September 5, 2024 – 6:10 PM PDT

(Reuters) – Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube said on Thursday it was terminating the Tenet Media channel and four channels operated by Tenet owner Lauren Chen, following an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Justice Department on Wednesday filed money-laundering charges against two employees of Russian state media network RT for what officials said was a scheme to hire an American company to produce online content to influence the 2024 presidential election.

Justice Department officials said the two employees used shell companies and fake personas to pay $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee company to produce online videos aimed at amplifying political divisions in the United States.

Though the company is not named in the indictment, details provided in court filings match up with Tenet Media, a Nashville-based company that has posted nearly 2,000 videos to YouTube in less than a year.

^{Reporting by Katie Paul and Chandni Shah; Editing by Leslie Adler}