THE TENET MEDIA FRONT
Thank you for visiting our special presentation about the TENET MEDIA Campaign
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
V.
KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV,
a/k/a Kostya,” and
ELENA AFANASYEVA,
ak/a “Lena,”
Defendants.
SEALED INDICTMENT
24 Cr. 24CRIM 519
Chen and Donovan Await Payment from Moscow
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- On or about May 31, 2023, KALASHNIKOV created a private Discord server containing a channel initially comprised solely of KALASHNIKOV, Chen, and PersonaOne (the “Investor Discord Channel”)[ii], KALASHNIKOV employed the Discord username “kostya k,” which includes a variant of his first name (“kostya“) and the first initial of his last name (“k*”). On approximately 38 occasions between in or about December 2023 and in or about January 2024, KALASHNIKOV’s Discord account was accessed from a Moscow-based IP address that was also used to access KALASHNIKOV’s personal Gmail account on approximately 10 occasions.
- On or about June 21, 2023, Donovan joined the Investor Discord Channel, describing Donovan‘s role as “mostly helping with the company’s back end of things while [Chen] focuses on the more forward-facing aspects.” In the Investor Discord Channel, Chen, Donovan, and PersonaOne (purporting to act on behalf of “Eduard Grigoriann“) discussed major decisions for TENETMEDIA , such as the hiring of staff, contract negotiations with contributors (including Dave Rubin and Tim Pool), and payments to TENETMEDIA and commentators. KALASHNIKOV monitored and occasionally participated in those discussions.
- Donovan also used the Investor Discord Channel to, among other things, submit TENETMEDIA ‘s invoices to PersonaOne, and to press for payment of those invoices. For example, on or about September 11, 2023, at approximately 8:07 p.m. Central Time, Donovan wrote in the Investor Discord Channel: “Today marks two weeks since I submitted the invoice for August. Any idea for the delay? We are signing the large contracts and need to be certain we will get the funding to pay these people.” PersonaOne did not immediately respond. While awaiting a reply from PersonaOne, Chen searched for the then-current time in Moscow. Specifically, at approximately 8:50 p.m. Central Time on or about September 11, 2023, Chen searched on Google: “time in Moscow.” The time was, in fact, approximately 4:50 a.m. in Moscow. Approximately three days later, on or about September 14, 2023, Chen followed up in the Investor Discord Channel, writing: “Hey @PersonaOne, just wanted to follow up and see if your finance department has any update on the transfers.”