(PresidentialDaily.org)- The platform on which Trump’s Truth Social is housed is owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, and towards the end of last year, federal prosecutors in New York reportedly extended their criminal probe into the firm to examine payments totaling $8 million.
Ex-Trump Media executive Will Wilkerson was a whistleblower in October 2022, disclosing the payments to investigators. Wilkerson stated that officials at Trump Media were “alarmed” by the payments at first and pondered giving the money back before deciding against it partly because they needed it to stay afloat. In October 2022, the data was sent to investigators.
After delaying its merger with DWAC, the business received its first payment of $2 million in December 2021, just before it went bankrupt, and its second payment of $8 million two months later, in February 2022. In both cases, payment was given after the company had almost failed, owing to the delay in its merger with DWAC.
Anton Postolnikov, an alleged cousin of Aleksandr Smirnov, a former government official and close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, currently controls the Russian-controlled maritime corporation Rosmorport, provided the funding from the Dominican bank Paxum Bank and the ES Family Trust. Both the Dominican Paxum Bank and the ES Family Trust contributed funds.
Trump may or may not have known the details behind the payments he received as head of Trump Media, but he did not appear to be significantly engaged in supervising the day-to-day functioning of the firm, according to reports. Reports state that to “keep him in the know,” Trump emailed his son Donald Trump, Jr., to alert him that at least the first payment had arrived.
The federal government would have to establish that the $8 million payments were the product of “unlawful behavior” and that Trump Media attempted to hide the origin of the funds throughout their inquiry before they could successfully prosecute the corporation for money laundering. Currently, the extent of Trump Media’s legal liability due to the payments is unclear.
