Jeremy Nell, Marcel Jahnke, and China - Part 2

This is the second part of a four-part series.

Part 1 ended by asking who funded the Pepe Escobar documentary project in which Jeremy Nell (“Jerm Warfare”) claims to have participated in the autumn of 2025.

One obvious candidate is Marcel Jahnke, the German businessman who acquired a 20% stake in Akita Media Ltd., which trades as UK Column (UKC) shortly before Nell and Carl Zha were given their own slots there. Jahnke’s only published interview (paywalled) was with Zha in 2023.

In Nell’s videos from China, he and Zha frequently refer to “Jenny” from the office in Shanghai. This could be Jenny Yan, who I am told works for Jahnke in Shanghai.

Hrvoje Morić observes the following exchange that took place on X between Nell and The Pulse in March 2024. The Pulse replaced TNT Radio, so it was Mike Ryan and/or Jenny Squires, the former owners of TNT, with whom Nell was corresponding.

Here, we learn from Ryan/Squires that Jahnke is Nell’s “friend,” that Nell recommended Jahnke to them, and that Jahnke tried and apparently succeeded in closing TNT Radio down. The phrase “we know and many others know what is really going on” suggests hidden agendas.

Jahnke’s Motives

There are conflicting accounts of Jahnke’s motives. According to Nell, Jahnke “just wants a better future for his kids and our kids” and “only a good person” would fund the legal costs of Sucharit Bhakdi and Matt Campbell, as Jahnke did (08:00).

According to UK Column’s Mike Robinson, “I just enjoy his [Jahnke’s] company … He is just a fantastic bloke, we are delighted to have him on board [...] He has no desire to see us headed in any direction other than the one we intended to go in.”

Who knew that UKC was already planning to onboard Nell (in May 2025) and Zha and devote an increasing amount of time and attention (and trips) to China from that point on?

According to UKC presenters, Jahnke owns “a company” in China that produces “traditional plant-based medicines”; Nell claims “I’ve seen the medicines, it’s not pharmaceutical at all” (03:00, 17:00).

It all sounds very humble and benign until one digs a little deeper into company filings, as Ursula Edgington did. The Hong Kong Companies register reveals that Jahnke is the managing director of eight different companies, ranging from healthcare to cybersecurity to media to hotels to YMS Market Access Ltd. (the entity that owns the stake in UKC). He is a major player with influence across multiple sectors.

Regarding Nell’s claim that “it’s not pharmaceutical at all,” Whitney Webb forwarded me an email (cited here with her permission) from Jahnke’s assistant Liz Wen on April 12, 2023, in which Jahnke is described as running a business in the pharmaceutical industry.

Other commentators have had less flattering things to say about Jahnke. Mike Ryan, for instance, claims that TNT Radio was “disassembled behind the scenes, like a slow motion nuclear bomb.” Although he does not mention Jahnke by name, it is not difficult to work out whom he is talking about given the X exchange above.

Jahnke was involved in highly expensive lawfare against OVALmedia and the black shelving of the first four parts (of six) of its important documentary, CORONA.film. Details can be found in two Transition News articles from January 2025 (here and here — which your browser should be able to translate into English if you do not read German), as well as in a recent interview given by managing director Robert Cibis (01:43:00-02:14:00).

Cibis alleges that Jahnke “went to war” with him after he refused to give him a 50% stake in his companies following investments and loans worth approximately €1 million. He accuses Jahnke of “sabotage” and of creating conflict at key moments so as to cause “maximum harm” (02:05:00).

Admittedly, there are always two sides to every story, but similar claims from the managing directors of two major independent media platforms (OVALmedia and TNT Radio), which both encountered major difficulties after getting involved with Jahnke, should give pause for concern.

So too should Cibis’ claim that Jahnke sent him “death threats” on Telegram in July and August 2023 (01:52:56). These were shown on screen during his interview with Hrvoje Morić:

The latter message reads:

You fucking idiot think you play a game, now we play a game. it is really a pitty as ur content was high quality. But you are such an ego soaked idiot of a teacher son that we need to fuck you back alittle haha

We will find you fucker

You will pay for your absolute criminal robbery boy!!

When asked, Cibis was able to corroborate the authenticity of these messages by providing documents sent by his lawyers to Jahnke’s lawyers in relation to them. Those documents show that a legal settlement with Jahnke only became possible in return for Cibis halting all potential criminal proceedings against him.

