President Trump’s media company was headed in the wrong direction, and Mark Angelo was ready to try something different.
Very different.
Angelo’s Yorkville Advisors, a small New Jersey investment firm, wasn’t just a large stakeholder in Trump Media & Technology, home of Truth Social.
It was an adviser and dealmaker, and by last year, with the company racking up losses and its stock in the tank, Angelo was open to ideas.
A radical one began to emerge as he chatted with a close associate during a car ride into New York.
The conversation set off a chain reaction that ended with Trump’s social-media firm agreeing to merge with a nuclear-fusion company, making the first family a player on the energy industry’s frontier.
View full Image A company spokeswoman said in a statement that its media business, coupled with the growth opportunity in the fusion sector, will help Trump Media build durable value.
“We are focused on execution, with results that will define [Trump Media’s] next chapter,” she said.
Democrats and government ethics watchdogs say the Trumps’ sprawling web of business interests creates stark conflicts of interest, particularly as the president promotes crypto, nuclear energy and other industries in which the family has invested.
And while the Trumps have made out well, investors in some ventures have wound up big losers.
“All of President Trump’s assets are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.
“There are no conflicts of interest.” If the deal closes, Trump Media will pay Yorkville a fee equal to six million shares, according to securities filings, holdings worth more than $50 million.
‘Goldman wasn’t looking for me’ Based in a leafy New Jersey suburb 17 miles west of Wall Street, neighboring a funeral home and an optometrist, Yorkville would seem an unlikely candidate for financial adviser to the president’s namesake company.
Angelo’s team joined a multibillion-dollar plan last year to create a Trump-branded digital-asset treasury meant to scoop up digital currencies like bitcoin.
They also help oversee a suite of exchange-traded funds that invest in Trump-aligned industries, with tickers such as YALL.
Angelo is a New Jersey lifer who attended Rutgers University.
“Goldman [Sachs] wasn’t looking for me,” he said.
He launched his firm in an office on the 77th floor of the World Trade Center just before terrorists struck on Sept.
Unscathed, his team scrambled for new digs across the Hudson River, growing into a major player in debt and equity financing for mostly small and midsize companies.
View full Image Mark Angelo is among a band of unconventional financial advisers for the Trumps in their business ventures.
In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Yorkville for fraud, alleging it overvalued holdings to attract investors and boost fees.
While a federal judge threw out the case after a yearslong legal battle, Angelo said investors fled with about 90% of Yorkville’s assets under management.
The company....
