Secret transactions, foreign investments, changes in presidential policy: the rise of Trump’s cryptographic society

The “Zmoney” field arrived on the encrypted signal messaging application a few days before the presidential inauguration of Donald J. Trump.

“Zmoney” was Zachary Folkman, an entrepreneur who formerly directed a more hot company and now represented World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company that Mr. Trump and his sons had recently unveiled. Mr. Folkman wrote in a crypto startup in the Cayman Islands, offering a “partnership” in which companies would buy digital documents from the other, an agreement that would strengthen the public profile of the startup.

But there was a catch, discovered the New York Times. For the privilege of associating with the Trumps, the startup should, in fact, a secret payment of several million dollars in World Liberty.

“Everything we do receives a lot of exposure and credibility,” wrote Mr. Folkman, saying that other business partners had hired between $ 10 million and $ 30 million in World Liberty.

Cayman’s startup has rejected the offer, like several other companies that have received a similar argument from World Liberty, the leaders said. They considered the agreement contrary to ethics, concluding that World Liberty essentially sold approval – and hid the arrangement of the public.

The leaders of World Liberty, who argued that they had nothing inappropriate, were not discouraged. They successfully concluded offers similar to other companies while marketing their rooms from around the world, collecting more than $ 550 million in sales, with a large reduction assigned to the president’s family.