#dwac — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #dwac, aggregated by home.social.
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I reported an April SEC filing showed Bondi as an investor in Trump Media & Technology Group with 106,250 shares and 31,250 warrants to purchase common stock - worth over $3.6 million based on recent DJT price (her brother advised DWAC on the merger deal)
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Bankruptcy filings reveal newly reported info on a large shareholder of Donald Trump's Trump Media DJT stock. Filings also reveal entities affiliated with the DJT investor allegedly conducted naked short selling (a practice prohibited in US) causing tens of millions in losses to partners, my latest:
#Trump #DonaldTrump #DJT #DWAC #PatrickOrlando #TrumpMedia #TMTG
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@carnage4life If we know anything about #Trump supporters, it's that they're willing to invest money into *anything* to socially signal their support of the man. They'll buy gold shoes, $100k watches, Bibles, whatever. It wouldn't surprise me if they're pouring money into #Polymarket as a show of fealty. Same thing with #DWAC.
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Investor Gets Prison Time For Trump Media Insider Trading Scheme
Gerald Shvartsman sentenced to almost two years in prison after pleading guilty to a $22 million insider trading scheme involving the effort to take Trump Media & Technology Group public
Sentencing for his brother Michael is scheduled for Thursday and associate Bruce Garelick (former director of DWAC which merged w/Trump Media) will be sentenced Nov 7
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Financier Found Guilty in Trump Media Insider Trading Trial
Bruce Garelick was convicted of securities fraud for leaking confidential info about merger involving parent company of Trump's Truth Social to Michael and Gerald Shvartsman who made $23mil - both pleaded guilty to securities fraud.
Garelick was a former board member of Digital World Acquisition Corp which recently merged with Trump Media & Technology Group.
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Trial began Tues for Bruce Garelick - charged with enabling boss Michael Shvartsman at Rocket One and others to make millions illegally on inside info that acquisition firm DWAC was taking Trump Media public
Garelick made about $50,000 from DWAC trades, Michael Schvartsman made $18 mil, Gerald Shvartsman made $5mil - Shvartsmans both pled guilty
Russian born FL businessman Anton Postolnikov made $22mil (not charged)
#BruceGarelick #MichaelShvarstman #DWAC #TrumpMedia
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/trump-media-insider-trading-trial-begins-in-new-york-.html
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#Trump Media & Tech stock fell 18%, erasing hundreds of millions from its *market value* — & putting a dent in Trump’s majority stake, worth >$3B. Since a surge in its 1st days of trading as #TrumpMedia, which lifted the value of the co to ~$8B at one point, the company’s shares have dropped by >50%.
Trump Media was expected to register the potential sale of new shares after the completion of its merger w/ #DWAC, a #ShellCompany known as a #SPAC.
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The Hacking Lawsuit Looming Over Trump's Truth Social
In a lawsuit filed in Florida by Patrick Orlando, the founding CEO of DWAC (the company that merged with Trump Media) Orlando accused his former assistant Alexander Cano of hacking his accounts as part of a coup d'état by Eric Swider who replaced him as CEO
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The #Hacking Lawsuit Looming Over #TruthSocial
The founding CEO of #DWAC has accused his former assistant of hacking into his accounts as part of a “coup d'état,” the latest legal mess for Truth Social.
#Trump #djt -
AND
He changed his plea to #GUILTY
2 Brothers in #TrumpMedia #InsiderTrading Scheme Plead Guilty
Gerald & #MichaelShvartsman, who had originally pleaded not guilty to #securities #fraud charges, each pleaded guilty to one count of #SecuritiesFraud.
#Trump #criminal #law #NationalSecurity #Russia #PaxumBank #DWAC #MoneyLaundering #SEC #FDIC
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/business/trump-media-insider-trading-guilty.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb -
Last month, #federal prosecutors charged #MichaelShvartsman, a close assoc of #Postolnikov, w/ #MoneyLaundering in a #SupersedingIndictment after previously charging him & 2 others in Jul w/ #InsiderTrading #DWAC shares…
At least part of the #evidence against Shvartsman came from a CI for DHS, court filings show: in one March 2023 meeting w/the informant & an associate, Shvartsman mentioned a friend who owned a bank in Dominica & made bridge loans to #Trump Media. -
The current status of #ESFamilyTrust is also unknown. The trust’s address is listed as a residential home in Hollywood, #Florida. But, acc/to the property website Redfin, the 6-bedroom home appears to have been sold in Dec 2023.
