Last month Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump joined the advisory board of Dominari Holdings, which I reported is a large tenant of Trump Tower, paying approximately $750,000 in annual rent. Trump Organization executive Ron Lieberman was also recently appointed to the board of directors of Dominari – showing how strong the ties are between Dominari and the Trump Organization.
Dominari Holdings’ CEO Kyle Wool was previously President of Revere Securities, which appears to have a director linked to a network of shady characters described in this story. And Kyle Wool previously worked at Morgan Stanley where his team worked with Devon Archer, the former business partner of Hunter Biden.
New research on Dominari reveals links to people involved in what the Securities and Exchange Commission described in 2018 charges as “long-running fraudulent schemes that generated over $27 million from unlawful stock sales and caused significant harm to retail investors who were left holding virtually worthless stock.”
There is no indication that the executives at Dominari and other people covered in this story are directly involved in illegal behavior or any wrong-doing. The reporting that follows provides transparency into the Trump family’s new business partner and various connections to a network associated with SEC charges for a large stock fraud.
Don Jr. and Eric own shares in Dominari and Don Jr. owns shares of an affiliated company Unusual Machines
Since I published my last story there have been several new updates from Dominari.
Zach Everson reported for Forbes that the day before news came out that Don Jr. and Eric were joining Dominari’s advisory board, the firm did a private placement in which the CEO, COO, president and four members of the board purchased 664,000 shares for $3.47 per share. Dominari also awarded six insiders with 402,000 shares as bonuses. Filings by the Trumps later in February showed that “they each own 966,000 shares in the company—6.7% of its outstanding shares—and hold warrants to obtain another 432,000 shares.” Following the announcement that Don Jr. and Eric had joined Dominari’s advisory board the stock surged.
The private placement, followed by news of the Trump sons joining Dominari as advisors, followed by a stock surge – is similar to the pattern from a related announcement.
Late last year Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board of drone manufacturer Unusual Machines. Dominari was a lead underwriter and placement agent and is a shareholder of Unusual Machines. A filing shows that Don Jr. held 331,580 shares of Unusual Machines and of that 131,580 shares were from participation in a private placement offering of shares at $1.52 per unit. After the news came out about Don Jr. joining the advisory board of Unusual Machines the stock price surged and closed that day, up 85% at $9.89 per share.
Dominari has announced new expansion plans
On February 18th Dominari announced the creation of American Data Centers Inc. (“ADC”), an independent company with members including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and others. Dominari holds a stake of 32% in ADC which is designed to “address the growing demand for high-performance computing infrastructure” in the AI space.
In early March Dominari Holding’s wholly-owned subsidiary Dominari Securities received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to expand operations. Dominari plans to evolve into a broader holding company focused on emerging technologies, and is approved to add 50 new seats and expand office locations.
In addition to his involvement with Dominari and Unusual Machines, Donald Trump Jr. also recently joined the board of prescription drug platform BlinkRx, and became a partner at ‘anti-woke’ investment firm 1789 Capital. I wrote about 1789 Capital here and here, and how the firm was co-founded by Omeed Malik, Chris Buskirk (who co-founded the Rockbridge Network with J.D. Vance) and Rebekah Mercer (Cambridge Analytica funder and founder). Peter Thiel’s protege Blake Masters is an advisor. 1789 Capital has invested in Tucker Carlson’s media business, Amazon alternative PublicSquare (where Don Jr also joined the board), 3D-printable rocket fuel company Firehawk, and the firm recently invested $50 million in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and xAI.
Given Don Jr.’s involvement at 1789 Capital and now with Dominari, it will be interesting to see if the business activities of these two firms overlap going forward. And keep an eye on overlapping or similar activity at Trump Media & Technology Group which runs Truth Social. TMTG recently launched its FinTech and Truth.Fi financial sector brands, and CEO Devin Nunes announced plans to explore new funding options for mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.
New research reveals Dominari Holdings and Unusual Machines have multiple links to Barry Honig who was accused by the SEC of running a large stock fraud scheme
In 2018 Florida businessman Barry Honig was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his role leading a group of fraudsters in a $27 million pump-and-dump scheme that ran from 2013 to 2018. Barry Honig was accused by the SEC of manipulating the share price of three companies. Miami biotech billionaire Phillip Frost was also charged for allegedly participating in two of the three schemes.
