Trump Official Corned by Senate Over Bribery Scheme?

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2:26Michael Popok:U.S. senators are investigating whether Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, in conjunction with his family and other rare earth mineral companies, have participated in bribery. That based on a new letter that was just sent from Senators Warren and Lofgren to Cantor Fitzgerald, the former company, family-owned company of Howard Lutnick, whose sons allegedly run it. I'm Michael Popak. Let's get to the bottom of the corruption being investigated by the Senate Democrats. All has to do with rare earth minerals and various mining companies, capital markets, some other investment relationships where Cantor Fitzgerald has made money as the underwriter, taking an equity stake in which the Commerce Secretary had approval rights and or had the ability to fund.

3:24Michael Popok:Particularly, the New York Times just did a great expose of the relationship between Donald Trump, Howard Lutnick, the sons of Trump and Lutnick, their respective companies, and 14 different companies in the rare earth and or mining business. When you do the math, more than$9 billion worth of government contracts are in play related to companies that have equity positions taken by Trump's sons, Eric and Don Jr., and benefiting Cantor Fitzgerald as underwriter, placement agent, investment banker, you name it. So lots of fees going to the Lutnik sons and lots of equity and financing and government contracts going to the Trump sons.

4:17Michael Popok:And that is now the subject of this detailed investigation by the Senate Democrats. One thing in particular that I've been focused on through the New York Times article is a company called Kaz Resources, K-A-Z Resources, which is in a tungsten mining business out of Kazakhstan. You've got the Trump family taking a 20 % ownership interest through an entity they own or are involved with called Dominari Securities. Dominari Securities also picked up a bunch of money, millions and millions of dollars through Cantor Fitzgerald, finding them capital. So you've got fees being made by the Trump son, by the Cantor Fitzgerald Lutnick sons, and you've got the equity position all there with the Trump sons.

5:07Michael Popok:And the issue is whether Howard Lutnick, who not only is the commerce secretary, but effectively controls a sovereign wealth fund, a sovereign wealth fund where he can give out money through various relationships like the Export-Import Bank that he sits on and the U.S. Economic Development Board that he sits on and influence where those billions and billions and billions of dollars end up. And they're ending up in contracts and agreements and financing and loans involving his own family. So he's doling out the money. He's meeting with the principals. He's meeting with the countries in his role as Commerce Secretary, wearing his Commerce Secretary hat, like when he met with the president of Kazakhstan, President Tokyev, at the St.

5:58Michael Popok:Regis Hotel near Canter Fitzgerald's headquarters. And suddenly, oh, everybody comes out rosy. The Commerce Department takes a 10 or 20 percent stake in a company, meaning you and I now own a mining company. The Cantor Fitzgerald boys make money from fees, from placement, from underwriting, from investment banking, from consultancy, from whatever. And the Trump sons make money because they own these mining companies. And there's 14 of them. They have names like USA Rare Earth in particular. They have names like Kaz Resources and the rest and this incestuous interrelationship between Lutnick as Commerce Secretary, but former chairman, but big stakeholder in Cantor Fitzgerald and Trump as president, but also his sons with family businesses in the industries that he regulates and that he funds.

7:02Michael Popok:That's what they're getting to the bottom of. And they're warning not just Cantor Fitzgerald. They're warning the company that the owners of Rare Earth, USA Rare Earth, that they could be investigated for ultimately for bribery and corruption, you know, in collaboration with, in cahoots with the father, Howard Lutnick. Now, I've done this disclosure before over the last six years, but I'll do it again. I had one time worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. I worked under Howard Lutnick back a million years ago when I was global head of litigation for them. I don't have any knowledge of what's going on there now.

