Network Chart: Trump’s new media company business partner Patrick Orlando and ARC Group

7 min readDec 9, 2021

In October 2021 Donald Trump announced plans to launch the Trump Media & Technology Group and the social media platform TruthSocial, by merging with publicly listed Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) which is led by Patrick Orlando and advised by Arc Group Limited. In December The New York Times reported the planned merger is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and FINRA, in part related to trading activity before the October merger announcement. Many news stories are reporting on this deal, the stock valuation and the money being raised. The chart below shows some current and past network links of Trump’s new business partner Patrick Orlando and DWAC financial advisor Arc Group to shed light on the partners of the last president and possible 2024 candidate.

This chart was created with invaluable help from researchers @ktskts11 and @braisincapital. Scroll down to view source links. Please visit my website NewsTRACS where I will publish new content, to view past charts and articles, and to sign up for email notifications for new posts.

Source Links

Note: This chart and source links may be updated periodically. There is no indication of any illegal or criminal activity in this chart. The red notes about prior SEC activity, investigations, and other items are associated only with the people they mention and the source links for all red sections are noted below.

Rare SEC Stop Order on three Companies linked to ARC executives

August 2017 SEC Stop Order —Go EZ Corporation, Arc Lifestyle Group Inc and Nova Smart Solutions Inc. (SEC link):

Mengying Wang owner of Arc Capital: “Camarero confirmed that Arc Capital’s owner, Mengying Wang, is a cousin of Xiaoyue, another Nova Smart consultant who previously worked with both Lopez and Cinta at Evotech.”
Per SEC filing, Abraham Cinta ran Go EZ Corporation, which was owned by EvoTech Capital S.A. which was owned by Basilio Chen.

2011 SEC Complaint against Illarramendi & MK companies, 2015 sentenced to 13 years in prison for ponzi scheme

2011 SEC Complaint against Francisco Illarramendi and Michael Kenwood companies. (SEC Complaint).

Four years after pleading guilty to five charges stemming from what prosecutors call the largest Ponzi scheme uncovered in Connecticut, Francisco Illarramendi, the former owner and operator of several Stamford-based hedge funds was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison. (Jan. 2015 Stamford Advocate)

Bankruptcy filing for Reostar Energy Corporation describes joint venture — between Carlos Fuenmayor (Chairman, CEO, Founder) and Christian Lovera (Executive Vice President) of BancTrust International Inc. and Francisco Illarramendi’s MK Oil — called BT & MK Energy formed in 2010 (Bankruptcy filing):

The Michael Kenwood Group (the “MK Group”) which operated as a holding company for all of the “Michael Kenwood” branded entities was owned and controlled by Francisco Illarramendi (“Illarramendi”) (50.1%), Odo Habeck (“Habeck”) (29%) and Ron Percival (“Percival”) (20.9%)…BancTrust & Co. (“BT”) may be a Venezuelan company...Contact information provided by Christian Lovera (“Lovera”) and Cesar Jimenez (“Jimenez”), with whom ReoStar dealt on behalf of BT was the same as that of MK Group and MK Capital, at Four Stamford Plaza, 107 Elm Street, Suite 512, Stamford, CT 06902.

BT and MK Energy was later renamed Zumaque Energy run by Fuenmayor and Lovera. (OpenCorporates)

Frieri investigated for possible money laundering scheme in Venezuela

Lawsuit between Carlos Fuenmayor, Christian Lovera and BancTrust and Salvatore Frieri and his brother Arturo Rafael Frieri Gallo. (Dec. 2014 Case)

The Plaintiffs allege that Neves, Acosta, Luna, Aguilera, and several of their colleagues including Carlos Fuenmayor (“Fuenmayor”) and Christian Lovera (“Lovera”) of BancTrust & Co. a/k/a BancTrust Wealth Management, Inc. (“BancTrust”) conspired to defraud Frieri, Markwood and Golden Dawn

Investigations into Fuenmayor and Lovera former business partners Salvadore and Arturo Frieri. (El Espectador)

