Sen. Wyden probes Yorkville’s ties to first family

The New Jersey financier who engineered Trump Media’s pivot into nuclear energy

Mark Angelo, the founder of Yorkville Advisors, a small New Jersey investment firm, helped orchestrate the planned merger between Trump Media & Technology Group — the parent of Truth Social — and nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies, according to securities filings and an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The deal, valued at up to $6 billion, would create one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies.

Angelo said the idea emerged during a car ride into New York with a close associate, setting off a chain of events that ended with Trump’s social media firm agreeing to merge with a fusion technology company.

The nuclear deal is “our attempt at really trying to get Truth stock substantially higher,” Angelo said in an interview. “I think the market is bored of Truth until that deal happens.” He later clarified that he meant the stock was “rangebound” in the interim.

Trump Media’s shares have plunged more than 80% since highs in March 2024, erasing more than $6 billion in value. The company posted a $406 million net loss in the first quarter, driven largely by slumping bitcoin prices, according to securities filings. Trump Media generated less than $1 million in first-quarter sales.

As MSI previously reported, the company replaced longtime CEO Devin Nunes in April with Kevin McGurn, who had been an adviser to the firm, after the stock continued to slide.

Under the deal announced in December, shareholders of Trump Media and TAE will each own about 50% of the combined business. For TAE, the merger provides access to public markets and up to $300 million in cash from Trump Media. Fusion is still an unproven technology, and TAE is one of several companies working to make it commercially viable.

TAE “had to go in a vehicle. It had to get funded,” Angelo said. “If it happens to be the president’s vehicle, great.” TAE declined to comment.

Trump’s family trust, of which he is the sole beneficiary, owns 41% of Trump Media and will retain a large interest in the combined business.

Yorkville will receive a fee of six million shares — worth more than $50 million — if the deal closes, according to securities filings.

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent a letter to Angelo in June seeking information on Yorkville’s links with the first family, citing concerns that a separate Yorkville-backed SPAC could help “funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen Donald Trump’s businesses.” Trump Media and Yorkville did not comment on the inquiry.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that “all of President Trump’s assets are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions. There are no conflicts of interest.”

Angelo launched Yorkville in an office on the 77th floor of the World Trade Center just before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His team survived and relocated across the Hudson River, eventually building the firm into a major player in debt and equity financing for small and midsize companies.

In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Yorkville for fraud, alleging it overvalued holdings to attract investors and boost fees. A federal judge threw out the case after a yearslong legal battle, but Angelo said investors fled with about 90% of the firm’s assets under management. Yorkville rebuilt, funding real-estate investment trusts and data-center companies, as well as many cash-strapped firms.

“Goldman [Sachs] wasn’t looking for me,” Angelo said. Before Trump Media went public in 2024, Yorkville was slated to be part of a $1 billion private financing deal, but it fell apart. After the company’s shares began trading, Yorkville bought $450 million of stock at a 2.75% discount as part of a standby equity-purchase agreement. The firm now has a roughly $70 million stake, making it the third-largest shareholder, according to FactSet.

“I took a substantial risk position that did not work out,” Angelo said.

Angelo said he first learned of TAE from Kevin McGurn, who was then an adviser to Trump Media and later became interim CEO. McGurn, who has a college friend at the fusion company, was also chief executive of several Yorkville-linked special-purpose acquisition companies. Initial talks focused on taking TAE public through a Yorkville SPAC but shifted to using Trump Media as the vehicle after Angelo brought in Nunes.

Angelo added that he was not on an ideological mission, saying the president’s role in American life has limited relevance to him as long as there are deals to be done.

“My joke is: Within reason, elect whoever you want,” Angelo said. “I’ll wake up and figure out capitalism.”