Trump regime

NY Times - Investors in a deal to create a U.S.-controlled TikTok are set to pay $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury, the latest example of the Trump administration’s inserting the federal government into corporate deal making in unusual ways.

The fee, which the U.S. government is considering a transaction fee for its role in helping bring about the deal, will be paid by new investors in the U.S. TikTok, according to two people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly about the transaction.

The new investors paid the Treasury roughly $2.5 billion of the fee when the deal closed in January. They plan to pay the rest of the fee in an additional set of payments, one of the people said. The investors include the software giant Oracle; MGX, an Emirati investment firm; and Silver Lake, another investment firm, which each own about 15 percent of the company.

TikTok struck a deal with the investors in January to address years of legal uncertainty about the video app, owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, after bipartisan concern that its ownership could pose a national security threat.