(Translated version) Like his brother, Arturo Frieri has also been investigated in Italy since 2015 for a possible evasion of 333 million euros…Salvador Frieri “has never filed a tax return” in that country. In Colombia it also registers investigations against him . In 2010, for example, he was convicted of a $ 1,275 million fraud, but due to an error in the ruling, the Constitutional Court left it without effect.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) resigned as president after reports of involvement in Obrecht bribery scheme and was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to jail pending trial

“The Downfall of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and the Future of Peru” (2018 The New Yorker)
“Peruvian judge orders arrest of ex-President Kuczynski in bribery probe” (April 2019 Reuters)

2020 SEC charge against Niel Martin Nielson related to E-Waste Systems (EWSI)

SEC Obtains Default Judgment Against Microcap Executive Charged with Defrauding Retail Investors (August 2020 SEC release)

On July 30, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered a final judgment against Niel Martin Nielson, a London-based microcap executive who was previously charged by the SEC with defrauding retail investors in a penny stock scheme. The SEC’s complaint, filed on May 24, 2018, charged Nielson, the CEO of E-Waste Systems, Inc., an Ohio-based electronic waste recycling company, with orchestrating a scheme to artificially increase the company’s share price and volume. Nielson allegedly entered into a series of sham contracts, made materially false and misleading statements, and booked false revenue to create the impression that E-Waste was rapidly expanding across the United States, Europe, and Asia, when it in fact had virtually no operations.

2014 FBI charged Shneibalg with mail and wire fraud

FBI Undercover Operation Nets Seven Defendants in Securities Kicback Scheme. The following individuals have been charged: Shmuel Shneibalg, 43, formerly of Brooklyn, New York (president and chief operating officer of Safetek International, Inc.), charged with mail fraud and wire fraud (February 2014 FBI release)

Max Shneibalg, CEO and Basilio Chen, Chief Technology Advisor of VDO.com in April 2000. (SEC Filing)

Shmuel Shneibalg became president of Knowledge Transfer Systems in November 2004, Basilio Chen was director from Oct to Nov 2004. (SEC Filing)

2021 SEC charged Ahmad Haris Tajyar with manipulative trading and false promotion campaign with Atlas Technology

SEC complaint against Ahmad Haris Tajyar and Eric Leo Marsoubain (August 2021 SEC filing).

From February 2017 through November 2017, Defendant Ahmad Haris “Harry” Tajyar, a securities fraud recidivist, engaged in a manipulative trading and false promotional campaign in connection with the stock of a company called Atlas Technology International, Inc., an alleged touchscreen technology business formerly known as Sweets & Treats, Inc. (the “Company”).

Other Tajyar charges: 2021 auto insurance fraud, 2010 SEC complaint

Mother And Son Arrested For Aston Martin Insurance Fraud (KFBK News Radio)

45-year-old Ahmad Haris Tajyar and his mother, 70-year-old Malalay Tajyar were both in on a false insurance claim worth nearly $70,000 in coverage for damage to their 2016 Aston Martin Vantage. The two said the sports car was hit while parked, but damage to the car was actually sustained in a 2018 accident, before the car was covered by insurance. The Tajyar duo face felony charges, and will be arraigned on July 6th.

March 2010 SEC complaint “Five Charged in Insider Trading Ring That Generated More Than $1.7 Million in Illegal Profit”s (FBI release)

Special agents with the FBI this morning arrested two of five defendants charged in an insider trading scheme in which the participants secretly used confidential information obtained from two investor relations firms to generate more than $1.7 million in illegal profits…Ahmad Haris Tajyar, 34, of Encino, was arrested without incident at his residence after being indicted for his role in two separate insider trading conspiracies. The first conspiracy involved trades based on confidential information obtained from an insider at the New York-based investor relations firm Lippert Heilshorn. The second conspiracy involved trades based on confidential information from clients of Haris Tajyar’s own investor relations firm, which was based in San Fernando Valley.