At the very least, these Telegram messages are highly menacing – “extremely aggressive” in Cibis’ words. They do not comport with Nell’s claim that Jahnke “just wants a better future for his kids and our kids.”

“Now we play a game,” Jahnke wrote. But what exactly is his game?

Jahnke and the “Independent” Media

Surprisingly, for a businessman with a background in pharmaceuticals, who is also busy running companies across multiple sectors, Jahnke’s influence extends far and wide in the “independent” media.

For example, in addition to his involvement with OVALmedia, TNT Radio, UK Column, Sukharit Bhakdi, and Matt Campbell, he is also a director of the Rising Tide Foundation (RTF), a Canadian non-profit run by Matthew Ehret-Kump and Christine Corey.

The RTF website describes him as follows:

Marcel Jahnke is an executive manager and entrepreneur with academic background in Business Administration (Int. Management, Marketing and Finance) and Asian Affairs (Modern China). He is the founder, Managing Director and Investor in multiple companies spanning healthcare, skincare, consumer health, strategy consulting, hospitality, permaculture, journalism and blockchain technology. In 2019 Marcel founded ‘African and Asian Academics Charity Foundation’ supporting highly trained young people from the slums of Africa and Asia to become leaders of their countries. He is the co-founder of [Jim Gale’s] Food Forest Abundance (FFA Inc) which is specialized in customized garden designs and helping people grow their own food and become self-reliant.

Michael Ginsburg asks some critical questions about the Rising Tide Foundation and Jahnke’s involvement in it in his recent article on multipolarity. He offered the right of reply to RTF and UKC and Jahnke on X.

Jahnke is listed as an executive producer on two RTF films, as well as on Andrew Wakefield’s Protocol 7.

In August 2021, Jahnke contributed US$2,000 to Derrick Broze’s Pyramid of Power documentary series.

Given all of these film involvements, as well as acquiring the rights to the first four parts of OVALmedia’s CORONA.film, It would not be any great surprise if Jahnke also funded the upcoming Escobar documentary.

Iain Davis informs me that he received £2,900 from Marcel Jahnke between October 2021 and January 2024, split into 29 payments of £100. Because of the relatively small amount, he did not notice the pattern until now.

In April 2023, Jahnke sent a large donation to Whitney Webb, and she replied by stressing the importance of verifying where large donations come from, given that a common tactic in attempting to discredit a journalist’s work includes attacking their source of funding. Jahnke left her alone after that – suspiciously, if he was genuine about supporting her.

In May/June 2024, Jahnke was one of my first Founding Members on Substack and, in my only communication with him, he offered to buy my son’s power chair outright after I launched a crowd funder in July 2025. I thanked him for his offer, but declined his money given that the £4,000 target had already been smashed within 24 hours thanks to overwhelming public generosity. I have since cancelled his subscription.

In the summer of 2024, Jahnke approached Hrvoje Morić, who suspected his motives:

He [...] suggested he could help me register my podcast as a business. I stated I’d be happy to have the podcast distributed elsewhere, but that Geopolitics & Empire would always remain self-hosted first, under my domain and control. I also wondered if he might gain control over Geopolitics & Empire through equity and the business formalization process, had I decided to do that.

A search of the open access database of legal cases in Europe, Caseboard, reveals that YMS Market Access Ltd (the company which acquired a 20% stake in Akita Media Ltd., i.e., UKC) initiated legal action against Valhalla Network Ltd. (which promotes community banking networks) in July 2025. No further details are known at this time.

I have seen or heard evidence of Jahnke’s involvement with three additional high profile figures in the independent media whom I cannot name for reasons of privacy and confidentiality. One turned down his advances, the second apparently did not, and Jahnke lost interest in the third (who places limits on donations).

Robert Cibis claims that “at least a dozen people” in the German-speaking world have been funded by Jahnke (02:03:00). In Cibis’ opinion, Jahnke is supporting “probably hundreds of people and structures and companies” (02:10:00).

Mike Ryan seems barely able to bite his tongue about “a particular gentleman who controls hundreds [!] of people: small programmes, podcasters, and stuff around the EU and in other parts of the world.” “If these people are controlled,” he asks, where do we stand with the truth?” (45:16-47:39).

