Call it the Motion of the Unknown Donor. A Southern California man who loaned $1 million to Paul Manafort in 2017 has asked the court to keep his name from being revealed due to fears he will lose business and friendships.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's prosecutors are asking a Nevada company, Woodlawn LLC, to identify the ultimate source of $1 million that it loaned to the family of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Bloomberg reports. In response, the company's lawyers filed a motion to keep the lender's name anonymous.

One of the reasons cited in the filing for remaining anonymous is geographical, as the lender is “a U.S. citizen residing in Southern California, where President Trump is highly unpopular.” Additionally, the man fears he will be ostracized by the revelation. “It is well known that friendships and other relationships have shattered over political views in our current 'tribal' society,” said Woodlawn lawyer David Smith in the filing.

Woodlawn has filed paperwork that shows a Los Angeles attorney who worked for the company and the anonymous benefactor wired a little more than $1 million to Manafort's attorney in 2017, according to CNN. The Manafort family then made 11 payments to Woodlawn on the loan in 2017 and 2018.

Due to Manafort's past use of shell companies and admitted bank fraud, Mueller prosecutors found the transactions suspicious. They even suggested that Woodlawn might be an “alter ego” for Manafort himself and he used the company to give himself a fake loan, possibly to keep money from the government.

Woodlawn says in its court filing that the transactions are legitimate and that it is willing to tell prosecutors the lender's identity as long as the court will prevent “the general public from learning the identity of a private person.”

Woodlawn also said the prosecutors' idea that Manafort made ”'sham' loan to himself … is a preposterous theory.”