Another Trump company facing unreliable financial reports, criminal investigations, and possible total failure? Tell me it is not so. Trump’s Truth Social Faces More Trouble As SPAC Partner Admits Financial Statements Are Unreliable https://www.forbes.com/sites/kather...ble-as-stock-faces-delisting/?sh=31a2d1d41cdd
Remember Devin Nunes is the clown who sued the "Devin Nunes' cow" parody account for defamation -- except everything the parody account stated turned out to be true. LOL. Well... Devin the clown is back at it. Devin doesn't like major news publications reporting the facts about Truth Social. You know... those facts found directly in the financial filings and press releases from DWAC and TMTG. 'Dumpster fire': Devin Nunes ruthlessly mocked over Truth Social's 'garbage' defamation suit https://www.rawstory.com/truth-social-2660722034/ Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), now heading up former President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform, is creating a legal "dumpster fire" for his company with new lawsuits directed at journalists, wrote legal analyst Liz Dye for Above The Law. "Regular readers of this column will recall that Devin Nunes is a prolific filer of garbage defamation suits, against various news outlets, social media companies, and random Twitter cows," wrote Dye. "He’s usually accompanied on these outings by his clownshoes lawyer Stephen Biss, and indeed, Biss is along for these two suits, chaperoned by local counsel Jason Kobal, head of a two-lawyer shop whose website is tampaworkcomplaw.com." All of these lawsuits have ended in failure. One particular blow came last month, when a Trump-appointed judge tossed out his lawsuit against Esquire for an article on how his family uses undocumented labor at their dairy farm — ruling the evidence was clear that the story's allegation was true. Now, Dye wrote, under Nunes' leadership, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which runs Truth Social, is filing similarly flimsy lawsuits against The Guardian and The Washington Post. "TMTG is in the midst of trying to take itself public via a SPAC known as Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC). But the deal appears to be seriously in jeopardy, with the SEC, FINRA, and the Justice Department investigating DWAC. There are also reports that DWAC’s recently ousted CEO Patrick Orlando, who met with Trump before DWAC’s founding, made it clear from the jump that taking TMTG public was the entire reason for founding the SPAC, a gross violation of SEC rules," reported Dye. "In March, The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reported that TMTG is under investigation for possible money laundering in relation to an $8 million loan from a company whose main business appears to be processing payments for webcam pornography in the former Soviet Union." TMTG's lawsuit against The Guardian claims that "Defendants published and republished egregious statements online and via social media (Twitter) that falsely accused or implied that Nunes engaged in or aided and abetted money laundering." In reality, Dye noted, the article only mentioned Nunes twice, one of which was to include his denial of the allegations — and the lawsuit was filed in state court in Florida despite none of the defendants being in Florida. This was soon followed up by another TMTG lawsuit against the Post, for reporting that the DOJ is investigating a $240,000 finder's fee in the acquisition deal that was allegedly never revealed to shareholders in violation of the law — and, wrote Dye, the suit was released on the same day that "DWAC filed notice that it was in danger of being delisted from NASDAQ due to failure to file a timely quarterly report, and that it had 'identified an error related to the accounting for certain expenses in the previously issued financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2022' and thus its financial statements from last year 'should no longer be relied upon.'" "The Guardian case is set for conference before Judge Stephen Walker in September, and the Post case has been assigned to Walker, but no hearings have yet been scheduled," concluded Dye. "So it may be a few months before we find out if Nunes can do for TMTG what he managed to do for his own family. We’re all rootin’ for ya, little cowpoke!"
