accounts. Founder-1 thus gave AFANASYEVA and KALASHNIKOV unfettered access to serve RT messaging to U.S. Company-1's audiences.
U.S. Company-1 Receives Nearly $10 Million
From Foreign Shell Entities
39. Founder-1 and Founder-2 profited from their unregistered services to RT:
- Starting in approximately August 2023, Founder-1 and Founder-2 typically submitted two invoices each month to Persona-1 on the Investor Discord Channel: one invoice for U.S. Company-1's expenses, such as its payments to its commentators, and another invoice for Founder-1 and Founder-2's own fees and commissions. Between in or about August 2023 and in or about June 2024, Founder-1 and Founder-2 invoiced U.K. Shell Entity-1 more than $9.3 million for U.S. Company-1's expenses, which they asked to be paid to the U.S. Company-1 Bank Account. Founder-1 and Founder-2 also invoiced U.K. Shell Entity-1 more than $760,000 for their own fees and commissions, some of which they asked to be paid to Canadian Company-1's bank account in Canada, and some of which they asked to be paid to the U.S. Company-1 Bank Account in the United States.
- After Founder-1 and Founder-2 transmitted their monthly invoices to Persona-1 on the Investor Discord Channel, Persona-1 typically acknowledged receipt and confirmed payment. Between in or about October 2023 and in or about August 2024, the U.S. Company-1 Bank Account received approximately 30 wire transfers from foreign entities totaling approximately $9.7 million. U.S. Company-1 disbursed most of these funds to its contracted commentators, including approximately $8.7 million to the production companies of Commentator-1, Commentator-2, and Commentator-3 alone. Consistent with Founder-1's February 8, 2023 warning to Persona-1 that "it would be very hard . . . to recoup the costs for the likes of [Commentator-1] and [Commentator-2] based on ad revenue from web traffic or sponsors
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