Paxum requesting infos

Wire transfer receipts reviewed by the Guardian identified Paxum Bank, an institution registered in Dominica, as a conduit in a first, $2m payment. The Guardian also identified the ES Family Trust, whose trustee Angel Pacheco appeared to have been simultaneously a Paxum Bank director, in a later, $6m payment.

The criminal investigation by federal prosecutors of the southern district of New York looked into Paxum Bank and its part ownership by an individual named Anton Postolnikov, who appeared to be a relation of the Putin ally Aleksandr Smirnov.

The existence of the trust has previously been reported by the Guardian and the Washington Post. However, who controlled the account, how the trust was connected to Paxum Bank, and how the money had been funneled through the trust to Trump Media was unknown.

The new details about the trust are drawn from documents including: Paxum Bank records showing Postolnikov having access to the trust’s account, the papers that created the trust showing as its settlor a lawyer in St Petersburg, Russia, and three years of the trust’s financial transactions.

The concern surrounding the loans to Trump Media is that ES Family Trust may have been used to complete a transaction that Paxum itself could not.

Paxum Bank does not offer loans in the US as it lacks a US banking license and is not regulated by the FDIC. Postolnikov appears to have used the trust to loan money to help save Trump Media – and the Truth Social platform – because his bank itself could not furnish the loan.

Postolnikov, the nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, an ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has not been charged with a crime. In response to an email to Postolnikov seeking comment, a lawyer in Dominica representing Paxum Bank warned of legal action for reporting the contents of the leaked documents.