The creation papers also contained something notable: a declaration that, if the original trustee –a #PaxumBank employee named Angel Pacheco– stepped down from the role, his successor would be… #MichaelShvartsman.
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In total, the doc showed that the trust transferred $4.8m to #Postolnikov’s acct….
The reason for the #ESFamilyTrust’s creation remains unknown. Aside from the #money that went to #TrumpMedia, the trust’s statements show the trust has directly invested money w/only two other companies: $10.8m to Eleven Ventures LLC, a #VC firm, & $1m to Wedbush Securities, a #wealth management firm.
#Trump #criminal #law #NationalSecurity #Russia #PaxumBank #DWAC
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#Trump’s #SocialMedia company #TrumpMedia went public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency #loans from a #trust managed by a #Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal #InsiderTrading & #MoneyLaundering #criminal investigation.
Trump stands to gain billions… from the merger between TrumpMedia & Tech & the blank-check co [#SPAC] #DWAC, which took the parent company of #TruthSocial public.
#law #NationalSecurity
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/03/trump-media-es-family-trust-2022-loans -
Breaking: Two Individuals Plead Guilty To Insider Trading Scheme Based On SPAC Merger With Trump Media & Technology Group
Michael and Gerald Shvartsman made over $22 million in illegal profits by trading in advance of DWAC Trump Media merger announcement
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…both #TrumpMedia & #DWAC are facing 3 lawsuits, incl’g 1 from 2 #TruthSocial co-founders & fmr Apprentice contestants who allege #Trump purposefully stiffed them on a company stake. That #litigation isn’t going to die down in the midst of a #MemeStock craze.
By the end of Tues, the stock had dropped from its 55% surge down to 16% up from pre-market levels…it hasn’t returned anywhere near close to that peak…. people will keep on trading $DJT. It just isn’t going to help Trump anytime soon.
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All these lackeys running the show means a lot of (feigned) confidence from folks in charge. + the most eager #shareholders aren’t in this for high returns, but to support their king…in their own words…in the #DWAC “groups” on #TruthSocial: “I’m holding & plan on being part of the greatest #SocialNetwork there is & support fmr & future President #Trump” (the anthem of the aforementioned retail-level #suckers.) This all means that $DJT is basically…the #political equivalent of a #MemeStock.
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#JeffYass’s firm holds a 2% stake in #DWAC &, considering its other assets, can afford some hits as long as #Yass gets to own the libs.
On #TrumpMedia’s end, its current board of directors is hardly lacking in wealth, or loyalty: The CEO is fmr Rep #DevinNunes, & his teammates include #DonaldTrumpJr + fmr #Trump admin members #KashPatel, #RobertLighthizer, & Linda McMahon (as in, yes, the wife of embattled wrestling magnate Vince McMahon).
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You may be wondering just whence that staggering #valuation arises,then. There are a couple factors at play—namely, rich friends & retail-level suckers.
…As a #ShellCompany established w/the express purpose of gathering #investments & absorbing them into the minimally operational #TrumpMedia, #DWAC curried investments from all manner of private institutions,most significantly #SIG… meaning #JeffYass, the #Republican #megadonor who’s been floated as potential #treasury sec if #Trump is reelected. -
…those pitiful earnings represent a steep drop from the hundreds of millions that #DWAC had raised from investors, some of whom yanked out their commitments before the merger. Bloomberg reported Mon that some initial DWAC #investors were so bearish that they redeemed their shares before the merger was approved, taking a 75% loss on those #investments. In other words: The company is a #financial mess.
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Before going public, the co was far from profitable: TruthSocial itself only garnered $3.38M in total revenue over the 1st 3 quarters of 2023—& lost $49M over that same period, w/ >½ of that loss occurring in Q3. Per Axios:“The company’s cash-on-hand dwindled to just $1.8M at the end of Sept…while its total liabilities climbed ~72% to $60.5M.” (#DWAC pre-merger fed filings noted “mgmt has substantial doubt that [#TrumpMedia] will have sufficient funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due.”)
