Raman Campaign Accused of Undisclosed Influencer Payments

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman's campaign has been accused of secretly paying social media influencers to promote her candidacy without adequately disclosing the payments, according to ethics complaints filed with city and state watchdogs. Influencers Kaitlyn Hennessy and Beatrice Gomberg allege the campaign failed to properly disclose payments connected to a comedian's company, a campaign staffer with a large following, and anonymous meme pages.

California law requires social media influencers who are paid by campaigns to create promotional content to disclose the sponsorship. Los Angeles imposes additional disclosure requirements. The complaint, obtained by The Post, alleges a "sustained" effort to conceal who was being paid.

At the center of the allegations is comedian Adam Conover, creator and star of "Adam Ruins Everything." The complaint states Raman's campaign paid his company, SwizzleCorp, during a period when Conover was posting in support of Raman. Campaign finance reports initially labeled these payments "online ads" before being amended to "video production services," according to the complaint, a change also reported by the Los Angeles Times.

"When people go through their feeds, they need to know that what they’re seeing is either paid or not," Hennessy told The Post. "If you’re being paid by a campaign or a committee, it’s the law, you need to disclose. But even ethically, why are you running from that?"

Michael Trujillo, a Los Angeles political consultant, commented, "The influencer industrial complex don’t get to have fake moral superiority while being paid off." He added, "If they want to post about the candidate or cause they love, great, but the second they accept $1, they need to disclose every post as being paid for by the campaign."

Raman's campaign denied the allegations, calling the complaint "a frivolous complaint" and stating, "Nithya’s campaign has been fully transparent and in compliance with state and city law. We proactively sought and received guidance from the City’s Ethics Commission staff on this matter to ensure our compliance with the law."

Conover dismissed the complaint as "a flimsy political attack that’s easily debunked" and accused the influencers behind it of "secretly working on behalf of the Bass campaign." He stated he has publicly supported Raman's campaigns since 2020, including on social media, and has never been paid for it. Conover added that a staff member did "a few weeks of hourly work" for the campaign this spring, and invoices for this work, totaling $2,447.13, covered hourly work, sign supplies, and cookies, but did not mention video or social media.

The complaint also targets Eric Cheng, who posts as "ericsaymore." Cheng joined Raman's campaign staff in September but continued posting about the candidate on his personal accounts. When announcing his role, Cheng wrote that he was "not getting $ to make videos or content about the race." Campaign staffers are exempt from the state’s paid-influencer disclosure requirement unless creating social media content is their principal job. The complaint alleges Cheng was hired in a way that allowed his posts to fall under this exemption.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that from approximately May 14 through Sept. 1, anonymous accounts criticized Mayor Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt, a reality-TV star who ran in the mayoral primary, while promoting Raman. These posts reportedly carried a "Paid for by Nithya Raman for Mayor 2026" tag but did not include other required disclosures, and many were allegedly not filed with the Ethics Commission within the required 24-hour window.

Violations of Los Angeles' disclosure rules can result in fines of up to $15,000 or three times the amount of money at issue. The complaint was prepared by Kaufman Legal Group, a firm whose clients include Bass's reelection campaign. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Bass campaign referred Hennessy and Gomberg to the firm and offered to cover their legal costs. Hennessy stated that she and Gomberg learned of the Bass campaign's offer to pay their bills along with everyone else and intend to pay their own legal bills.