For nearly two decades, the nexus of power and wealth connecting the Trump family to Kazakhstan has quietly persisted beneath the surface of American political life. What began as a real estate venture in Manhattan, tainted by allegations of money laundering from a Kazakh family accused of stealing hundreds of millions, has culminated in a far more audacious arrangement. In late 2025, the Trump administration brokered a strategic agreement with Kazakhstan to secure access to one of the world’s largest untapped tungsten reserves—a deal that stands to enrich the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, through a complex web of financial instruments.
This pattern reveals a recurring cycle: Kazakh capital and political access flowing through the Trump empire, first in the form of laundered money into New York real estate, and now as a multi-billion dollar, taxpayer-backed mining venture that raises profound questions about conflicts of interest and the business of the presidency. The evolution from luxury condominiums to strategic minerals represents not a break from the past but a dangerous escalation of a long-standing arrangement.
Part I: The New Deal—Tungsten, Taxpayers, and the Trump Sons
The Strategic Imperative
The genesis of the current controversy lies in a strategic push by Washington to secure domestic supply chains for critical minerals. Tungsten—a “war metal” with the highest melting point of any pure metal at over 3,400 degrees Celsius—is essential for missile warheads, fighter aircraft, semiconductors, and armor-piercing munitions. In December 2024, NATO designated it as one of just twelve defense-critical raw materials, and the U.S. government reinforced that view in August 2025, classifying tungsten among the country’s highest-risk critical minerals.
The urgency is driven by China’s overwhelming dominance. The United States has not mined tungsten since 2015, depending almost entirely on imports and recycling, while China accounted for more than 80% of global tungsten mine production in 2024. When Beijing tightened export restrictions in 2025, prices for ammonium paratungstate—the key intermediate product—more than tripled, accelerating Washington’s search for alternative suppliers.
The Deal Takes Shape
Kazakhstan emerged as the answer. The country possesses vast reserves of critical minerals and is already the world’s largest uranium producer, supplying roughly 40% of global production. The Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty deposits in the Karaganda region contain a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 1.4 million tonnes of tungsten trioxide—approximately 70% of Kazakhstan’s total estimated tungsten resources and roughly 58% of China’s 2.4 million tonne reserve. These deposits are among the largest undeveloped tungsten resources on the planet.
The breakthrough occurred during a meeting at New York’s St. Regis Hotel in September 2025, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sat down with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. According to executives involved, President Trump joined the discussion by phone and personally helped persuade Tokayev to greenlight the mining project. Cove Capital chief executive Pini Althaus later told the Financial Times that Cove had received “direct assistance from President Trump, Secretary [Marco] Rubio [and] Secretary [Howard] Lutnick” to secure the mine in Kazakhstan.
The agreement was formally signed on November 6, 2025, at the C5+1 Leaders’ Summit in Washington. Cove Kaz Capital gained 70% control of the project, with Kazakhstan’s national mining company Tau-Ken Samruk retaining 30%. The U.S. Export-Import Bank issued a letter of interest for up to $900 million in project financing, while the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation committed a further $700 million—together providing up to $1.6 billion in federal support. It stands as one of the largest U.S. government-backed critical minerals financings on record.
The Investment Web
The timing of private investments preceding this public agreement is striking. In August 2025, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump bought into the construction group Skyline Builders, taking stakes through a special purpose vehicle run by a subsidiary of Dominari Securities, an investment firm based in Trump Tower and partly owned by the brothers. The size of their initial investment was not disclosed.
On September 22, just weeks after that investment, President Tokayev told Donald Trump he intended to award the tungsten project to Cove Kaz Capital. Details of this informal agreement surfaced in press reports on October 21.
On October 28, the Trump sons added to their Skyline position, contributing to a private placement that raised almost $24 million. Three days later, on October 31, filings show Skyline agreed to pay $20 million for a 20% stake in a company with “significant critical minerals assets in Asia”—which turned out to be Kaz Resources, a subsidiary of Cove Capital.
