This has gotten very little attention, as far as I can tell. But it sounds quite sleazy and another example of the US government becoming a de facto investment arm of the Trump Corporation/TrumpaNostra. Lukoil, the Russian oil company, put up for sale most of its foreign assets outside of Kazakstan about a year ago. This was in response to new US sanctions. Carlyle Group and a couple other bidders have wanted to purchase these assets but approvals have been stalled in regulatory approvals in Washington. Now a group lead by billionaire financier Todd Boehly is close to securing the deal. Partnering with him are, according to The Financial Times (paywall), a group of “Gulf power brokers with ties to the Trump family” and … the US government itself, in the form of the US International Development Finance Corporation.
The current CEO of the DFC is Ben Black, son of Leon Black, a decades-long Trump pal and business associate, who is deep, deep into the Epstein saga and controversies.
The Trump-connected families are …
The US International Development Finance Corporation and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother of its president, are in Boehly’s consortium. The billionaire Syrian-Qatari Al-Khayyat family, which has worked closely with the White House and Trump family members on property and energy projects, is also included.
The Al-Khayyat bros (two brothers, not using that term just loosely) are partners in that (fairly controversial) Albanian resort development that Jared and Ivanka. So pretty extensive ties. The other guy being the brother of the leader of the UAE speaks for itself.
International oil financing is way outside my expertise. But it certainly sounds like the US government through the DFC is being used leverage a deal for business pals of the Trump family. The US government has to approve any deal. And one would imagine this deal will have something of an inside track since the US government is a member of the consortium making the deal. I don’t think there’s anything specifically or narrowly illegal about this. But it’s pretty clearly the US government now becoming a tool – now through direct investments of US tax dollars – of Trump family business.
