That's my take on things as well, taking the indictment at face value.
There's no doubt Chen and her husband knew halfway through that their backers were Russian. They may not have known specifically that they were Russian FSB or RT, but they knew they were Russian nationals at the very least. At one point, the staffers from the "Belgian" billionaire explicitly told Chen that an entire Russian support team was being brought on in parallel to Chen's US operation.
Rubin and Pool were initially uneasy about where the money was coming from but never actually suspected Russian ties, at least openly. They seemed to be blinded in the end by the easy money offers.
I think it also came down to money for Chen and husband as well. Chen and Liam had deeper ties working for RT as far back as 2021 than I had previously realized.
Chen and her husband were initially paid 16k to negotiate with Pool and Rubin. They also received an undisclosed percentage as a Finder's fee for their exorbitant 400k/month in salaries. She was also making 8k month during the negotiation period.
Around the same time as Chen and Donovan started openly acknowledging that their contacts were Russian, their monthly salary was bumped up to 25k (unclear if individual or combined) after Tenet publicly launched.
It's also madness how many shell companies were involved. They did business with shell companies out of the Czech Republic, Hungary, the UK, Mauritius all in the same year for essentially the same services.
Chen herself is in deep shit, but it seems like those working with her (Pool, Rubin, etc) were honestly in the dark.
That's my take on things as well, taking the indictment at face value.
There's no doubt Chen and her husband knew halfway through that their backers were Russian. They may not have known specifically that they were Russian FSB or RT, but they knew they were Russian nationals at the very least. At one point, the staffers from the "Belgian" billionaire explicitly told Chen that an entire Russian support team was being brought on in parallel to Chen's US operation.
Rubin and Pool were initially uneasy about where the money was coming from but never actually suspected Russian ties, at least openly. They seemed to be blinded in the end by the easy money offers.
I think it also came down to money for Chen and husband as well. Chen and Liam had deeper ties working for RT as far back as 2021 than I had previously realized.
Chen and her husband were initially paid 16k to negotiate with Pool and Rubin. They also received an undisclosed percentage as a Finder's fee for their exorbitant 400k/month in salaries. She was also making 8k month during the negotiation period.
Around the same time as Chen and Donovan started openly acknowledging that their contacts were Russian, their monthly salary was bumped up to 25k (unclear if individual or combined) after Tenet publicly launched.
It's also madness how many shell companies were involved. They did business with shell companies out of the Czech Republic, Hungary, the UK, Mauritius all in the same year for essentially the same services.
yeah, but some people think it's the jews. Damn the evidence. You can't believe your lying eyes.