The final agreement was signed on November 6—just six days after the Trump-linked investment was finalized. The merger between Skyline Builders, Kaz Resources, and Cove Kaz Capital was announced later, with the combined company planning to trade on Nasdaq as Kaz Resources Inc. The official announcement did not mention the Trump brothers.
The Lutnick Family Connection
The Trump sons are not alone in benefiting. Cantor Fitzgerald, the powerful investment bank formerly led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and now overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle, helped one of the project’s lead investors, ASP Isotopes, raise $210 million in fresh capital. Such deals typically generate millions in fees for the bank.
According to the New York Times investigation, companies connected to either the Trump family or the Lutnick family have financial ties to at least 14 companies involved in critical minerals projects that have received or are seeking support from the federal government. Collectively, these companies have received or are applying for more than $8.9 billion in federal financing or regulatory approvals.
Key Questions
The chronology raises serious questions. Did the Trump sons or their firms receive non-public information about the U.S. government’s intention to back the project before investing? The Financial Times reported that “there is no suggestion that Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump knew that Cove was on the cusp of securing a contract from their father’s US administration when they made their initial investments,” but a spokesman for Donald Trump Jr acknowledged he “does not interface with the federal government on behalf of any company he invests in”. The careful phrasing invites further scrutiny.
What role did Trump personally play in the September–November 2025 negotiations? Cove’s CEO stated the company received “direct assistance” from the president. Did these investments violate federal ethics rules, emoluments-type concerns, or securities laws around disclosure and conflicts of interest? Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has already raised questions about the timeline.
Kaz Resources Executive Chairman Pini Althaus acknowledged the concerns: “I can see how the optics might be disturbing to some people,” he told the Times. “But that’s unfortunate because this company and this project goes way beyond any one president, let alone any family”. The White House rejected any allegations of impropriety, with spokesman Kush Desai stating that “securing and reshoring America’s critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump”.
Part II: The Old Pipeline—Kazakh Money into Trump Real Estate
The Trump SoHo Project
This is not the Trump family’s first entanglement with Kazakh capital. In the 2000s, the Trump Organization partnered with the Bayrock Group to develop Trump SoHo in Manhattan. The project was particularly notable because Trump’s involvement was mostly the licensing of his name, with the two other development partners—the Sapir Organization and Bayrock—handling the financing. Bayrock was co-founded by Felix Sater, a Brooklyn native born in Russia who had previously served time for stabbing a man with a margarita glass in the 1990s and avoided prison for a stock scam by becoming a government witness.
Trump’s relationship with his partners was notably distant. In a 2011 deposition relating to a dispute over a Fort Lauderdale real estate project with Bayrock, Trump admitted that he had “never really understood who owned Bayrock”. This pattern of strategic ignorance would prove significant.
The Bayrock connection extended beyond real estate. In 2007, as Trump SoHo was in development, the family set up a Dutch joint venture with Sater’s Bayrock called KazBay, aimed at coal mining and power generation in Kazakhstan—directly tying the Trump brand to Kazakh energy projects.
The Khrapunov Money-Laundering Scandal
Investigations by the Financial Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) traced hundreds of millions in allegedly stolen funds from the family of Viktor Khrapunov, the former mayor of Almaty, into U.S. assets—including luxury apartments in Trump SoHo.
Khrapunov served as mayor of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s former capital and largest city, from 1997 to 2004, and had previously served as energy minister. In 2011, Kazakh authorities charged him with abuse of power relating to construction and real estate schemes during his time as mayor. Both Viktor and his son Ilyas are listed on the Interpol wanted persons database at the behest of Kazakh authorities. The family claims the charges are politically motivated, a defense complicated by Kazakhstan’s authoritarian governance.
According to court documents, lawyers for the city of Almaty told a U.S. court in March that Khrapunov and his family “conspired to systematically loot hundreds of millions of dollars of public assets…and to launder their ill-gotten gains through a complex web of bank accounts and shell companies…particularly in the United States”.