In 2019 Barry Honig settled with the SEC without admitting or denying the allegations and agreed to civil penalties including being barred from offering penny stocks, being barred from owning more than 4.99% of any penny stock, and other restrictions.
New research reveals that Dominari Holdings, where U.S. president Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. serve on the advisory board and own shares, and Unusual Machines where Don Jr. is an advisor and shareholder — both have multiple links to people closely affiliated with Barry Honig, including his brother and the lawyer who represented many companies where Honig invested.
Dominari’s newest 5%+ investor, Peter Benz at Blue Finn Group, has past links to Barry Honig and Philip Frost
These filings last week show that a new investor, Blue Finn Group LLC, run by Peter T. Benz, owns almost 820,000 shares which is 5.7% of Dominari Holdings common stock.
Blue Finn Group is one of three names listed for 5% or greater stockholders of common stock, who are not officers or directors. The other two in that group are Don Jr. and Eric.
A search of the SEC database on “Blue Finn Group” shows only five fiings related to three firms — Dominari Holdings, U.S. Gold Corp. (symbol USAU) and Crown Electrokinetics Corp. (symbol CRKN).
A 2021 filing for U.S. Gold Corp. listed Blue Finn Group run by Peter Benz as a selling stockholder with 333,332 shares. Some other selling shareholders are linked to the Barry Honig network, including Alpha Capital Anstalt which is listed in the 2018 SEC Honing network charges. Other U.S. Gold Corp selling stockholders, such as Michael Ho, are affiliated with Hut 8, which disputes reports by short sellers that it is linked to the Barry Honig network.
U.S. Gold Corp was previously named Dataram. In 2015 Barry Honig owned 7.8% of the company and per this 2016 filing he owned some shares of Dataram through GRQ Consultants Inc, a firm named in the 2018 SEC charges.
A 2019 filing for Crown Electrokinetics Corp shows that Blue Finn Group LLC run by Peter Benz owned 435,000 shares of common stock. The filing shows that Barry Honig’s brother Jonathan Honig owned 1,150,000 shares, and another 240,000 through an entity he managed.
A cross-referencing of the address of Blue Finn Group and people affiliated with the address shows that Peter Benz — the new over 5% investor in Dominari along with Don Jr. and Eric Trump — formerly ran Viking Asset Management and per a 2020 bio had been a director of companies including Lilis Energy, Brushy Resources, Usell.com, Optex Systems, Fluent, Inc. (which was acquired by IDI) and Red Violet (parent of IDI, Inc.).
In 2016 Peter Benz was listed as a director of IDI, Inc. where Michael Brauser was Executive Chairman and Philip Frost was Vice Chairman. Both Brauser and Frost were charged in the 2018 SEC complaint with Barry Honig. Peter Benz was listed as a director of IDI, Inc parent company Red Violet as of February 2025 along with Steven D. Rubin a former executive of OPKO Health, the company formerly run by Philip Frost. OPKO was also named in the SEC charges.
A 2020 filing for Polarityte, Inc. lists Barry Honig as a 1.31% owner, and lists other Honigs and GRQ Consultants with similar ownership. Another 2020 filing lists multiple Polarityte owners including Michael Brauser and Peter T. Benz. A 2021 filing lists Barry’s brother Jonathan Honig and an entity holding approximately 8% of Polarityte, Inc. Barry’s brother Jonathan is linked to Unusual Machines, where Don Jr. is an advisor and investor, and covered later in this article.
There are multiple ways that Peter Benz is linked to Barry Honig. As I researched Benz I came across a link to another name that had come up in my research of Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) which had merged with Trump Media & Technology Group.
A December 2024 filing for a company called Spectral AI, Inc. has information on selling securityholders of up to 1,000,000 shares of common stock. The two owners listed in the filing are IP Protocol, LLC run by Peter Benz with 4.19% of common stock and Eleven Ventures LLC run by Hartley Wasko with 1.19% of common stock.
Hartley Wasko’s name was familiar to me because he was on a list of around 130 investors in ARC Global Investments II, LLC, the initial investor and sponsor of Digital World Acquisition Corporation — the company that merged with Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) that is majority owned by Donald Trump and runs his Truth Social business. The list of ARC investors did not show the amount owned so it is not clear how invested Wasko was in ARC and DWAC or potentially TMTG now.
