Freight Technologies Announces $20 Million Trump Coin Buy To Influence Policy | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON — An worldwide trucking logistics agency is shopping for as a lot as $20 million value of President Donald Trump’s crypto cash to affect the administration’s commerce coverage — the exact kind of corruption that consultants warned Trump was encouraging when he unveiled his enterprise.

Freight Technologies Inc. CEO Javier Selgas mentioned in a Wednesday information launch that purchasing Trump coin can be “an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced and free trade between Mexico and the U.S.”

The launch was connected to a submitting that very same day with the Securities and Exchange Commission explaining why Freight Technologies was issuing bonds. “The company will use the net proceeds from the offering to purchase TRUMP coins,” the corporate advised the SEC.

“It’s just another day for Donald Trump that an international freight company is paying a $20 million tribute towards the Trump family fortune after openly wishing it will lead to administration tariff relief,” mentioned Tony Carrk, govt director of Accountable.us. The watchdog group found Freight Technologies’ plan by way of a social media publish bragging about it by GetTrumpMemes.com, the corporate that sells the Trump cash.

Neither Freight Technologies, which is integrated within the British Virgin Islands however has a U.S. headquarters in Houston, nor Selgas responded to HuffPost queries. Trump White House officers additionally didn’t reply to HuffPost for this story, nor did GetTrumpMemes.com.

On April 23, GetTrumpMemes.com introduced that it was holding a contest to reward the highest 220 holders of Trump cash with a dinner with the president at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, on May 22. The prime 25 coinholders would get an “exclusive” reception with him as effectively.

“Any company can seek to curry favor with Trump and flavor that curry with cash,” mentioned Norm Eisen, the highest ethics lawyer within the Obama White House. “He’s opened up an additional channel of illicit influence by hosting this dinner.”

Going again to his first time period, Trump used his workplace to complement himself — a textbook definition of corruption — greater than any earlier president going again a minimum of a century. He operated a resort blocks from the White House the place each home and overseas lobbyists met with administration officers whereas spending on the bar and restaurant. Foreign delegations incessantly took rooms there, typically blocks of rooms, for days and weeks at a time.

Republican Party teams and candidates held occasions at his properties, significantly the Washington, D.C., resort and Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s personal membership in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump even tried to host a G7 summit of the world’s largest democratic economies at his cash-strapped golf resort in Doral, Florida, till vital press protection made him again down.

All of these efforts, although, pale compared to Trump’s keen promotion of his crypto schemes in his second time period. Three days earlier than his inauguration, he introduced his Trump coin, which instantly soared to just about $75 per coin earlier than crashing again down. It had fallen as little as $7.57 final month earlier than GetTrumpMemes.com introduced the dinner and reception contest. The worth on Friday stood at $12.97.

Crypto cash have zero intrinsic worth and don’t bodily exist wherever. Even the GetTrumpMemes.com website states: “Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP,’” and they’re “not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”

Ethics consultants warned that Trump’s cash would allow overseas and home pursuits looking for the president’s favor to funnel him money with out leaving a public hint. Indeed, to date, Freight Technologies seems to be the one firm or particular person making a big greenback buy of Trump cash to announce it publicly. Crypto transactions are tough to hint, which has made them a favourite for cash launderers and different criminals since their invention.

GetTrumpMemes.com posts a “leader board” of the highest Trump coin homeowners, however solely gives their consumer names and crypto “wallets.” If Freight Technologies goes by way of with its plan to purchase $20 million of Trump cash at Friday’s $12.97 worth, it could have 1,542,020 Trump cash, placing the corporate within the prime spot on the rankings and sure giving its consultant face time with Trump on the “VIP” reception previous to the May 22 dinner.

Freight Technologies facilitates actions of products backwards and forwards throughout the U.S.-Mexico border by long-haul trucking — a enterprise going through appreciable monetary menace from Trump’s commerce conflict. “At the heart of Fr8Tech’s mission is the promotion of productive and active commerce between the United States and Mexico. Mexico is the United States’ top goods trading partner, with Mexico being the leading destination for US exports and the top source for US imports,” Selgas wrote within the April 30 launch.

“There’s little doubt this company is expecting some administration policy relief in return for their generous investment in the growing Trump crypto empire,” Carrk mentioned. “It’s an indictment in and of itself that the president has paved the way for so much potential corruption for his own personal gain and at the public expense that few can keep up.”

Ty Cobb, a former federal prosecutor who served in Trump’s first-term White House, mentioned that whereas federal regulation makes both providing or accepting a bribe against the law, Trump has made it plain that gained’t be enforced as long as he’s within the White House.

“They’ve made it clear that there are no ethics and they’re not beholden to any standards, and it doesn’t matter if it’s illegal or not because they’re not going to prosecute Republicans, so get over it,” Cobb mentioned. “What passes for routine at this White House is purely corrupt.”