Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and their links to several drone deals

The Financial Times recently published a good roundup of investments made by Dominari Holdings, where Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. own approximately 12% of the firm. The investments in 21 businesses, made through a 90% owned subsidiary called American Ventures, range from “a chain of Florida waxing salons to a Bermuda-based crypto lender and a nuclear energy start-up.” Spokespeople for both Eric and Don Jr. said that they are passive investors and not involved in operations.

I have been reporting extensively about Dominari Holdings and American Ventures and was following two companies with business in Florida – golf company Aureus Greenway Holdings and JFB Construction – and was somewhat surprised to see the news that they both separately are planning to merge with drone companies. American Ventures is investing in both deals along with another investor, drone company Unusual Machines, which is another Dominari affiliated company where Don Jr. is an advisor and investor.

Following is an overview of these drone deals with a few details not previously or widely reported and a few other items that have been hovering on my radar as well. Note that there is no indication of any wrongdoing by any of the people or companies covered here.

Construction company JFB Construction plans to merge with Drone AI company Xtend

In February the Wall Street Journal reported that Eric Trump was investing in a ‘Low Cost Per Kill’ Israeli drone company Xtend as part of a $1.5 billion deal to take the company public through a merger with Florida based JFB Construction Holdings, a publicly traded company (symbol JFB) backed by Dominari.

Battle-tested during Israeli operations in Gaza in recent years, Xtend markets some of its drones as “low cost per kill” munitions that align with U.S. defense directives to help wage modern warfare. The company, which opened a facility in Florida, said it has already secured a multimillion-dollar Pentagon contract and is part of a continuing Defense Department competition for new suppliers.

Last year Dominari Holdings’ subsidiary American Ventures raised $44 million for JFB Construction, a Florida-based real estate and construction company led by Joseph F. Basile, III.

JFB board directors include David Clukey, Nelson Garcia, Christopher Melton, Miklos “John” Gulyas, Jamie Zambrana Jr. and Stefan Passantino. Several of these board directors have ties to other Dominari deals.

Christopher Melton is a director of Dominari affiliated companies Safety Shot (renamed Bonk) and SRM Entertainment (formerly a subsidiary of Safety Shot), which merged with Tron blockchain to form Tron Inc., which is majority owned by Tron-founder Justin Sun’s father. Justin Sun was a large investor in the Trump-family crypto venture World Liberty Financial, and is now suing World Liberty, which in turn is suing Sun back.

Miklos “John” Gulyas is the board chairman of Safety Shot. And Stefan Passantino is a lawyer who has worked in the Trump Organization and is a director of New America Acquisition I Corp. where Eric and Don Jr. are investors, and which I covered in detail here.

Along with Eric Trump, another investor in the JFB and Xtend merger deal is a separate drone company Unusual Machines, where Donald Trump Jr. is an investor and an advisor. Last year I published this story which described many of the past investors, financiers and deals related to Unusual Machines, which was previously called Red Cat Holdings.

Past Xtend investors include Len Blavatnik’s Claltech and Protego Ventures co-founded by former Erik Prince associate Lital Lisham

Xtend is led by CEO Aviv Shapira, who co-founded Xtend with his brother, Matteo Shapira, and Rubi Liani. The Chairman is Dr. Peter Kash.

Most of the recent reports on the two eldest Trump sons and the planned merger of JFB Construction and Xtend have not reported that a prior investor in Xtend was Len Blavatnik’s Claltech.

In 2024 Globes reported that Xtend had raised $40 million after drone success in Gaza.

New investors in the latest financing round include Len Blavatnik’s Claltech. Owned by Clal Industries, Claltech has invested in large Israeli tech companies including Verbit, Papaya Global, Vayyar Imaging, Lightricks and Yotpo, and has recorded exits with ironSource and Dynamic Yield. Also participating in the financing round is a large unnamed Japanese financing corporation as well as previous investors the Chartered Group, the Japanese-Singapore investment company of Israeli businessman Eyal Agmoni.

Len Blavatnik is the billionaire owner of Access Industries which majority owns Warner Music Group. Blavatnik, who earned much of his fortune in Russia, founded Access in 1986 and in the 1990’s partnered with Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova and Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group to form AAR (Alfa, Access, and Renova). AAR invested in Tyuman Oil and in 2013 the group sold the company for $28 billion. Blavatnik and Vekselberg created a company Saul Partners, which became a 15% investor in Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal.