In another coincidence – Hartley Wasko and Eleven Ventures, who are listed in the Spectral AI filing with Dominari investor Peter Benz – turn up again in the next set of Barry Honig links to Dominari Holdings – through Unusual Machines, where Donald Trump Jr. is an investor.
Barry Honig’s former lawyer represented Red Cat Holdings and the deal to sell several entities to Unusual Machines, where Don Jr. is now an advisor and investor
In 2018 Barron’s published a story called: The Lawyer at the Center of SEC Pump-and-Dump Case. The article described how SEC regulators alleged that billionaire Philip Frost and his company OPKO Health participated in schemes organized by investor Barry Honig that reaped more than $27 million from public investors. A Barron’s investigation showed that nearly two dozen companies backed by Barry Honig and other defendants in the SEC case all used the same lawyer: Harvey Kesner.
Unmentioned in the SEC’s case is how all three public companies in the alleged swindles used the same securities law firm and two of the three used the same stock transfer agency. SEC filings over the past decade show that nearly two dozen public companies backed by Honig, or other defendants in last month’s SEC complaint, used securities lawyer Harvey Kesner, a 61-year old partner at the leading small-cap law firm Sichenzia Ross Ference, until he retired from the firm just before the SEC action. Many of those companies also happened to use Equity Stock Transfer, a New York outfit that SEC registrations show was financed and controlled by Kesner.
It should be noted that Harvey Kesner was not charged in the SEC case against Barry Honig, Philip Frost and others. After the Barron’s article on Kesner’s ties to Barry Honig was published, Kesner filed a case against Barron‘s for defaming him, but lost the case.
This May 2024 filing described that Unusual Machines was originally called Red Cat Motor Corporation, and when Unusual Machines closed its Initial Public Offering in February 2024 it simultaneously acquired Fat Shark Ltd. and Rotor Riot, LLC from Red Cat Holdings, Inc.
Lawyer Harvey Kesner represented Red Cat Holdings in their sale of Fat Shark and Rotor Riot to Unusual Machines. The sale was closed in February 2024. In November 2024 Donald Trump Jr. joined Unusual Machines as an advisor and shareholder.
Kesner, who worked on many of the companies affiliated with Barry Honig, has multiple other links to Red Cat Holdings which spun out main parts of its business to Unusual Machines.
Kesner was co-counsel in connection with a merger of Beeline Financial Holdings Inc. with wholly owned subsidiary of Eastside Distilling, Inc. The CEO of Beeline is a director of Red Cat Holdings. Kesner also acted as the lawyer for Towerstream in another deal. Towerstream is run by Jeffrey Thompson, the CEO of Red Cat Holdings. And Kesner is listed as an officer on several companies with Red Cat Holdings CEO Jeffrey Thompson.
Barry Honig’s brother Jonathan is involved with Unusual Machines
In addition to Harvey Kesner and his work for Red Cat Holdings which ties closely to Unusual Machines, there is another link from Unusual Machines to Barry Honig.
Jonathan Honig was involved in the prior iterations of Unusual Machine going back to at least 2022.
This SEC filing shows the 2019 incorporation of Red Cat Motor Corporation in Puerto Rico by Jeff Thompson and the 2020 name change to AerocarveUS Corporation. The document shows a June 2022 action to change the name AerocarveUS Corporation to Unusual Machines, Inc., signed by the five shareholders, including Jonathan Honig.
This 2020 consent order by the Securities Division of the state of Massachusetts with U.S. Data Mining Group lists related parties including Barry Honig, his brother Jonathan Honig and Titan Multi-Strategy Fund I Ltd.
Jonathan Honig’s company Titan Multi-Strategy Fund I Ltd is on this Exchange Agreement with Unusual Machines as holder of an 8% Promissory Note in the principal amount of $1,818,181.82, dated July 17, 2024. And an August 21, 2024 filing for Unusual Machines lists a 4% convertible promissory note for $1,318,181.82 for holder Titan Multi-Strategy Fund I Ltd. due November 30, 2025.
