Investors in Dominari Securities, partly owned by US President Donald Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have acquired a 20% stake in a structure linked to a tungsten mining project in Kazakhstan.
According to the New York Times, this deal came weeks after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutenick and President Trump, through direct contact with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, secured his approval to provide an unknown American company with access to the country's tungsten reserves, in a move the newspaper described as opening the door to major business opportunities.
The newspaper added that the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, controlled by the Lutnick family (Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick) and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle, helped a prominent investor who was working with Dominari on the Kazakhstan deal raise $210 million for the structure associated with the project.
The report indicates that the business opportunity "was not only seen by Trump and Lutnik, but their children soon began doing business with the deal partners their parents were conducting," raising questions about the limits of separating the personal business interests of the president's family from the diplomatic policies of the US administration.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time questions have been raised about a potential conflict of interest between the Trump family and the administration’s diplomatic activity, as the Trump family’s projects in countries such as Slovenia, Albania, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have previously sparked similar controversy, especially when they coincided with government negotiations or high-level diplomatic visits.