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Trump Media will trade on Nasdaq on Tuesday under the stock symbol DJT
Trump has 79 million shares of Trump Media (60% of the stock) and owns a separate class of shares that gives him 55% voting power
Trump's shares could be valued at up to $3 billion
Trump Media will have immediate access to more than $300 million
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/business/trump-media-trading-tuesday.html
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If there was any justice in the world the DWAC stock price aka "Truth Social" and soon be called DJT would be negative. People don't seem to realize that TS itself is just a Mastodon instance with ads plastered over it. And the business has almost no advertising and is losing money. It's only asset is Trump posting there. People buy it are like people who buy Trump NFTs - valueless trinkets designed to put money into Trump's pocket - it's basically money laundering to enrich Trump.
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Liz Dye on #DWAC and #TruthSocial:
"As with everything #Trump does, this entire thing appears to be a series of nested grifts...
The #MAGA faithful see themselves as allied with the billionaire who stands to profit the most from the stock’s rise."
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-truth-social-spac-grift-explained
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As a “publicly-traded candidate,” Trump is a clear and present danger to national security
In 2021, the Boston Globe editorial board asked:
♦️“Who owns the president?”♦️It’s a shame that the business press and political press aren’t exploring that question in light of Friday’s Truth Social multi-billion dollar merger.
Instead, the headlines read like something straight from PR Newswire:
• “Trump poised for billions” (BBC)
• “Trump could score $3.5 billion…” (CBS)
• “Trump is about to get $3 billion…” (CNN)
• “Trump stands to make $3.5 billion…” (Fortune)
• “Trump is on the verge of a windfall of billions” (NPR) and
• “Trump Is In Line for a $3.5 Million Windfall...”plus “Trump Makes a New Fortune… (WSJ).
Friday was the last business day before Donald Trump’s deadline to post a $454 million bond if he wants to appeal his loss in New York civil fraud case.
He was found guilty of “inflating property values and lying about assets to receive loans and reduce taxes.”
Eric Trump told Sunday Morning Futures on FOX that all potential bondsmen he talked to “were laughing.
They were laughing… they want to bankrupt him.”The Daily Beast reported last week that New York Attorney General Letitia James has “quietly filed judgments … against the former president, his eldest sons Don Jr. and Eric, and several of their companies.”
Notably (or suspiciously), on Friday a special purpose acquisition (SPAC) company, Digital World Acquisition Corp. ( #DWAC ), agreed to merge with Trump’s social media network, Truth Social.
The merger takes Trump Media & Technology Group ( #TMTG ) public.
Trump holds more than 50 percent of the post-merger venture;
on paper, that’s an estimated $3.5 billion.The merged venture will trade under the symbol “DJT.”
Why might DWAC’s shareholders be wary?
In 1995, “Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts used the same stock ticker [DJT] when it went public,” according to NBC News.
That deal did not go well for stockholders.🔸Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts lost money “every year under Trump’s leadership” (1995 to 2009).
Stock price peaked at $35;---> its low was $0.17.
The Washington Post reported in 2016 that the company lost more than a billion 🔸dollars.
(A billion in 2009 would be $1.5 billion today.)🔸Trump got a $5 million bonus “the year the company’s stock plummeted 70 percent.”
🔸Not unlike Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, TMTG lost $49 million during the first nine months of 2023.
Half of those losses occurred in the third quarter.And yet.
Billionaire Wall Street financier and “Republican megadonor”
💥#Jeff #Yass 💥is DWAC’s biggest institutional shareholder,
with a 2% stake via Susquehanna International Group, his trading firm.What was the impact of the TMTG merger announcement on DWAC stock?
On 23 January 2024, it had hit a 52-week-high of $58.72 per share.
It fell to $44.20 before the shareholder vote.
DWAC shares closed trading Friday afternoon at $36.94 per share,
👉a 37% drop from its peak. -
Within hours of the Oct. 20, 2021, merger deal announcement, the price of Digital World’s shares and warrants exploded.
Shares first listed at $10 sold for prices as high as $175.
And within days, the indictment said, all of the men had sold their shares for major profits, including $4.6 million for Gerald Shvartsman and $50,000 for Garelick.
The men celebrated with a few others they’d told about the “good bet,” including a neighbor, a friend and an employee, the records show.
After his furniture store employee and the employee’s father made $2 million in profits within two days of Trump Media’s announcement, Gerald Shvartsman sent the employee a text message: “I’m happy for you. I’ll be waiting for my commission,” the records show.But all stock market trades are monitored, and the frenzy of activity in an otherwise unremarkable SPAC just before its big kickoff attracted federal attention.
By the end of October, a Digital World filing shows, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an internal watchdog for the securities industry known as Finra, had started asking about the trades.
