Overview
- The New York Times published the central report Sunday showing that high-level U.S. talks produced an agreement granting Kaz Resources access to Kazakhstan’s tungsten reserves and that key financial moves by family-linked investors closely tracked those talks.
- According to the reporting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met Kazakhstan’s president at New York’s St. Regis in September 2025 and the U.S.-Kazakh agreement was signed on November 6, 2025, six days after a Trump-linked investment in an entity tied to the project.
- Weeks after the St. Regis meeting, Dominari Securities, partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, took roughly a 20 percent stake in a company connected to the venture and Cantor Fitzgerald assisted a lead investor in raising $210 million, transactions that filings show could generate large fees.
- Federal agencies had approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in financing for the Kazakh project but that funding has not been finalized and construction has not begun, and the White House and Commerce Department have denied improper conduct while noting Lutnick’s claimed divestment.
- The deal feeds a broader U.S. push to diversify critical-mineral supplies after Chinese export curbs, and the report says one or both families have ties to at least 14 companies seeking roughly $8.9 billion in federal support, prompting calls from lawmakers for congressional oversight and clearer disclosure rules.