Trump Media under investigation for laundering Russian money

Which one is this? Investigation number five...or is it six?

If you look up “funny money” in the dictionary, you will find an aerial photograph of islands in the Caribbean Sea.  One of them is the island of Dominica.  Located in the windward isles between Martinique and Guadeloupe, Dominica is about 25 miles long.  In land mass, it is slightly smaller the 300 square miles of New York City.  Dominica’s banana crop and tourism provide the mainstay of its economy, but like other Caribbean islands, Dominica has eagerly opened itself to international banking.  Most internationally oriented Caribbean banks make money from licensing fees, “rent” charged to keep your money there, and a percentage taken from each fiscal transaction.

The Guardian reported yesterday that Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which owns Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York City for money laundering.  This investigation rose out of a previous investigation by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last year of a proposed merger between Trump Media and a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) called Digital World Acquisition Company.  At that time, subpoenas were issued to the directors of Digital World and Trump Media seeking to determine whether serious (read: real) discussions of the merger took place with TMTG before Digital World went public.  An investment firm based in Miami called Rocket Capital was somehow also involved in the merger.  The merger between Trump Media and Digital World was supposed to provide the Trump company with up to $1.3 billion in capital, as well as a stock market listing. 

The merger was stalled by the investigation, and faces a September 2023 deadline for completion, so Trump Media, desperately short on operating capital, wenty looking for a loan.  As readers of this column are not doubt aware, arranging a loan for anything with the word “Trump” in its name became very difficult some years ago, with Deutsche Bank being the only lender willing to extend credit to the Trump Organization, which still owes the bank several hundred million dollars.

According to The Guardian, Trump Media found a lender through Digital World’s CEO, Patrick Orlando, who arranged for a $2 million dollar loan through a wire transfer from Paxum Bank, located on two-block-long Centre Cross Lane in Roseau, Dominica.  Another loan for $4 million quickly followed, transferred from the same Paxum Bank in Dominica. 

The source of the money for the loan, however, was something of a mystery, causing federal prosecutors to initiate what has become a second investigation into Trump Media.  The second loan for $4 million apparently came from something called ES Family Trust, the trustee of which was one Angel Pacheco, who was conveniently enough also a director of the Paxum Bank, the facility that wired the money. 

It was when federal investigators for the Southern District of New York began looking into the ownership of Paxum Bank that things got interesting.  Who did they find as a part-owner of the bank but Anton Postolnikov, who is related to Putin pal Aleksandr Smirnov, a former aide to Putin who now runs the Russian government-controlled maritime company, Rosmorport. 

There is a man calling himself Anton Postolnikov who shows up on LinkedIn as the owner and CEO of DEK-CO (UK) Ltd that interestingly enough happens to have an office in Miami Beach, Florida.  This Postolnikov describes himself as having several years’ experience as a “fintech consultant” versed in “licensing, IT operational setup and digital payment solutions.”  Postolnikov claims to have helped his company “receive principal membership with MasterCard International, which allows it to render global remittances and prepaid-card issuing services worldwide.”

One branch office of the Paxum Bank is a mail-drop in the UPS office in the strip mall at 3484 Sources Blvd., Quebec, Canada, pictured below: 

Clicking on the website attached to the Google link to this branch takes you directly to the Dominica Paxum Bank website.  They are one in the same. ustomers of the Paxum Bank in Quebec are quite vocal in their displeasure with the bank’s services, or lack thereof.  Following are several reviews of Paxum Bank:

 “They have been unreliable, cheats and theft of my money. They will disable their ETFs and wire transfers when money is deposited into your account. Right now, I have around $3,400 in their care and have no way of withdrawing this money.”

“This company is a scam...it is literally a roach motel...any money you put in can't come out. What they do is the ID verification scam. They find some reason why ‘the photo is too blurry’ etc. even when using their app to send it!”

“Have been locked out of my account for literally one month because it says my password doesn't work.  Cannot reset it with instructions and customer service on the phone has been nonexistent.  Still have $$ in limbo and cannot access it...ridiculous.”

“My account was compromised, and I was robbed of 1000 dollars in addition to having created an external card with my name. They don't want to give me back the money that was stolen (using the card) because they claim I can only report fraud within 24 hours.”

Federal investigators have taken a special interest in the loans funneled through Paxum Bank because the bank is known to be involved in financing and providing banking services to companies in the pornography and prostitution business.  Recall that the abovementioned Postolnikov is a part-owner of Paxum Bank.  Using credit cards and pre-paid cards is a known method of laundering money gained from illegal activities such as prostitution through legal entities such as banks.  On its website, Paxum Bank offers “Paxum credit card processing” and “Paxum prepaid card issuing.”

How convenient.

Money laundering prosecutions typically hinge on circumstantial evidence involving whether the persons or entities receiving the money had knowledge that it was likely the proceeds of illegal activities.  In other words, if Trump Media had done what the financial world calls “due diligence,” did they discover the shady nature of the Paxum Bank and its associations with the porn and prostitution business?  Were Trump Media and its directors, including Trump himself, Devin Nunes, Donald Trump Jr., and the ubiquitous Kash Patel, aware of the bank’s associations?  And what of Aleksandr Smirnov and his company, Rosmorport, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. and the EU for the following reasons: “The company operates in sectors of strategic importance for the Russian Government and provides high material (transport, logistical and other) support for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

Getting a loan from someone associated with a sanctioned Putin pal apparently didn’t bother Trump Media because they haven’t returned the Russian money.  Neither did doing business through the scurvy Paxum Bank down there in Dominica where they apparently set up accounts for depositors, take their money and don’t let them have it back.  In the meantime, Paxum Bank apparently issues credit cards in the name of depositors they never requested and use the cards to take the money to which the bank’s depositors can no longer withdraw.

That’s the bank Trump and Trump Media used to access loans that apparently originated with the sanctioned owner of a sanctioned business with close ties to Vladimir Putin.

In other Trump-related scam news, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn and Trump thug Steve Bannon are both under investigation by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York for their involvement with a cryptocurrency scam called “$FJB,” which is said to stand for “Fuck Joe Biden.” The cryptocurrency, marketed through campaign-related lists of MAGAs, is said to have lost 95 percent of its value since it was first floated a little over a year ago.

In yet more Trump-related scam news, Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was arrested yesterday and charged with multiple counts of money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud, at least some of which was connected with – you guessed it – yet another cryptocurrency fraud.  Wengui is charged with stealing more than $1 billion from investors who were sucked in through MAGA-like fraudster non-profits called “The Rule of Law Society” and “The Rule of Law Foundation.”  Wengui is a member of Trump’s Mar a Lago club, and he owns the $37 million yacht on which Bannon was arrested off the coast of Westport, CT, in 2020.  That arrest was for defrauding investors who bought into a scam non-profit established to privately build parts of Trump’s wall on the Mexican Border.  Bannon and two other people who ran the non-profit were charged with skimming money for their own use.  Bannon’s partners either pled guilty or were found guilty in the scheme.  Bannon was pardoned by Trump before he could come to trial.

Kinda raises a chicken-egg question, doesn’t it?  Does the urge to grift come before association with Trump, or does closeness to the Great Grifter Himself infect everyone in his orbit? 

Watch this space for more Trump-related money laundering and fraud news.