An obscure financial entity with connections to a Caribbean-island bank that bills itself as a top payment service for adult entertainment sites would gain a sizable stake in former president Donald Trump’s media company if its merger deal proceeds, according to internal documents a company whistleblower has shared with federal investigators and The Washington Post.
Yet the role ES Family Trust would assume in Trump Media and Technology Group has never been officially disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission or to shareholders in Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC trying to merge with Trump’s company and take it public.
The companies also have not disclosed to shareholders or the SEC that Trump Media paid a $240,000 finder’s fee for helping to arrange the $8 million loan deal with ES Family Trust— or that the recipient of that fee was an outside brokerage associated with Patrick Orlando, Digital World’s former CEO.
While Trump supporters and some Republican members of Congress have complained bitterly about the SEC’s year-long delay in reviewing and possibly signing off on the merger, this latest financial tangle offers a possible explanation for why the regulator has yet to approve the deal.
Meanwhile, Digital World’s shares have a tendency to spike whenever Trump gets into trouble. The stock popped 11% after the ex-president was indicted March 30 by a grand jury in New York. Read more.
