Even at $36 TMTG is widely overpriced. The average stock share on the NASDAQ where DJT trades, trades at 5X revenue. With reported revenue of $3.252 million, the company is reasonably worth $32 million. But the company has floated 136.7 million shares making each one worth 12¢! Even at 10X earnings granted some fast growing tech stocks, TMTG would be worth $32 million, or 24¢ a share. Plenty of downside, and the Street is standing in line to short the stock.
The fact is that Trump Media was kept afloat in 2022 by a loan from Paxum Bank, a small entity located on the Caribbean island of Dominica. It is best know for financing the pornography industry. The bank is co-owned by Anton Postolnikov, a Russian-American businessman under investigation by the FBI and Homeland Security for money laundering. Postolnikov apparently used a trust company with an account at the bank as an intermediary to funnel money to Trump Media since Paxum is not registered to do business in the US. Postolnikov is the nephew of Alexander Smirnov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin.
Trump Media received two loans from ES Family Trust. A $2 million loan on December 23, 2021 and $6 million on February 17, 2022. The company needed bridge financing as its planned debut on a public stock market via a SPAC merger was being delayed by an SEC investigation. The Guardian reports that a close associate of Postolnikov, Michael Shvartsman, was indicted last month for money laundering. A DHS investigation report said Sharvtsman told a confidential informant (CI) that, "a friend of his owns a bank in the island of Dominica and would be able to provide banking services to Russian and Ukraine Nationals if the CI had other clients in need of that service. " Shady Russians are around every corner of Trumpworld.