All posts tagged: Trump Media & Technology Group Corp

Trump calls for investigation of ‘rumors’ he plans to sell Trump Media stock

Trump calls for investigation of ‘rumors’ he plans to sell Trump Media stock

Published by Sam

This illustration shows an image of President-elect Donald Trump next to a phone screen that is displaying the Truth Social app, in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 21, 2022. Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images Trump Media shares soared Friday after President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed he has no plans to sell off his stake in the Truth Social operator, and called on authorities to investigate whoever suggested otherwise. Trump’s announcement, posted on Truth Social, was his first personally written statement since his stunning victory against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election. DJT shares shot up more than 10% immediately following Trump’s post, triggering a temporary trading halt due to volatility. “There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth,” the Republican said in the post Friday morning. “THOSE RUMORS OR STATEMENTS ARE FALSE. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF SELLING!” Trump said. “I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors …

Trump Media COO quits; DJT turns over more shares to SPAC investor in court fight

Trump Media COO quits; DJT turns over more shares to SPAC investor in court fight

Published by Sam

A smartphone displays the logo of Donald Trump’s Truth Social app on March 25, 2024. Anna Barclay | Getty Images Trump Media Chief Operating Officer Andrew Northwall resigned in late September, the company revealed in a regulatory filing Thursday. In the same filing, former President Donald Trump’s social media company announced that it will release nearly 800,000 shares of its stock to an early investor in accordance with a recent order by a Delaware judge. At Thursday’s closing price, those shares would be worth around $12.7 million. The company, which trades on the Nasdaq as DJT, provided no explanation for Northwall’s resignation, but said it “plans to transition his duties internally.” The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made no direct connection between the development in the Delaware lawsuit and the executive’s departure. In mid-September, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Lori Will ruled that Trump Media breached an agreement with ARC Global Investments II, a so-called sponsor of the business merger that took the company public. The legal dispute centered on competing claims about …

Trump Media stock hits new low after DJT lockup lifts

Trump Media stock hits new low after DJT lockup lifts

Published by Sam

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Shares of Trump Media sank Monday to their lowest price since 2021, days after majority owner Donald Trump and other company insiders got the green light to start selling their stakes in the Truth Social operator. The stock, which appears as DJT on the Nasdaq, closed more than 10% lower in a frenzied trading session, settling at $12.15 per share and notching the company’s sixth straight day of declines. Stock Chart IconStock chart icon Trump Media (DJT) Stock Price Trump Media’s share price has fallen nearly 85% since the company surged in its public trading debut in late March. Monday’s decline left the stock at its lowest level since before October 2021, when it was revealed that the blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp. was planning to merge with then-private Trump Media. News of that deal sent shares of DWAC soaring more than 350%. The stock declined in the intervening years, before surging again in the early 2024 in anticipation of the completion of the merger with Trump …

Trump Media investor convicted of insider trading ahead of merger

Trump Media investor convicted of insider trading ahead of merger

Published by skeptic

Bruce Garelick walks following a hearing at the Manhattan Federal Court, in New York City, July 20, 2023. Amr Alfiky | Reuters A federal jury in New York on Thursday convicted an investor of insider trading in the stock of a shell company ahead of its announcement in October 2021 that it would merge with Trump Media. The investor, Bruce Garelick, had been on the board of directors of the publicly traded company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., at the time he was accused of sharing and exploiting non–public information with others about its plans to merge with then-privately held Trump Media, the owner of the Truth Social app. Trump Media’s majority shareholder is former President Donald Trump, who was not accused of any wrongdoing in the case against Garelick in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. But Garelick’s trial, which began on April 30, took place just blocks away from where Trump is on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on criminal charges related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Two co-defendants of …

SEC Chair Gensler dodges Trump Media campaign finance questions

SEC Chair Gensler dodges Trump Media campaign finance questions

Published by skeptic

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on Tuesday refused to comment on speculation of whether Trump Media is a funding organ for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “I’m not going to speak on any one company,” Gensler said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” responding to a question on whether Trump Media is merely a vehicle to finance the former president’s bid for a second term. “What’s important is that their disclosures are accurate and that folks aren’t in the market front-running or trading on insider information,” Gensler said. Since the DJT ticker went public on the Nasdaq on March 26, the stock has whipsawed, seeing a high of nearly $80 per share and a low of roughly $12 per share. The stock opened Tuesday at roughly $49. As the majority shareholder, Trump stands to gain the largest financial boost from DJT upswings. On Friday, Trump’s stake increased by 36 million more shares on top of his existing 78.8 million, due to a clause in the company’s contract that unlocks bonus shares as the …

