Martin Shkreli, who was convicted of securities fraud and spent 6 years in jail, claims that he and Barron Trump launched a new crypto token “Trump Coin”

Earlier this month Donald Trump attended a fundraiser in San Francisco and reportedly pitched himself as a crypto president.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump presented himself as a champion for cryptocurrency and slammed Democrats’ attempts to regulate the sector during a San Francisco fundraiser on Thursday, three sources present told Reuters.

On Thursday the Winklevoss twins donated $2 million in bitcoin to support Donald Trump for president. The Winklevoss twins became cryptocurrency billionaires years after they attended Harvard and later sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole the idea for Facebook from them. Apparently the donation was too large and exceeded limits and was refunded.

This past week there was rampant speculation about whether or not Donald Trump, with his recent vocal support of cryptocurrency, was involved with a newly launched crypto token called Trump Coin.

But things took a strange turn when convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli claimed that he was responsible for Trump Coin along with Barron Trump, Donald and Melania’s son who just graduated from high school and is eighteen years old.

In Trump-world where there is often a proliferation of shady characters, this is a wild emerging story that potentially includes several people who have been convicted or charged with egregious crimes – from Martin Shkreli a convicted fraudster to misogynist Andrew Tate who has been charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania.

Following is a brief overview of this story with references to various sources that first reported key aspects. There are many unknowns to this story and no evidence yet that Barron Trump is involved beyond claims by the very unreliable fraudster Martin Shkreli and a few others who said they were involved in the deal with Barron.

A few highlights of Martin Shkreli’s notorious past

In 2015 Martin Shkreli was the chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which overnight hiked the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat Aids, malaria and cancer, from approximately $17 per tablet to $750 per tablet.

In 2020 the Federal Trade Commission and seven states filed a civil case against Shkreli for orchestrating an illegal anticompetitive scheme to perpetuate a monopoly for the life-saving drug Daraprim. In 2022 he was barred from the drug industry and fined almost $65 million.

In 2018, in an unrelated case, Martin Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison and had to pay $7.4 million in a forfeiture money judgment for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme related to his role as a former hedge fund manager and CEO of Retrophin Inc. where he defrauded Investors.

Shkreli had been in prison since 2017 and was released in 2022 into a halfway house after he received credit for good behavior in prison, and for completing education and rehabilitation programs while locked up.

Last week a new crypto token “Trump Coin” launched

Trump Coin was registered on the Solana blockchain platform with the DJT symbol, which is the same symbol used by Trump Media and Technology Group which is listed on Nasdaq, prompting speculation about whether or not Donald Trump was involved.

Last Monday the media outlet Pirate Wires tweeted that per conversations Trump is launching an official token that Barron Trump was spearheading.

Pirate Wires is led by Michael Solana, the Chief Marketing Officer of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

On Tuesday data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence offered $150,000 to whoever discovered who was behind the DJT Trump Coin.

That same day ZachXBT posted this thread showing that he submitted the information to Arkham and showing direct messages with Martin Shkreli who shortly after announced in an X (formerly Twitter) Space that he created the DJT Trump Coin token.

Two of Barron Trump’s school mates and friends are allegedly involved

Various media outlets reported on the new “Trump Coin” token and that Martin Shkreli claimed that he and Barron Trump were behind it and described how several school mates and friends of Barron were also involved.

Shkreli claimed that he was approached about making a meme coin with Barron Trump by the 18 year-old’s friend Cameron. Shkreli said he has since established a “friendship” with the former president’s son, whom he credits as the “mastermind” behind the coin.

The thread from ZachXBT described a Telegram account named CWR and a Discord user named ‘cameronrox’ who referred to his alleged real name Cameron Roxburgh, who also claimed that his father was a pilot for Jeffrey Epstein.

This story by Protos provides a good overview of the events last week and how Shkreli claimed to be working with a 17-year-old minor named Cameron.

If Shkreli is to be believed, his story goes like this:

Shkreli was working with a 17-year-old minor named Cameron who was in contact with Bo Louden and Barron Trump. Supposedly, Cameron had reached out to Barron and heard that he was interested in launching a meme coin before his brother, Donald Trump, Jr. They asked for Shkreli’s help.

Using Chat-GPT and talking about how to create good financial incentives and mechanics with numerous influencers in the crypto space, Shkreli coded the coin and Barron Trump launched it.

NFT researcher NFTethics shared an article clip that described Cameron Roxburgh as a school mate of Barron Trump.

Protos noted that Martin Shkreli and Bo Loudon, a close friend of Barron Trump, joined a Space on X, formerly Twitter, where Loudon said: “Barron [Trump] is confirmed partially behind this.'”

Andrew Tate, who is accused of rape and human trafficking in Romania, alleges he spoke to Barron Trump about Trump Coin

A screenshot posted by zachxbt shows a DM with Martin Shkreli who posted an image of a message with Andrew Tate who said that Barron called him to buy in.

Andrew Tate is a misogynist who has said that women are the property of men.

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are facing trial in Romania for rape and human trafficking.

In April the AP reported that the trial is set to start, but the date has not yet been set.

A court in Romania’s capital on Friday ruled that a trial can start in the case of influencer Andrew Tate, who is charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The Bucharest Tribunal ruled that prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal criteria but did not set a date for the trial to begin. Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said the ruling has been appealed. Tate, 37, was arrested in December 2022 near Bucharest along with his brother, Tristan Tate, and two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four in June last year. They have denied the allegations.

A recent Guardian story describes Donald Trump’s pal Nigel Farage as a fan of Andrew Tate. Farage, who is leading the Reform UK Party (formerly the Brexit party) and who is expected to win a seat in Parliament, has praised Andrew Tate in past interviews as an important voice for the emasculated and for giving boys confidence.

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I have focused on following the Trump money and published several pieces on Trump Media and Technology Company / TMTG and their merger with Digital World Acquisition Group. In 2021 I published this chart on TMTG and DWAC that showed various people and companies involved and their links to entities investigated or charged by the SEC.

If Barron Trump or Donald Trump is involved with the “Trump Coin” token or with Martin Shkreli or Andrew Tate, it would not be surprising. It would be a yet another example of how Donald Trump and his close family and associates continue to interact with a notorious network of convicted fraudsters, alleged criminals and incredibly shady characters. And if the Trump family is not involved this is another example of how shady and notorious characters grift off of proximity or perceived proximity to Donald Trump.