The Money Trail
The investigation revealed a complex scheme. In April 2013, three luxury apartments in Trump SoHo were sold for a total of $3.1 million to shell companies ultimately controlled by Elvira Kudryashova, Viktor Khrapunov’s stepdaughter. Title deeds, bank records, and correspondence documented the transactions.
The documents showed that Ilyas Khrapunov—under the codename “Elvis”—was the ultimate beneficiary of a complex web of almost a dozen offshore companies and trusts that handled close to $440 million through accounts at FBME Bank, a now-defunct Tanzania-based institution with offices in Russia and Cyprus. The bank was sanctioned by the U.S. government in early 2016 after it was found to be involved in money laundering, terrorism financing, and arms proliferation.
The trail led back to Frank Monstrey, a Belgian entrepreneur who in 2004 bought a Kazakh oil and gas company. The seized documents show that the entire $440 million that financed Ilyas’s offshore network came from two companies based in British offshore havens that belonged to Monstrey.
Felix Sater’s Role
The investigations showed that Felix Sater played a central role in connecting the Trump operation to the Kazakh money flows. Several emails showed that Sater was involved in coordinating transfers of millions of dollars to the United States and maintained relationships with two members of the Khrapunov family. In one email discussing a $3 million transaction, Kudryashova referred to Sater as “my business associate”.
When the Financial Times asked about the transactions, the Trump Organization’s general counsel Alan Garten stated that Bayrock and Sapir were responsible for apartment sales and for conducting due diligence on buyers. The pattern of delegating responsibility to partners while collecting profits was established early.
Key Questions
What vetting did the Trump Organization and its partners conduct on Kazakh buyers and Bayrock’s Kazakh ventures? Were red flags ignored? The evidence suggests the answer is yes—or at least that the company was willfully blind to the origins of the money flowing through its projects.
The Khrapunov case was not an isolated incident. Trump SoHo drew particular attention for its ties to alleged money laundering from Russian and Kazakh oligarchs. The pattern suggests that Trump properties operated as a safe harbor for post-Soviet elites seeking to park and launder wealth in the United States.
Part III: Connecting the Dots—A Recurring Pattern
From Real Estate to Resources
The evolution from Trump SoHo to the tungsten deal is not a break from the past but a logical progression. In the earlier era, the Trump family’s brand lent an air of legitimacy to a project financed in part by questionable funds. In the 2025-2026 deal, the Trump sons are not just licensing a name—they are direct financial beneficiaries of a strategic U.S. government initiative.
This represents a dangerous escalation of a long-standing pattern. Access to the Trump family, once used to park illicit wealth in New York real estate, is now being used to secure national resources and billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer support. The pattern is consistent: Kazakh power brokers, whether an indicted mayor or the head of state, find a willing partner in the Trump family to gain access to the U.S. market and political system.
Access as Currency
The recurring theme across both eras is the value of access. In the 2000s, the Trump brand—lent to projects through licensing deals—provided a veneer of legitimacy for money flows from post-Soviet elites. The Khrapunov family purchased condos in Trump SoHo; Sater’s Bayrock brought Kazakh capital into Trump-branded ventures. The Trump Organization’s due diligence was conspicuously absent.
In the current era, the currency is different: direct presidential support. Cove Capital’s CEO acknowledged “direct assistance from President Trump” in securing the mine. The timeline of investments and negotiations shows that the Trump family business positioned itself to profit from a deal the administration was personally brokering. The difference is that now it is not just a brand being sold—it is the office of the presidency itself.
The Family Business Model
The investment structure in the tungsten deal reflects a consistent pattern: using investment vehicles, special purpose vehicles, and third-party managers to create distance while preserving economic benefit. The Trump brothers invested through a Dominari subsidiary—a special purpose vehicle called American Ventures—that held their stake in Skyline Builders. Skyline Builders then acquired a 20% stake in Kaz Resources. The layers of corporate abstraction make it difficult to trace the exact nature of their economic exposure.
