Escape From the Billionaire Meme Mogul
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sergey Grishin is a well-connected, billionaire mogul. Last August, he made headlines when he sold his lavish estate to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Grishin’s multiple US-based businesses include a social media company in California with more than 300 million Instagram followers, called 421 Media. But what those followers probably don’t know is that they’ve been helping to enrich a man who has been accused in court documents of harassing and abusing women. In fact, women in multiple countries have been living in fear of Grishin, and have documented years of evidence. Now, they’re going public.
This episode is the latest installment of our read-aloud Summer investigation series. It was reported by MoJo’s Samantha Michaels and produced by our partners at Audm.
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Jimmy Licking, with another installment of our Summer Investigation Series. |
| 0:05.8 | This one by our reporter Samantha Michaels is like out of a novel. |
| 0:13.1 | Siriae Grishon is a well-connected billionaire meme mogul. |
| 0:18.0 | Last August, he made news when he sold his lavish estate to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. |
| 0:24.5 | Grishon's multiple US-based companies include a social media company in California with more |
| 0:29.4 | than 300 million Instagram followers, called 421 Media. |
| 0:35.1 | What those followers probably don't know is that they've been helping to enrich a man |
| 0:39.2 | who has been accused in court documents of harassing and abusing women. |
| 0:43.7 | In fact, women in multiple countries have been living in fear. |
| 0:48.7 | They've documented years of abuse, and now they're going public. |
| 0:54.4 | This episode is produced by our partners at Autumn. |
| 1:01.0 | Autumn presents |
| 1:03.8 | The Escape from the billionaire meme mogul, written by Samantha Michaels. |
| 1:10.7 | One evening in April, Jennifer Salkis, a 33-year-old filmmaker, |
| 1:15.7 | was about to order a burger and watch a hockey game at home in New York |
| 1:19.6 | when she received a WhatsApp message that made her heart race. |
| 1:23.4 | The message came from Moscow, from a lawyer representing one of her best friends, Anna Fedosava. |
| 1:30.0 | We need to talk urgently, the lawyer wrote. |
| 1:33.4 | Something terrible has happened, Salkis thought. |
| 1:36.3 | She constantly worried about Fedosava. |
| 1:38.9 | Ever since her friend had split with her ex-husband, |
| 1:41.8 | a powerful Russian billionaire named Sergei Grishon. |
... |
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