A 2025 press release announced another $30 million raised to scale Xtend’s autonomous AI robots across America.

Aliya Capital Partners and Protego Ventures Co-Lead Strategic Series B Round alongside participating investors: Len Blavatnik’s Claltech, Union-Tech Ventures & Chartered Group, as XTEND’s AI Robotic Technology Proves Itself in Global Conflicts and the Company Opens Its New U.S. Headquarters in Tampa, Florida

Protego Ventures was co-founded by Lital Leshem and Lee Moser.

Lital Lesham was previously an executive at Erik Prince’s Frontier Resource Group and was affiliated with controversial Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube. Leshem co-founded Reporty, later named Carbyne, with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the company received investments from Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew Intrater, a cousin of Viktor Vekselberg. Leshem was a co-founder of the UAE Israel Business Council with Dorian Barak, who had also been a close business associate of Erik Prince.

A quick side note on the topic of Erik Prince – he has been involved in several drone stories recently. Erik Prince’s company Vectus Global has been supporting police operations in Haiti and reportedly has been involved in drone strikes targeting gangs, there are separate reports that drone attacks have killed innocent bystanders and children. And in March Ukrainian drone company Swarmer did an IPO on Nasdaq and Erik Prince is the Chairman of the Board.

Golf club company Aureus Greenway plans to merge with drone company Powerus

In addition to the JFB Construction and Xtend merger, Dominari and American Ventures are involved with another drone deal that is also pursuing Pentagon business.

In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump sons were backing a new drone company, Powerus, that planned to acquire Ukrainian drone technology to sell to the U.S. military, and to fill a gap created by a recent ban by the administration on new Chinese drones in the U.S.

Powerus plans to merge with Aureus Greenway Holdings (symbol AGH), a Nevada holding company that operates two golf clubs in Florida.

Powerus, a drone roll-up company based in West Palm Beach, Fla., is merging with a publicly traded golf-course holding company backed by the Trumps… Powerus, which sells aerial and maritime drones after acquiring three small companies in the past six months, said it was working toward building more than 10,000 drones each month.

Investors in the deal include American Ventures, in which Eric and Don Jr. are approximately 10% owners, and Unusual Machines, a drone components company where Don Jr. is an advisor and investor.

Per this press release, Korea Climate & Governance Improvement Fund had committed to purchase $50 million of Powerus common stock by April 6, 2026.

Matthew J. Saker is the interim CEO of Aureus Greenway Holdings. Saker is also a director of SIM Acquisition Corp I, another company backed by Dominari.

Aureus Greenway board directors include Christopher Schraft, Xinyue Jasmine Geffner and Vuk Jeremic.

Vuk Jeremic is a Serbian diplomat, the founder of CIRSD, where Dominari CEO Kyle Wool is on the board. Jeremic was a former director of Onconetix (formerly called Blue Water Vaccine and Blue Water Biotech), where the chairman was Joseph Hernandez. I wrote about Hernandez recently because he was the CEO of Blue Water Acquisition Corp. III which was recently taken over by executives linked to Trump Media and Yorkville Advisors.

Andrew Fox is the CEO of Powerus and Brett Velicovich is Co-Founder.

Bloomberg reported that Powerus had signed a deal with the US Air Force to sell drones to the Pentagon. Bloomberg has also reported that Powerus had met with officials in Abu Dhabi to discuss selling weapons to the UAE.

Another firm backing both drone deals is Agostinelli Group

In addition to Dominari’s American Ventures and Unusual Machines, one other firm is mentioned in the two separate announcements about the AGH-Powerus and JFB-Xtend mergers – Agostinelli Group.

I was unable to find any more detail on this company in the company filings, announcements or in any news coverage.

However, I did find that according to Crunchbase, Agostinelli Group was an investor in Aureus Greenway Holdings. Crunchbase also shows that Rhone Group, founded by Robert F. Agostinelli and M. Steven Langman, was an investor in Aureus Greenway Holdings.

Robert Agostinelli, who co-founded Rhone Group, was the former Chairman and a board member of the National Review and has supported conservative causes. John Bolton was a prior board member of the Rhone Group.

However, there is little reporting showing any connection between Agostinelli and the Trump family or confirming details about the Agostinelli Group and its investment in these drone deals.