Yet the benefits are real. Dominari Securities is housed in Trump Tower and partly owned by the brothers. Skyline’s merger with Cove Kaz Capital and Kaz Resources creates a combined company that plans to trade on Nasdaq. If the mine proceeds, the Trump sons will profit—how much, and through what precise mechanism, remains unclear, as the size of their investment was not disclosed.
Part IV: Accountability and What Lies Ahead
Political and Legal Repercussions
Congressional scrutiny is already underway. Senator Jon Ossoff has publicly questioned the timeline of events, suggesting the Trump sons received unique opportunities to profit from their father’s negotiations. Representative Maxine Dexter told the New York Times that “Congress needs to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being used in the public’s interest and not to benefit family members or those closely tied with the Trump administration”.
Potential ethics investigations into Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s family ties and the president’s own involvement loom. Securities regulators may scrutinize disclosures around Dominari, Skyline, and the related SPVs. The corporate filings, including SEC documents for Skyline Builders (ticker SKBL) and Dominari Holdings (Nasdaq: DOMH), will be central to any investigation.
The Administrations’ Defense
The administration has rejected any allegations of impropriety. The Commerce Department stated that Howard Lutnick had sold his ownership stake in Cantor Fitzgerald and that neither he nor department officials had discussed government financing with the bank. Cantor Fitzgerald separately stated that its executives were not involved in government funding discussions relating to its mining clients.
Kaz Resources CEO Pini Althaus has defended the project, stating that discussions with the U.S. government began during the Biden administration and denying any political favors. He said he was unaware that the Trump brothers had financial interests connected to the project until later.
The Broader Pattern
The Kazakhstan deal is not an isolated case. According to the Times investigation, companies connected to the Trump or Lutnick families have financial interests in at least 14 mining ventures pursuing projects backed by the U.S. government. These companies have received or are seeking more than $8.9 billion in federal financing or regulatory approvals. This represents a systematic intermingling of private family business interests with public policymaking.
The scale of the administration’s effort is striking. Since returning to office, federal agencies have approved or conditionally backed billions of dollars in loans and guarantees for mining projects around the world. The Department of Commerce, whose head’s family is also a beneficiary, is the primary agency reviewing these applications. The line between public policy and private profit has been effectively erased.
Conclusion: A Two-Decade Pipeline
From luxury condominiums in Manhattan to strategic minerals in Central Asia, the Trump family’s relationship with Kazakh capital has evolved but never fundamentally changed. In the 2000s, it was the Khrapunov family’s allegedly stolen millions buying units in Trump SoHo. In 2025-2026, it is the Trump sons directly benefiting from a $1.6 billion U.S. government-backed tungsten deal. The pattern is consistent: Kazakh power and money flowing through Trump-affiliated structures, with the family collecting profits while maintaining plausible deniability about the sources and mechanisms.
The current deal raises the stakes to an unprecedented level. It is not just about laundered money or luxury real estate anymore. It is about national security—tungsten for missile warheads and fighter aircraft—and about whether the American taxpayer is subsidizing the enrichment of the president’s family. The timeline of investments, the corporate structures designed to obscure ownership, and the direct presidential involvement in the negotiations all suggest a systematic blurring of public duty and private gain.
The legacy of these two decades of Kazakhstan-Trump dealings is a stark reminder of an enduring truth: for the Trump family, the presidency has been a platform for a new kind of political economy, where public office is an asset to be monetized, and the primary beneficiaries are always the Trumps themselves.
The question for investigators, journalists, and the American public is whether this pattern will continue to operate with impunity, or whether the mechanisms of accountability—Congressional inquiries, ethics investigations, and securities law enforcement—will prove capable of checking a family that has repeatedly demonstrated that its business is the business of power.
