Ryan Zinke performs as "heavy artillery" for the small blockchain investment firm

Within two weeks of managing the interior department – a federal agency of 70,000 federal employees running one-fifth of the territory in the United States – Ryan Zinke gave a concert this week for a little-known company that invests in emerging financial technology fields as a blockchain, networks that support cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The unlikely post-governmental service work for a man with no apparent background in the financial or technological sector can be traced to an old-fashioned case of marshy wealth.

On a Friday afternoon in April, Zinke boarded a plane from Dallas to Atlanta after talking to EarthX, a conference on the environment. What Zinke probably did not know was that the investment banker who sat near that part of his flight back to Washington, California, would soon become his new boss.

Daniel P. Cannon, managing director of the technology and energy investment company Artillery One, told HuffPost that he and Zinke spent the flight talking about American energy independence – a favorite subject of Zinke during his tenure in 39; Trump administration.

"We discussed how US soldiers who die for foreign oil were unacceptable [President Donald Trump]", Cannon told HuffPost in a text message, adding that the two did not talk about business.

The former SEAL navy and the Montana Congressman made an impression. His military service and "leadership qualities have attracted me more," said Cannon.

A future job prospect never came out during the flight. But after hearing that Zinke would quit his job on January 2, Cannon tried to get him into Artillery One.

The North Carolina-based company announced Zinke as senior vice president and chief executive officer in a Monday press release titled "Heavy Artillery". The former internal secretary "brings a lot of experience and understanding of the functioning of business and government" and help the company "to expand its consulting and finance activities in the key areas of information security, energy, fintech and resources digital cameras, "Cannon said in an accompanying statement.

The company is almost non-existent online. In October, he hosted a "Blockchain Innovators Summit" in Pebble Beach, California, which he described as "the pre-eminent event in the history of blockchain." It is expected to host another blockchain conference in March in Palm Beach, Florida. The price to pay for the participants is $ 2,000 each.

Prior to Monday's announcement, an online search of the company first raised the media coverage of the company's failed attempt last year to rescue the Swiss blockchain company Monetas from bankruptcy. The agreement was closed in February following a feud between Cannon and the founder of Monetas, SWI swissinfo.ch.

If the former CEO of the natural resources of America who joined a blockchain investment company was not strange enough, Zinke – the faithful soldier of the "energy dominance" program of the pro-fossil fuel of Trump in the last two years – seems to have sold to Cannon as someone who understands the immediate threat of climate change and is anxious to see the global transition to clean energy.

"Secretary Zinke understands the need for alternative and renewable energy because climate change is a clear and present danger," Cannon told ThinkProgress.

Asked about climate change during a briefing of the Environmental Protection Agency just over a month ago, Zinke said he was "proud" that the United States is now the world's largest oil and gas producer – and " We are proud of the fact that we have continued to minimize the terrible conclusions of the last assessment of the federal climate, stating that scientists have relied on "the worst scenarios." And while it launched itself as a champion of public lands, its time in the opening of the administration millions of acres of public land for drilling and mining while working to prepare a better future for the fossil fuel industry, reducing environmental safeguards.

Asked to deepen his commentary on ThinkProgress, Cannon told HuffPost to personally believe that climate change is a serious threat.

"Secretary Zinke believes that alternative energy away from fossil fuels is optimal wherever practicable," he wrote. "Natural gas seems to be the fuel of transition to alternative energy (wind, solar, geothermal, wave). We both share the opinion that US soldiers should not fight and die for energy. ".

Asked about Zinke's comment at the EPA briefing and if he is worried about his new employee's story of questioning the climate sciences, Cannon said: "I am aware that energy independence was / is the mandate of his former head, President Trump ".

On Monday, Zinke told the Associated Press he had "has entered a winning team".

"I'm happy to be out of the swamp and free from the chains of the office," he said.

In addition to the blockchain, the company's investments include research at the University of California, Los Angeles, in supercapacitors and other technologies that would increase the ability to accumulate the battery, according to Cannon. And the company is assisting some micro-nations that are moving from "fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy sources," he said.

"We at Artillery One aspire to make the world a clean environment and reduce carbon emissions as much as technology will allow it," said Mr. Cannon. "We will continue to use our influence on financial and technological markets to achieve the optimization of renewable energy for the world."

In its press release, Artillery One said that Zinke will be based in Montana and California, but the work would also involve "overseas trips". And working with Cannon, Zinke "will continue to follow President Donald J. Trump's vision in Making America Grande again, bringing economic development, jobs and opportunities for people, at home and abroad," the company has affirmed.

Zinke's first job assignment for Artillery One is convenient. He will travel to Switzerland this week to represent his new company at the Crypto Financial Conference, described as "the world's most exclusive investor conference on cryptocurrencies and blockchain investments". The three-day event will start on Wednesday and will be held in a luxurious five first-class hotel in the resort town of St. Moritz.

Zinke left the interior department January 2, under a cloud of ethical scandals e some critics have hypothesized would end up working in the oil and gas industry. Cannon told ThinkProgress journalist Kyla Mandel that he is not worried about ongoing federal investigations into Zinke's conduct and political decisions while he was at the federal agency, one of which was recently reported to the Department of Justice for possible criminal violations. And when pressed on the Trump-MAGA mention in the release of the company, Cannon replied, "I do not have an opinion about it, I'm out of politics, anyway, I love our country."

But if the Artillery One press release and his personal Facebook page are indications, Cannon is a vocal supporter of Trump. And he and his new employee share disdain for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. While Zinke once called Clinton "the Antichrist" and the "real enemy", Cannon shared a meme months before the 2016 election that shows a dog defecating on the cover of his book, Difficult choices. And in January 2016 he passed off the desecrated right conspiracy that former President Barack Obama was born outside the United States, sharing a meme with a picture of Clinton and the words: "If I go down, the Kenyan comes with myself".