7:41Michael Popok:All I can do is give educated speculation based on the players that I do know. That's all I can do. So the Lutnick sons, one's, I don't know, 31, the other one's 28, something like that. They took over from daddy when daddy Lutnick divested his interest, sent it to them, I think, in exchange for a dollar, the billions of dollars of ownership, partnership stakes and equity stakes that he has in the various thousands of entities that make up Cantor Fitzgerald family of companies. Turns that over to the sons for now. OK, but doesn't recuse himself from any meetings. In fact, when he meets with the Kazakhstan president, Tokayev, you know, he does it publicly.

8:24Michael Popok:Oh, I think we could be in business together. But when Lutnik says, I'm going to show you this clip, when Lutnik says we could be in business together, what he really means is let's get into business. We'll give you money from the government that's not mine, taxpayer dollars. We'll take an equity position. My sons will make money on the fees and Donald Trump's sons will make money from a related company. How's that? Play the clip. The opportunity for us to work together and to enhance both economies is the key to a trade relationship and to opportunity. You have great critical minerals that we can invest in together.

9:04We are thrilled that you've selected our WoBtech and the locomotives. I think that is excellent and a great beginning and foundation for us to build together. We very much appreciate that.

9:20Michael Popok:Now, here's what the letter, which we'll post up on Legal AF Substack, says to Brandon Lutnick, who's the younger son, but the chairman of now the Cantor Fitzgerald LP. It's still one of the last partnerships, true partnerships on Wall Street at 110 East 59th Street. There we go. Corner of Park Avenue and 59th Street. We write regarding ongoing ethics and corruption concerns in light of the June 3rd, 2026 announcement that the U.S. Department of Commerce that your father runs has finalized the$1.6 billion agreement with USA Rare Earth. Given the massive investment by the American public in USAR and its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, it is imperative your company provide complete transparency.

10:09Michael Popok:In February, we wrote Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in regard to our concerns about the announcement that the government would be taking a 10 percent stake, meaning you and I now own 10 percent, whether we like it or not, of U.S. rare earth. To close the deal, USAR set a$1.5 billion private offering for the company's stock and lo and behold, selected Lutnick's former family company, Cantor Fitzgerald, as the deal's placement agent, benefiting the family and the sons who have the majority stake in the company. In conjunction, the Commerce Department took 16.1 million shares in the company. Now, Commerce's$1.6 billion investment was predicated on matching requirement, so they had to go out and raise their own funds.

11:03Michael Popok:So they used Cantor to do it in what was called a private investment in public equity, a Pipe, P-I-P-E, transaction with, you're not going to guess who they picked, to be the lead placement agent or underwriter for it. Right. Cantor Fitzgerald making more money once again. Now, the CEO of the U.S. Rare Earth, Barbara Humpton, basically confessed that it was Secretary Lutnick who opened the doors to this influential agency and got them the funding and the matching funding that they needed, including through the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense. In fact, here's a clip. Actually, the Department of Commerce led an all-of-government effort.

11:54We had a really first-of-its-kind meeting at the Pentagon with both the Department of War, the Department of Energy, and Commerce themselves. At the end of the meeting, the question from all three departments was, how fast do you need to move? And ultimately, Commerce stepped up and the Chips and Science Act team switched into high gear to make sure that we moved at warp speed to understand how to scale up this business and to see the transformative opportunity ahead of us.

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13:06Michael Popok:Go to Lisa.com for 30 % off select mattresses, plus get an extra$50 off with promo code LEGALAF, exclusive for my listeners. That's L-E-E-S-A dot com promo code LEGALAF for 30 % off select mattresses and an extra$50 off. When you use our code, you're supporting our show. Lisa.com promo code LEGALAF. And so they raised the specter here on page three. The circumstances around this deal coming together raise serious questions about Secretary Lutnik's exposure to federal conflicts of interest and bribery law. And he should have, in other words, he should have recused himself from meetings. He shouldn't have been the placement agent to get everybody to make money and to, you know, here's what, you know, you can just see the quarterbacking in his mind.

