Several recent news stories have reported on U.S. government financing of mineral deals involving companies that count Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. as investors as well as companies that work with Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm founded by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and now run by his sons.
Two of those companies, Kaz Resources and USA Rare Earth, have each been approved for up to $1.6 billion in potential U.S. government financing, and both have a key figure in common: Pini (or Pinchas) who runs Kaz Resources and previously co-founded USA Rare Earth. Following are highlights of prior reporting on these deals, and new research on Althaus’s earlier business network.
Note: there is no indication of any wrongdoing by any of the people or entities covered here (unless where noted). This information is shared to provide transparency into deals involving people connected to the Trump family business and network.
The U.S. government is helping finance Kaz Resources which is linked to the Trump sons
In April, the Financial Times reported that Trump’s sons would have a stake in Kaz Resources, a mining company that may receive up to $1.6 billion in U.S. government financing to mine tungsten in Kazakhstan. The funding package includes up to $900 million from the Export-Import Bank and up to $700 million from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
Eric and Don Jr. are partial investors in this deal. Together they own almost 12% of Dominari, a financial services firm that operates out of Trump Tower in New York City. I previously reported that other Trump Organization executives, including Ronald Lieberman, are also Dominari investors, making the combined stake of the Trump sons and other Trump Org executives potentially 15-20% of Dominari.
In June, the New York Times published a detailed report on the agreement between the U.S. and Kazakhstan for the billion-dollar mining deal and how Trump’s sons stand to profit as partial investors in Kaz Resources. The story listed 14 companies working on mining deals with the U.S. government – including Kaz Resources and USA Rare Earth – that have ties to the Trump family and/or to Cantor Fitzgerald.
The convoluted structure of the Kaz Resources deal and some key people involved
Eric and Don Jr.’s investment in Kaz Resources is through a layered set of transactions.
Dominari’s subsidiary American Ventures invested in Hong-Kong-based construction company Skyline Builders Group Holding Limited. Per the Financial Times, a 2025 filing shows Skyline agreed to pay $20 million for a 20% stake in a company with “significant critical minerals assets in Asia” and that the company is Kaz Resources.
Skyline Builders Group Holdings is led by Chief Executive Ngo Chiu Lam and Executive Director Paul Mann. Paul Mann is the CEO of nuclear energy company ASP Isotopes, whose subsidiary Quantum Leap Energy took control of Skyline in 2025. Directors of Skyline include Chun Kit Yu, Vuk Jeremic and John Melkon. I previously wrote about Vuk Jeremic who is on the board of another Dominari company, Aureus Greenway Holdings. Chun Kit Yu is a director and officer of various other companies including Sinohope Technology Holdings Limited (now renamed Bitfire Group). Sinohope was founded by Li Lin who founded cryptocurrency exchange Huobi which was sold to Justin Sun.
The New York Times described the complex and confusing structure of how the Skyline deal emerged.
Using a subsidiary of Mr. Mann’s nuclear energy company, ASP Isotopes, the group of investors last summer bought a controlling amount of shares in a failing road construction firm called Skyline Builders. That might seem like an odd move, but they did so for a reason — Skyline is listed on the Nasdaq exchange. So the ASP subsidiary now controlled a publicly traded company.
Dominari and the Trump sons joined this effort through what is known as a Special Purpose Vehicle, which took a stake in Skyline, as was first reported by The Financial Times. The Trump sons have a second small interest in the deal, through an investment they made directly in the ASP subsidiary late last year, according to Mr. Mann.
In addition to U.S. government financing of Kaz Resources, ASP Isotopes is separately pursuing up to $500 million in financing from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation via its Renergen subsidiary and Cantor Fitzgerald is ASP’s underwriter.
Returning back to Skyline, the firm plans to merge with a subsidiary of Cove Capital, called Cove Kaz Capital, to form Kaz Resources. Cove Capital and Cove Kaz are led by Australian businessman Pini Althaus.
Per an investor presentation the executive team of the merged company Kaz Resources includes Chief Executive Officer Dominic Heaton, Executive Chairman Pini Althaus, who previously co-founded USA Rare Earth, and Chief Financial Officer Douglas Newby, the former CFO of USA Rare Earth.
USA Rare Earth co-founded by Pini Althaus has also been approved for government financing
Earlier this year Reuters reported that the Trump administration was taking a 10% stake in USA Rare Earth as part of a $1.6 billion financing package. USA Rare Earth has been developing a mine in Texas with Texas Mineral Resources, has a magnet facility in Oklahoma, and recently completed a merger with Brazil’s Serra Verde.
The company, which was co-founded by Pini Althaus and Mordechai Gutnick, has also worked with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Last month Bloomberg reported that USA Rare Earth had attracted $1.6 billion from Howard Lutnick as his sons “were busy earning fees raising $1.5 billion more for the company from private investors.”
Bloomberg described how USA Rare Earth had entered a joint venture in 2019 with Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (previously named Texas Rare Earth Resources), and that co-founder Mordechai Gutnick is the son of Joseph Gutnick, who was banned by Australian regulators from managing companies for four years.
