Palmer Luckey, the creator of Facebook’s Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, is the secret backer of a pro-Donald Trump organisation aiming to turn the tide of the US election through “meme magic” and “shitposting”.

The group, Nimble America, was publicly unveiled last week on r/The_Donald, the portion of social news site Reddit dedicated to supporting the Republican candidate. In its introduction to the world, now deleted, a moderator wrote “What we’ve been able to accomplish here has been amazing and much bigger than any of us and certainly much bigger than Reddit.

“We’ve proven that shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real. So many of you have asked us, how we can bring this to real life.”

That same day, a user named “NimbleRichMan” came forward and offered to match donations for the group’s first two days. In his post, also deleted, NimbleRichMan wrote: “You and I are the same. We know Hillary Clinton is corrupt, a warmonger, a freedom-stripper. Not the good kind you see dancing in bikinis on Independence Day, the bad kind that strips freedom from citizens and grants it to donors.

“I reached out to the leaders of this community because I am doing everything I can to help make America great again. I have already donated significant funds to Nimble America, and will continue to do so. I need your help: For the next 48 hours, I will match your donations dollar for dollar. Donate $10 and I will match you by flying my jet a minute less. Donate a hundred and I will match you by skipping a glass of scotch. Donate a thousand and I will match by putting off the tire change on my car. Am I bragging? Will people be offended? Yes, but those people already hate Donald. They cannot stand to see successful people who are proud of their success.

“Let’s generate some success of our own. Make America great again with your meme magic, centipedes of The Donald!”

The post and group, however, quickly attracted controversy from users of Reddit. NimbleRichMan’s identity had only been confirmed to Reddit’s moderators and a Breitbart News editor, and the group itself was accused of being a scam. “Looks to me like some of the mods have finally decided to cash in on this community, and it’s not going over so well for them, because this shit seems scummier than it seems scammy, which is pretty bad, because it seems reeeaaaallly scammy,” reads one typical response. Others called for Trump-supporting Redditors to only donate to the Trump campaign, rather than an unaffiliated non-profit.

Now, seemingly in an attempt to quell the controversy, Luckey has come forward to the Daily Beast as the money-man – and RichMan – behind Nimble America. Luckey confirmed that NimbleRichMan was also his Reddit account, but denied being more than a money man for the group – despite being listed as co-founder and vice-president on its site. (That listing has now also been deleted.)

“I’ve got plenty of money,” Luckey told the Daily Beast. “Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.

“I came into touch with them over Facebook,” Luckey added. “It went along the lines of ‘hey, I have a bunch of money. I would love to see more of this stuff.’ They wanted to build buzz and do fundraising.”

Luckey made his fortune, estimated at $700m, when he sold his virtual reality startup to Facebook for $2bn two years ago. He is the second big name associated with the social network to publicly back Donald Trump’s presidency, after Peter Thiel, the Facebook board member who recently put Gawker out of business.

The pair stand in marked contrast to Facebook’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who has been vocal in his support of progressive policies – and his opposition to Donald Trump. In April, Zuckerberg told Facebook’s F8 conference that he was alarmed by a shift in many countries towards people looking inwards, saying he heard “fearful voices calling for building walls” and halting immigration.