In a search warrant affidavit, FBI agents said they were on the hunt for any information related to the relationships between Orlando, Postolnikov, the Shvartsman brothers and others who traded in Digital World stock.
And they weren’t the only ones interested in the case.
SEC officials had one month earlier started asking Digital World about its investors’ identities and its communications with Trump Media, an SEC filing shows.And a team of Miami agents specializing in illicit proceeds and foreign corruption inside Homeland Security Investigations’ El Dorado Task Force, which tracks financial crime, launched a joint effort alongside the FBI and SEC — code-named “Trust Social” — once they’d realized they were pursuing “the same investigative targets,” HSI said in a July 2023 report documenting the indictments filed in court.
In December 2021, more than $16 million had been moved from a Rocket One brokerage account into two OptimumBank accounts in Shvartsman’s name.
From there, the money was shuttled into a “🔹wash account🔹” that Shvartsman’s company Transact First had used to transfer millions of dollars in a single day, an HSI agent said in an affidavit for a bank-account-seizure warrant later signed by a judge.
The account’s “sheer volume of high-dollar transactions” made it a “convenient tool to conceal the proceeds of illegal activity,” according to the affidavit.
Over the next several months, it alleged, millions of dollars filtered from that account into another bank account in Shvartsman’s name.
Trump Media later received a $2 million promissory note from a lender called ES Family Trust, Digital World said in an SEC filing last year.
According to media reports, the trust’s only named trustee, Angel #Pacheco, says on LinkedIn he is also a director at Paxum, Postolnikov’s bank.
Pacheco, who a Florida business record says is a co-manager with Shvartsman of a Miami company called Foundation Card Services, did not respond to requests for comment.
#DWAC #corruption
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In October 2021, Donald Trump announced that his media company, the owner of the platform Truth Social, had sealed an incredible deal:
👉 a merger with a “special purpose acquisition company” that would deliver to his firm $300 million toward his promise of giving “a voice to all.”By then, however, the insider trading by investors in the #SPAC, 🔸Digital World Acquisition🔸, had already begun
Rejected by banks and lenders over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and his long history of bankruptcies and business failures, Trump had approved the merger of his company with a special purpose acquisition company as a way to raise money in the months after he lost the White House.
Often called “blank check” firms, SPACs promise access to public stock investors with fewer financial disclosures than a traditional corporate listing requires
Digital World’s chief executive, Patrick #Orlando, a Miami financier Trump had hosted at his golf clubs, had been telling investors privately for months that he’d been talking with Trump about the deal, the filings assert —🔸 a violation of federal securities law🔸, the Securities and Exchange Commission would say later, given his company’s pledge in regulatory filings that its leaders had held no talks with any merger targets.
One investor, the Miami Beach businessman Anton #Postolnikov, had amassed a huge stake in Digital World.
Postolnikov, who was born in Russia and is the nephew of a longtime Russian government official, sold most of his stake just days after Trump’s announcement sent the stock soaring, according to an FBI agent’s search warrant affidavit.His profit: $22 million.
Another, a Ukraine-born nightclub manager turned private equity investor named Michael #Shvartsman, told his business partners and a neighbor about the moneymaking opportunity, according to the affidavit — before securing $18 million in profits for himself.
Shvartsman, his brother #Gerald, and Bruce #Garelick, the investment chief of Shvartsman’s private-equity firm ♦️Rocket One Capital♦️, have been charged with conspiracy and securities fraud in the case.
Trump’s campaign referred comment for this story to Trump Media. Jesse Binnall, an attorney for Trump Media, said in a statement that any alleged wrongdoing “had no connection to Trump Media whatsoever.”
Noting that Trump Media is suing The Washington Post over a previous story about the merger plans, Binnall warned that “any allegations against Trump Media are maliciously and transparently false.”
He did not identify any specific reporting that he alleged to be false.
#DWAC #corruption #campaignfinance
@campaignfinance
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Wild probe of investors of DWAC, Trump Media’s proposed merger ally
Russian born FL businessman Anton Postolnikov amassed huge stake in Digital World - sold most days after Trump/DWAC announcement sent stock soaring. Per FBI search warrant he made profit of $22mil.
SEC has delayed approving DWAC/TMTG merger, blocking $300mil Trump expects.
Docs show investigations went far beyond SEC inquiry (Trump & Trump Media have not been charged)
#Trump #DWAC #Postolnikov #Russia
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/03/trump-social-dwac-investigation/