Gutnick is the son of Australian mining entrepreneur Joseph “Diamond Joe” Gutnick. An Orthodox rabbi who once owned an Aussie rules football team, the elder Gutnick had promoted gold and diamond mines in Australia, at one point claiming he foresaw a discovery of a deposit worth “billions of dollars.” Australian regulators found that he made questionable promises about his mining ventures and banned him in 2024 from managing companies for four years. He said in a LinkedIn message that his family is “deeply committed to mining” and that a company he founded became the second-largest gold producer in Australia. He didn’t respond to questions about the ban, except to say that “mining exploration has its ups and downs.”
USA Rare Earth co-founder Pini Althaus left the company in 2023, but per the Financial Times he remains an investor. Bloomberg recently reported that the other co-founder Mordechai Gutnick left the board of USA Rare Earth with a stake worth more than $350 million, or approximately 7% of the company.
Until recently USA Rare Earth was run by CEO Barbara Humpton, who has now stepped down and is replaced by Thras Moraitis. Moraitis was the former CEO of Brazilian mining company Serra Verde and he was a former business partner of Mick Davis, who had been the head of the British Conservative Party until 2019.
In 2022 three companies, Ramco, U.S. Trading Company, and DinSha, that were investors sued USA Rare Earth, Gutnick, Althaus and Gutnick’s company Morzev, which used its assets to create USA Rare Earth. The three companies alleged that their shares were diluted. As of early 2026 most (if not all) of the charges were dismissed and per SEC filings the company reached a settlement with the plaintiffs.
Further below is more information on Pini Althaus and his history working with the Gutnick family and in a prior role leading Dominion Resources.
Over the last two decades Pini Althaus worked at several companies with the Gutnick family
According to SEC filings, Pini Althaus started working with the Gutnick family at least two decades ago. In 2006 Pini Althaus was Chief Operating Officer of Bay Resources Ltd. Joseph Gutnick was CEO and Chairman and his son Mordechai was a director.
A few years earlier, a 2000 Barron’s article called ‘Unholy Gains‘ described Joseph Gutnick as a promoter of gold mines, with a fortune near $450 million, who was the President of Australian football team the Melbourne Demons, and a political donor who helped elect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The article described a Barron’s investigation into charities that traded stocks that had been promoted by Gutnick. The article mentioned links between Gutnick and Nachum Goldberg, who was then in prison for tax evasion involving charities, and Judah Wernick, who at the time was awaiting trial for stock manipulation. Joseph Gutnick sued Dow Jones over this article and the case was settled out of court.
One notable part of the Barron’s article was a section that mentioned: “Emmanuel Althaus, who is described in Gutnick’s authorized biography as his most trusted and loyal sidekick.” Emmanuel Althaus, who shares Pini Althaus’s surname and may be related to him (although this is not confirmed), was also described in a 2001 Australian Financial Review (AFR) piece as a long-time associate of Gutnick.
Barron’s reported that Joseph Gutnick backed a company called SCNV Acquisition which traded in the U.S. and was established to develop technologies invented primarily by scientists from Israel and Russia. Emmanuel Althaus (also spelled Althause) was briefly chairman of SCNV.
Pini Althaus previously ran Dominion Minerals which was linked to some interesting businessmen
Pini Althaus was previously the President, CEO, and Director of Dominion Minerals until 2018. Althaus had been the President of Empire Minerals Corp. since 2006 which later became a subsidiary of Dominion Minerals. The 2018 annual report lists Althaus and three other officers: Diego Roca, EVP and CFO and two directors: Chaim Lebovits and Chaim Schiff.
Diego Roca had been the interim Chief Financial Officer of CodeSmart Holdings in 2013 when it was led by CEO Ira Shapiro. In 2017 the U.S. Justice Department announced that CodeSmart’s CEO Ira Shapiro and an attorney had pleaded guilty to participating in an $86 million market manipulation scheme that had started in 2013 (note that Roca was not charged or implicated in any way).
Dominion Director Chaim Lebovits had co-founded ACC Holdings International and Dominion Director Chaim Schiff was an executive at ACC from 2008 until 2017. ACC had been co-founded by Chaim Lebovits and business partner Jacky Ben-Zaken. Chaim Lebovits had been the President of BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics which received an investment from investors Ben-Zaken and Avraham Nanikashvili through their company Israel Financial Levers Ltd.
In 2015 Jacky Ben-Zaken and Eitan Eldar were sentenced to three years in prison for stock fraud related to Israel Financial Levers Ltd. (note that Lebovits was not charged or implicated in any way). In 2019 Avraham Nanikashvili was convicted of bribing former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to testify on his behalf in a tax appeal hearing.
There are several overlapping connections among the mining deals earmarked for significant amounts of U.S. government funding, including several companies that count Eric and Donald Trump Jr. as investors, and many companies that have done business with Cantor Fitzgerald. Pini Althaus is tied to two of the firms slated to receive up to $1.6 billion in financing each – Kaz Resources and USA Rare Earth. More scrutiny is needed into the prior business background and network of the firms and business leaders who are profiting under the Trump administration.