An affiliate of Yorkville Advisors, a Mountainside, N.J.-based investment manager, will guide Trump Media’s new financial services venture in decisions regarding its “America-First” investment strategies, which will range from domestic energy stocks to cryptocurrency.
The firm, headed by Mark Angelo, was tapped this week by Trump Media as the RIA for a new financial services offering from its social media platform Truth Social. According to the announcement, the investment manager’s affiliate will focus on guiding investments and financial products for the new Truth.fi into “American Growth” categories such as manufacturing, energy and other areas that will “strengthen the Patriot economy.”
According to a January 2025 ADV Form filing, Yorkville had $323.1 million in assets under management. The team of 20 people was founded in 2001 and has invested in 705 companies in over 22 countries, according to its website.
The advisory has a recent history with Trump Media. According to a July SEC filing, one of its Cayman-based affiliates worked with Trump Media to sell up to $2.5 billion of stock to the Yorkville affiliate at a discount to raise cash. Yorkville also had a run-in with the SEC in 2012 that was later dismissed by a federal judge.
In 2012, the SEC filed a civil suit against the firm, its founder, Angelo, and then-Chief Financial Officer Edward Schinik, alleging that they intentionally overvalued assets under management and exaggerated returns to hide losses and boost fee collection. The regulator alleged that the practice led to pension funds and funds of funds sending the firm more than $280 million in investments, which allowed Yorkville to charge them $10 million in fees.
The firm denied the charges, and in 2018, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the core claims made by the SEC. The judge overseeing the case wrote in the ruling that there was “no material evidence of fraud or negligence.” Later that year, the SEC announced that the judge approved a joint agreement to dismiss all claims.
Yorkville Advisors did not immediately respond to a request to be interviewed about its new role with Trump Media or the SEC case. According to the company’s website, former CFO Schinik is no longer at the firm.
Trump Media’s push into financial services with Truth.fi made national headlines this week as the president marks his first weeks in office. The firm’s board approved $250 million in investments to start the venture, which is slated to go live in 2025 after regulatory approvals.
Charles Schwab will be the custodian for Truth.fi, which will allocate funds to separately managed accounts, exchange-traded funds, cryptocurrencies and crypto-related securities in addition to “traditional investments.”