By: Staff Writer
April 4, 2024
Russian banker, Anton Postolnikov, is found to have loaned former US President Donald Trump $8m to prop up his Truth Social network.
Postolnikov, owner of the Paxum Bank, domiciled in Dominica, is said to have kept afloat Trump’s Truth Social, back in 2022 through a series of emergency loans provided by Postolnikov who is also under scrutiny as part of a federal investigation into insider trading.
It said the alleged insider trading came to light in December in a New York securities fraud case brought last year against three men from Florida: Michael Shvartsman; Gerald Shvartsman, and Bruce Garelick.
“They are accused of making about $23 million from insider trades on the Trump Media merger with a Miami-based company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., and sharing non-public information with friends and business associates about the impending deal so they could profit, according to an indictment,” the Herald reported, Trump, who is leading the Republican nomination in his second bid for the White House, has not been accused of wrongdoing in the matter, according to the report.
“The startling revelations about Postolnikov were included in government documents filed by defense attorneys for Garelick and Michael Shvartsman in their efforts to get evidence collected by federal investigators thrown out of the case,” it said.
Paxum Bank does not have a banking licence in the US and is not regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is a concern because that would indicate the ES Family Trust had been used by Mr Postolnikov “to loan money to help save Trump Media – and the Truth Social platform – because his bank itself could not furnish the loan”.
Mr Postolnikov has not been charged with a crime but has been listed on recent search warrant affidavits along with several associates, one of whom, Michael Shvartsman, was indicted in March for money laundering and has previously faced insider trading charges relating to Digital World shares, to which he and two co-defendants pleaded guilty.