14:04Michael Popok:Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to create effectively a sovereign wealth fund. I'm going to control money that belongs to the American people in these various places, Commerce Department, Energy Department, Import Export Bank, Development Corporation. Billions and billions of dollars will be under my control. OK, I'll send it to companies that I'm already in business with through my family business, Cantor Fitzgerald. They'll benefit by being the placement agent, the underwriter, the fees, the investment banker. Yeah. And then you guys, you, Trump sons, you get into the business of mining.

14:38Michael Popok:Not that you know anything about mining, but you get into the mining business and then we'll take an equity position in a company you own to prop it up. We'll get the funds. We'll match the funds. Your dad will make money. Your dad will make money. We'll make money. I'll make money. When I leave the Commerce Department, finally in a year or two, I'll have doubled my net wealth. You could just hear the playbooking, right? The blackboarding over this. And so this is what the senators want to get to the bottom of. This is what it says on page five. Though Secretary Lutnik may no longer hold a direct stake in Cantor, the question is whether he holds an indirect stake through his sons, the direct financial interest of his family members is a central legal consideration in this matter.

15:25Michael Popok:Legal experts in federal courts have determined that the thing of value need not go to the public official himself under bribery law. And here's the questions they're asking. Have any employees or representatives of Cantor Fitzgerald met with any members of the Commerce Department regarding mining investments under the CHIPS or Science Act funding? Have any employees of Cantor Fitzgerald met with Secretary Lutnick or any other representative from the office of the secretary regarding United States rare earth? Have Cantor Fitzgerald met with chips in the science team? Have they discussed with any members of the Commerce Department potential investment in that company?

16:08Michael Popok:How was Cantor chosen to be the lead placement agency for some of these investments? randomly. Now, at the same time, companies that Lutnick is involved with are also the subject of another set of letters from these same senators about the attempt by Todd Blanche, the embattled nominee for attorney general, to award affiliates of Donald Trump and his family a pass on taxing liability or criminal liability based on a settlement, amended settlement agreement after the Anti-Weaponization Fund was created. What is an affiliate? Does the company, like I just described, does it consider itself an affiliate of Donald Trump?

16:57Michael Popok:Is Kaz Resources, another company, Trump, Lutnik, are all involved with, is that a affiliate? Do they consider that they're the beneficiary of this amended settlement agreement entered into by Todd Blanche? These are all excellent questions that need to be answered as we continue here. The problem is you've got a corrupted administration. You've got a Department of Justice and effectively a Commerce Department that are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Trump organization. That's what they are. That's how they operate. There's no independent thought. The only independent thought is how do we make as much money as possible for Trump's family, Lutnik's family, the family of Steve Whitcoff, the foreign envoy for the Iranian deal, who's a golf buddy of Donald Trump.

17:50Michael Popok:How do we do that? That is when they get up in the morning and they brush their teeth. That is the number one thing that's on their mind. That's why Donald Trump made$3.6 billion in cryptocurrency and the investors lost$7 billion because he makes it on the VIG. He makes it on the fees. When you own the platform, you want volume. The higher the volume, the more money you make. Where did he get that concept from? Probably Howard Lutnick, whose Cantor Fitzgerald is fundamentally, although they've tried to make themselves into something else, they want to be a bigger player on Wall Street, but they are fundamentally a brokerage.

18:32Michael Popok:So in brokering, in broking, you make a lot of money, all you want is velocity. You want buying and selling, buying and selling. You almost want panic because you'll make a lot of money on the buy and the sell because you're not taking an equity position. You're only the broker. You're not taking a stake and you're not using your money. You're facilitating the transaction. And that's a concept that's at the heart of Howard Lutnick. And that is what has been imbued in Donald Trump as he tried to apply the same philosophy in the cryptocurrency world. So until my next report, and you know I'm going to cover all things Howard Lutnick, right here on Midas Touch and Legal AF, hit the free subscribe button on Legal AF YouTube.

19:15Michael Popok:Help us to continue to grow that channel. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

19:31Michael Popok:filing in the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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