Of course, it is too simple to say that anyone who receives money or gifts or other forms of support is “controlled.” Nor does any culpability necessarily follow from having taken Jahnke’s money/gifts. But it is perfectly legitimate to question funding sources and what they might imply for the impartiality of the content being produced.

On April 16, 2026, within 48 hours of Michael Ginsburg’s article on Jahnke and the Rising Tide Foundation coming out, a risible AI-assisted defence of Jahnke was published by CCDHWatch on X. The reason that this “billionaire” has registered his companies in Hong Kong, purportedly, is to avoid the UK Safety Act and debanking – utter nonsense. The fact that he funds dissidents supposedly means he is innocent. Being critical of Jahnke allegedly divides the opposition (a myth which I will explode in Part 4). “In the end,” CCDHWatch concludes, “Jahnke’s hidden involvement may be the only reason these outlets are still broadcasting at all.” Try telling that to OVALmedia and TNT Radio.

“Foreign Agents” and Podcasting

One issue that dissident content producers need to be aware of is legislation relating to the influence of “foreign agents.” Morić discusses some of the dangers in his article on multipolarity under what he calls the “Pentagon Active Measures & Influence Networks.” Among other evidence, he cites the “Restitutor” account on X:

Here we see an intent to track a content creator’s digital footprint back in time, looking for any evidence of “foreign agent” support.

If the Foreign Agents Registration Act in the US and similar legislation such as the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) in the UK can be weaponised such that content creators can be accused of receiving support from “foreign agents,” that would be highly dangerous for any dissidents targeted. For example, non-compliance with the FIRS is punishable by up to two or five years in prison and/or fines, depending on whether the offence falls under the “political influence tier” or the “enhanced tier.”

In that context, Jahnke’s pumping of Chinese money into the “alt media” (via his Hong Kong-based companies) must be treated with suspicion, especially given that we do not know what his motives are, but we do know that they are not necessarily benign.

Most content creators working in the independent media space are probably funded in a roughly similar manner. They are reliant on public support, and it is impossible to know who every donor is. It would not be difficult to set up unsuspecting dissidents via large or repeat donations from a “foreign agent” and to use new legislation to shut them down.

Although Morić wrote about these issues, Nell did not ask about them when ostensibly interviewing him about his article.

Conclusion

“But Jerm, who is Marcel?,” someone interjects in the 2024 X exchange between Nell and The Pulse. It is a good question, and one which Nell should be well placed to answer, given his claim to have known Jahnke “for a long time.”

At this point, given Jahnke’s extensive reach across the “independent” media, the fact that his influence has in some cases been destructive, and the fact that so few people have heard of him, I think Nell owes us answers to the following questions:

1. When and how did he meet Marcel Jahnke?
2. How does his relationship with Jahnke square with his stated aim “to remain as independent as possible”?
3. Did Jahnke pay, in whole or in part, for his trip to China?
4. Has he otherwise accepted any other paid trips abroad from Jahnke, e.g. to Thailand?
5. Has he taken money or accepted gifts from Jahnke?
6. Will he continue to defend Jahnke as a “good person” in light of his impact on TNT and OVALmedia and the Telegram messages he sent to Robert Cibis?

In an email to me, Nell wrote “I’m not controlled and discuss what I like.” For example, he claims that he is not controlled because he platforms Flat Earthers and those who question the Holocaust.

However, as Morić notes, “you could cover every topic under the sun and still be controlled opposition. Or just some. There is no strong rule” (2:21:10).

Indeed, as I discussed with Collapse Life recently, entertaining any and every narrative does not move the audience closer to the truth. Rather, it fosters confusion and ignorance by creating an epistemic void in which “anything goes” and no critical thinking is required. Serious critique gets conflated with nonsense. This is a useful strategy from the perspective of intelligence agencies, regardless of whether or not certain podcasters realise it or how “radical” they think they are being.

The most effective control is not exercised through being crudely told what to say or do. Rather, it works through getting people to internalise norms and values so that they instinctively intuit what to say and do, or otherwise. Chomsky made this point decades ago with respect to the media, and I saw it firsthand in academia. The key to this process is money. People instinctively know not to bite the hand that feeds.

Part 3 will analyse Nell’s output from China. Regardless of whether or not he is “controlled” (a term which I generally avoid but which he uses repeatedly), we can judge for ourselves whether or not his China videos are “scarcely differentiable from foreign propaganda,” as I originally claimed to his chagrin.

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