Trump Media hires new auditor after accounting firm charged with fraud

Trump Media hires new auditor after accounting firm charged with fraud

Published by skeptic

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images Trump Media hired a new auditor over the weekend, after its previous public accounting firm was accused Friday of perpetrating a massive fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Truth Social owner fired BF Borgers CPA after the SEC accused the firm of failing to perform actual audits of its clients, before signing off on more than 1,500 regulatory filings for public companies. Trump Media said it had engaged Semple, Marchal & Cooper LLP on Saturday to replace BF Borgers. As part of its settlement with the regulator, BF Borgers and its owner agreed to a permanent ban from auditing public companies. The ban required Trump Media and other public companies that had used BF Borgers to find new auditors. “The decision to change independent registered public accounting firms was made with the recommendation and approval of the Audit Committee of the Company,” Trump Media said Monday in an 8-K filing to announce its new auditor. Former President Donald Trump owns 65% of Trump Media’s stock, which …

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Published by skeptic

Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, with admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said. The agency, calling BF Borgers a “sham audit mill,” said the company and its owner engaged in “deliberate and systemic failures to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board … standards in its audits and reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023,” according to a press release. The respondents also were charged with falsely telling clients that the auditor’s work would comply with PCAOB standards, fabricating audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and “falsely …

Trump Media IDs firms for House short selling probe

Trump Media IDs firms for House short selling probe

Published by skeptic

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images The CEO of Trump Media urged leading House committee chairmen to investigate eight financial firms over concerns of potentially illicit short selling of DJT, whose majority shareholder is former President Donald Trump. “I believe quick action is necessary to protect retail shareholders, identify wrongdoers, and determine whether any laws including [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] statutes and tax evasion laws have been violated,” wrote CEO Devin Nunes, who last week first asked top House Republicans to probe short selling of Trump Media stock. Nunes, in his letter dated Wednesday, wrote that the committees should seek documents and testimony from at least the eight firms that he named: Apex Clearing, Clear Street, Cobra Trading, Cowen and Company, Curvature Securities, StoneX Securities, TradePro, and Velocity Clearing. A spokesperson for Clear Street declined to comment on Nunes’ letter. CNBC has requested comment from the other companies named in the letter. Nunes’ new letter escalates his efforts to thwart short selling of the Truth Social app owner’s shares by encouraging shareholders …

DJT shares plummet more than 10% as hot streak for Trump Media stalls

DJT shares plummet more than 10% as hot streak for Trump Media stalls

Published by skeptic

Former US president Donald Trump announced plans on October 20 to launch his own social networking platform called “TRUTH Social,” which is expected to begin its beta launch for “invited guests” next month. Chris Delmas | AFP | Getty Images Trump Media shares dropped sharply in morning trading Wednesday, shortly after rising above the $50 per share threshold for the first time in nearly a month. Trump Media, which trades under the DJT ticker, rose by more than 8% in early trading, before dropping by more than 10%. The share price stood at $45.59 at 10:26 a.m. ET, an 8.55% decline. The company, which owns the Truth Social app, has seen its share price increase by more than 50% in the past week. But the stock is still trading well below the more than $70 per share it opened at in its public trading debut on March 26. Trump Media in a regulatory disclosure Tuesday confirmed that former President Donald Trump received an extra 36 million shares of the company in a so-called earnout bonus. …

Trump Media insider trading trial begins in New York

Trump Media insider trading trial begins in New York

Published by skeptic

Bruce Garelick walks following a hearing at the Manhattan Federal Court, in New York City, July 20, 2023. Amr Alfiky | Reuters The federal criminal trial of a man accused of insider trading in shares of a shell company ahead of its announcement of a plan to merge with Trump Media began Tuesday, just blocks from where former President Donald Trump was sitting at his criminal trial in a case related to a hush money payment. The first witness in the insider trading case against Bruce Garelick was Andy Litinsky, a co-founder of Trump Media. Litinsky himself is involved in complicated civil litigation against Trump in several jurisdictions, over how many shares he is owed in Trump’s eponymous social media company. “It’s a long story,” Litinsky sighed on the stand in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Garelick has decided to take his chances with a jury after his two co-defendants, the brothers Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman, pleaded guilty on April 3 to insider trading charges in the case. The allegations Garelick is accused of …