Shady Russian Businessman Backed Trump’s Truth Social in 2022: Report

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A new report revealed that the Truth Social platform of Donald Trump managed to stay afloat due to a Russian banker being federally investigated.

After Truth Social, the social media network owned by former President Donald Trump went public last week (and promptly lost some value after its initial public offering), new information showed that it almost went under in 2022 if not for receiving emergency loans. But one of those loans from a Russian-American businessman under federal investigation is sounding alarms about Trump potentially benefiting from money laundering by someone tied to a foreign power during his campaign to be re-elected as president of the United States.

According to reporting from The Guardian, leaked documents showed that the loan in question came from the ES Family Trust, which worked like a shell company for Anton Postolnikov, a Russian-American who co-owns the Paxum Bank registered in Dominica. Postolnikov is the subject of a years-long investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which began when one of his associates was found to be insider trading. A further look found that Postolnikov managed to get the money from the trust because the bank couldn’t loan the money since it didn’t have a U.S. banking license. The parent company of Truth Social, Trump Media and Technology Group, received two loans – $2 million in December 2021, and $6 million in February 2022.

The story gets more intricate, as it’s revealed that Postolnikov is the nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, who was once the chief financial executive and first Deputy Minister of Justice of Russia and a close friend of President Vladimir Putin. Another detail of note is the involvement of Michael Shvartsman, an associate of Postolnikov who was charged with money laundering last month. Shvartsman and his brother Gerald pleaded guilty on Wednesday (April 3) to participating in an insider trading scheme related to the merger in court in New York which reportedly netted them and a third man $22 million. Both men face a sentence of 20 years in prison.

The startling news comes as Trump could potentially make $4 billion from Truth Social’s merger with the Digital World Acquisition Corporation. Postolnikov has not been charged with a crime, and a representative at Paxum Bank threatened legal action when contacted by the press.

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