[The former president] agreed to merge his social media company with what’s known as a special target acquisition company, or PSPC. The result is that Trump — largely excluded from the classic money sector because of his history of bankruptcies and defaults — secured nearly $300 million in investment for his new venture. To make his deal, Trump ventured into a dark, unregulated corner of Wall Street, running with an unlikely cast of characters. . .
This cast includes a small Chinese investment firm with a curious track record (this might seem a bit confusing at first, but be patient as you’re going somewhere).
A few years ago, for example, the company helped create a company called Atlas Technology International, and claimed in its presentation to the Stock Exchange Committee that it was a company that made cupcakes. Soon after, Atlas released a new annual report, claiming that it had switched from cupcakes to touchscreen devices, which is a bit odd.
The same other people behind the deal, a Chinese company called Arc Capital, said they also have a smartphone sales company in South Florida that never gave the impression of having sold anything to anyone. They also claimed to have a drone software company, which existed without any employees.
The SEC took a closer look and concluded that those corporations were, for all intents and purposes, counterfeits, which is a problem, because in the United States, fake corporations are meant to be indexed in the stock market.
The SEC stepped in and took the step of issuing a “stay order,” preventing corporations from promoting public shares.
And now, as the Washington Post reported, those same guys in Shanghai have partnered with the former US president and Trump’s media.
A Chinese company that helped former President Donald Trump go public with its new media corporations has been the subject of investigations through federal securities regulators, who claim that corporations distorted ghost corporations with few products and few employees, as shown through ambitious and developing corporations, documents and companies. Arc Capital, a Shanghai-based investment advisory firm, has helped establish or fund corporations with little or no income, no clients and no workplace pointing to PO boxes, according to a Washington Post review of regulatory and judicial records.
Is it a marriage, is it rarely? On one side is Trump, who has been accused of conducting fraudulent operations such as Trump University and the Trump Foundation, while on the other is a Chinese corporation that has also been accused of launching highly dubious operations.
Stay on that Trump Media
However, the Republican’s friends in Shanghai are getting heaps of millions of dollars from the public that will apparently pass to Trump’s media corporation which, again, still exists.
All of this has recently piqued the interest of investigators at the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), who are investigating things like insider trading.
So, let’s recap. Trump, who has spent his stint in the blank space bragging about being difficult with China, has partnered with a dubious company in Shanghai, which has no offices in the United States but nevertheless budgets its first publication, and for now, ambitious in a large component. business enterprise of the presidency. All of this is now under federal investigation, in part because of Chinese society’s history of bogus business.
I can sense why the former president’s expectations are low, but it’s ridiculous.
Steve Benen is the maker of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” editor of MaddowBlog, and a political contributor to MSNBC. It’s also the bestseller of “The Impostors: How Republicans Left Government and Took Over American Politics. “
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