning Point USA and BlazeTV, are not Tenet Media subsidiaries or funders solely because she was associated with both. Likewise, RT and the separate Russian Direct Investment Fund should not be conflated; the 2024 indictment identified RT, not the Russian Direct Investment Fund, as the source of the alleged media operation.[1][2][5]
Documented connections
Corporate identity, employment, financial transfers, legal allegations and later government contact are distinct evidence categories. Allegations in an indictment are not findings of guilt. The separately reported Russian Direct Investment Fund is not alleged to be a Tenet funder in these sources.
Follow documented connections into The Story
Explore evidence-backed historical institutional networks and media influence.
References
- US DOJ, SDNY — September 4, 2024 indictment announcement
- US District Court, SDNY — United States v. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, September 2024 indictment (PDF)
- US Patent and Trademark Office, Oct 20, 2023 Tenet Media application 98232398, signed Liam Donovan, Roaming USA Corp
- CBS News — September 2024 founders and Tennessee incorporation records
- Columbia Journalism Review — Maddy Crowell, June 1, 2026 investigation and founders’ 2026 activities
- The Bulwark — Will Sommer, December 30, 2025 return to U.S. and State Department assistance
- PolitiFact — September 16, 2024 creator roster, licensing contracts and allegations
- Reuters — September 9, 2024 covert influence operation and creators' statements
- Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan — public fundraising statement, founders’ response (self-reported)
- The Tennessean — Roaming USA Corp doing business as Tenet Media, business registration reporting
- Canadian-focused The Tyee — Canadian business records and spouse relationship, Sept 2024
Compiled through November 14, 2026. Allegations are attributed to the original indictment, public records and reporting; no later disposition of this criminal case was independently verified.