Published Apr 04, 2024
By Brendan Cole
Senior News Reporter
Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, is among those who have raised questions about the Russian-American businessman Anton Postolnikov, who according to The Guardian kept afloat the former president's social media company Trump Media through emergency loans.
Trump may earn billions from the merger between Trump Media and Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corporation, which took the parent company of Truth Social public on March 26 on the Nasdaq exchange with shares trading at a high of $78.
But a report by The Guardian about the links to the deal involving Postolnikov has sparked a strong reaction online, including from Mary Trump, who posted on X that her uncle "has shown time and again that he is willing to do business with anyone."
The Guardian said that regulators had opened a securities investigation into the merger in 2021 and that Trump Media spent a lot of money the following year as it waited for its stock market debut.
The paper said that Trump Media took emergency loans, two of which were worth $8 million, in the form of convertible promissory notes, from an entity called the ES Family Trust, which opened an account with Paxum Bank that is co-owned by Postolnikov.
Postolnikov is reportedly the nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, a former Russian deputy minister of justice who worked in President Vladimir Putin's executive office up to 2017. Postolnikov is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security over his role in the TMTG merger, The Guardian reported.
Newsweek has approached Postolnikov for comment via Paxum Bank.
Neither Trump nor TMTG has been accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no sign that they knew about the background to the loans. A lawyer representing Trump Media told The Guardian that it was "a false narrative that TMTG has these fake connections to Russia."
In a statement to Newsweek, TMTG said: "The Guardian's defamatory reporting on TMTG is already the subject of ongoing litigation, through which the full extent of their malicious falsehoods will become clear."
In 2017, Postolnikov faced an arrest warrant in his home city of St. Petersburg on charges of tax fraud, according to a court ruling obtained by The Washington Post in February. That warrant was lifted the following year after the direct intervention of Russia's deputy prosecutor general, who said the case was without merit, the paper said.
Paxum Bank does not have a banking license in the U.S. and is not regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The paper said that Trump Media took emergency loans, two of which were worth $8 million, in the form of convertible promissory notes, from an entity called the ES Family Trust, which opened an account with Paxum Bank that is co-owned by Postolnikov.
Postolnikov is reportedly the nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, a former Russian deputy minister of justice who worked in President Vladimir Putin's executive office up to 2017. Postolnikov is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security over his role in the TMTG merger, The Guardian reported.
Newsweek has approached Postolnikov for comment via Paxum Bank.
Neither Trump nor TMTG has been accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no sign that they knew about the background to the loans. A lawyer representing Trump Media told The Guardian that it was "a false narrative that TMTG has these fake connections to Russia."
In a statement to Newsweek, TMTG said: "The Guardian's defamatory reporting on TMTG is already the subject of ongoing litigation, through which the full extent of their malicious falsehoods will become clear."
In 2017, Postolnikov faced an arrest warrant in his home city of St. Petersburg on charges of tax fraud, according to a court ruling obtained by The Washington Post in February. That warrant was lifted the following year after the direct intervention of Russia's deputy prosecutor general, who said the case was without merit, the paper said.
Paxum Bank does not have a banking license in the U.S. and is not regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The Guardian said this was a concern because it could indicate the ES Family Trust had been used by Postolnikov "to loan money to help save Trump Media—and the Truth Social platform— because his bank itself could not furnish the loan."
Postolnikov has not been charged with any crime but has been listed on recent search warrant affidavits along with associates including Michael Shvartsman.
Michael Shvartsman, a Florida venture capitalist, and his brother Gerald Shvartsman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to participating in an insider trading scheme linked to the deal that took Trump's social media business public, CNN reported.
On the Russian business website executive.ru, Postolnikov is described as expert and developer of financial technologies, creating fintech projects in Russia and overseas. The profile said he was born in Russia but educated in the U.S.
It said he completed his secondary education in 1999 at the International Studies Academy in San Francisco and went on to study at Skyline College and at the College of Marin in the Bay Area.
Mary Trump, a vehement critic of her uncle, wrote on X that "the critical part of the story" isn't just that Postolnikov is the nephew of an ally of Putin but "that who invests in Truth Social is largely obscured."
"Donald has shown time and again that he is willing to do business with anyone, and take money from anyone, as long as it serves his interests," she said, adding, "it's vital for us keep a close eye on Truth Social. With such a high valuation and little profit, the company is screaming for an investigation into FEC or SEC violations."
A spokesperson for the SEC told Newsweek: "We decline comment."
Meanwhile, Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) asked on X how the SEC cleared the merger. "Do we have laws?"
Update 04/04/24, 11 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with responses from TMTG and the SEC.
A spokesperson for the SEC told Newsweek: "We decline comment."
Meanwhile, Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) asked on X how the SEC cleared the merger. "Do we have laws?"
Update 04/04/24, 11 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with responses from TMTG and the SEC.
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