In addition to Jonathan Honig’s involvement in Unusual Machines, he is also involved in another Dominari business called Tesspay Inc. The list of stockholders of 5% or more include Honig’s Titan Multi Strategy Fund I, Ltd with around 10% and Dominari CEO Kyle Wool has around 8%, and Revere Master SPV LLC managed by Kyle Wool has another 7%.
Eleven Ventures run by Hartley Wasko, an investor in the company that merged with Trump’s Truth Social, is affiliated with Unusual Machines
Hartley Wasko’s Eleven Ventures was described earlier because he was listed in a filing for Spectral AI along with Peter Benz, the recent large investor in Dominari Holdings. Wasko was also one of around 130 investors in Digital World Acquisition Corp, the firm that merged with Trump Media & Technology Group.
Wasko’s Eleven Ventures also has financial transactions with Unusual Machines that are very similar to Jonathan Honig’s Titan Mult-Strategy, and they executed several similar filings on the same date.
Eleven Ventures is on this Exchange Agreement with Unusual Machines as a holder of an 8% Promissory Note in the principal amount of $2,818,181.18 dated July 17, 2024 and on this filing for a 4% convertible promissory note.
Eleven Ventures is run by Hartley Wasko, but this March 2023 filing for Unusual Machines lists Eleven Ventures as an owner of 500,000 shares or 7.2%, and the footnote says that “Jonathan Honig has the power to sell and vote common stock owned by Eleven Ventures.” It’s not clear beyond that footnote what the nature of Jonathan Honig’s connection is to Eleven Ventures and Wasko.
Wasko through Eleven Ventures LLC also has a 9.4% stake in Digihost Technology, recently renamed DigiPower X a company focused on Bitcoin mining. The company recently announced the formation of US Data Centers, which caught my eye because the name is similar to the American Data Centers launched by Dominari, Eric and Don Jr. There is no evidence they are connected beyond the similar name, however, but this shows how this network of business people are investing in similar businesses.
Dominari is agent for LQR House run by Sean Dollinger – who previously worked with Elon Musk lieutenant Branden Spikes
In my research on the many links from Dominari and Unusual Machines to the Honig network, I ran across a tangent related to completely different story.
Earlier this month a fascinating story was published by Brian Krebs, with research assistance from Jacqueline Sweet, on a DOGE participant once called “Elon Musk’s most trusted lieutenant” Branden Spikes, and his ties to Russia through his Russian ex-wife, and through Spikes’ involvement over many years with various pro-Russia organizations.
I started to research Branden Spikes and saw that he is a board director of a cannabis company called Namaste that was run by Sean Dollinger, who was later ousted from the firm and the firm was renamed Lifeist.
In an “it’s a small world” coincidence, Sean Dollinger now runs a digital alcohol company called LQR House which signed a Letter of Engagement in August 2023 with Dominari Securities to be the agent for a share repurchase program. The engagement letter was signed by Dominari CEO Kyle Wool and LQR House CEO Sean Dollinger.
If you want to go down another rabbit hole, Sean Dollinger is also listed as a supporter along with Dominari Holdings, Kyle Wool, Devon Archer and others at a 2023 Savoy Foundation gala featuring guest of honor, His Royal Highness Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy and event Chairman Commander Daniel McClory.
Daniel McClory works at Boustead Securities, a firm that like Dominari Holdings has done a lot of small IPOs and financing deals. To bring everything full circle, Daniel McClory is also Executive Chairman and Director of Brera Holdings, a company based in Ireland which did an Initial Public Offering in January 2023. Dominari CEO Kyle Wool was running Revere Securities at the time which was the underwriter for the Brera IPO.
Donald Trump and his three oldest children have historically worked with an extensive network of shady characters and more than a few convicted felons. Donald Trump’s recent crypto grifts link to a whole new network of dubious business partners.
Given that his two oldest sons have now become advisors and investors in Dominari Holdings, an executive of Trump Org has joined the board, and Dominari is a large tenant at Trump Tower in New York City, this new business partnership should be closely watched — especially since the network of people extend and connect to other Trump deals.
As noted earlier there is no evidence of any illegal activity or wrongdoing at Dominari Holdings or Unusual Machines or with any of the people described in this article. But it is clear that the Trump family is seeking every avenue to profit while Donald Trump is president, and Dominari is an important new Trump family business partner to watch.
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