Truth Social users are tired of being scammed by endless grifty advertisements on the platform. 'Scammed' users rage at Trump over 'misleading gimmicks' on Truth Social https://www.rawstory.com/trump-truth-social-2659318883/ Because major advertisers are avoiding Donald Trump's Truth Social, users are instead being exposed to a flood of ads from what the New York Times characterizes as "miracle cures, scams and fake merchandise," as the platform is forced to take what it can in an effort to survive. That, in turn, has led to complaints aimed at the former president in his comment sections for allowing the forum to turn into a cesspool of ads from scam artists. As the Times is reporting, Truth Social is almost devoid of ads from large corporations for a multitude of reasons that include the toxic rhetoric on the site, its small reach due to few users and the fact that the predominant demographic is not one that advertisers are trying to reach. As the Times' Stuart Thompson wrote, "Ads from major brands are nonexistent on the site. Instead, the ads on Truth Social are for alternative medicine, diet pills, gun accessories and Trump-themed trinkets, according to an analysis of hundreds of ads on the social network by The New York Times," before adding, "The ads reflect the difficulty that several far-right platforms, including Rumble and Gab, have faced in courting large brands, preventing the sites from tapping into some of the world’s largest ad budgets." As the report notes, Truth Social was initially financed with $37 million from GOP donors, and is currently estimated to be burning through $1.7 million per month and money is running out because of problems with the Securities and Exchange Commission Upon its launch, Devin Nunes, the chief executive of Trump Media, announced major advertisers would flock to the site — which has not happened — and the gap has been filled by companies that are much less desirable. Add to that, according to one advertiser, the money he has spent on Truth Social has gone nowhere when it comes to sales. "Maxwell Finn, an online marketer, said in a YouTube video that he was one of Truth Social’s top advertisers, spending more than $150,000 on ads, including those for Trump-themed hats, shirts, coins and novelty bills. In the video, he called the ad platform 'frustrating' and 'bare bones,' adding that it lacked even basic functionality, forcing his company to manually track ad performance — a method that would prove impossible for advertisers with larger budgets," the report states with Finn explaining, "Do I think this is a platform where you can be spending tens of thousands of dollars a day, especially if you only have a few products? No, probably. The audience is just too small.” As for those who are still advertising on the site, fans of the former president are furious that advertisers are not being vetted. "Over time, the low-quality ads on Truth Social have irritated its own users, who have complained to Mr. Trump after repeatedly seeing the same disturbing images or after falling for misleading gimmicks," the Times is reporting before adding an example of one user complaining directly to Trump, "Can you not vet the ads on Truth? I’ve been scammed more than once.” You can read more here.
Most predictable insider trading case ever. The circle of grift goes on... 3 men who funded Trump-acquired social media company charged with insider trading Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick were charged. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/3-men-funded-trump-social-media-company-charged/story?id=100486153 Three men who funded the company that became Donald Trump's Truth Social platform have been charged with insider trading. Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick made more than $22 million by trading in shares of Digital World Acquisition Corporation, according to federal prosecutors in New York. The three investors were arrested Thursday on securities fraud charges that accused them of violating an agreement about Digital World Acquisition Corporation's intent to merge with Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that runs Truth Social. Digital World Acquisition Group is a SPAC, or special acquisition company -- also known as a blank-check company -- which are created to facilitate a merger with companies that want to go public on stock exchanges like the Nasdaq. Garelick was given a seat on Digital World Acquisition Group's board, allowing him access to nonpublic information about the company's plans to merge with Trump Media. According to federal prosecutors, Garelick provided the information to Michael and Gerald Shvartsman, who were able to buy millions of shares before news of the Trump Media merger became public. Prosecutors also said the information was passed to Michael Shvartsman's neighbors and to Gerald Shvartsman's employees at a furniture supply store. As soon as the news hit and the share price increased in value, the defendants, the neighbors and the employees all sold at significant profit, according to the criminal charges. Michael Shvartsman, 52, of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida; Gerald Shvartsman, 45, of Aventura, Florida; and Garelick, 53, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, all face securities fraud charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. "Insider trading is not a quick buck," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "It's not easy money. It's not a sure thing. It's cheating. It's a bad bet. It's a ticket to prison."
Another one (Morning Brew): Three charged with insider trading related to Trump’s SPAC deal. The DOJ arrested three Florida investors, alleging they made more than $22 million in illegal profits through trading stock in the SPAC that took former President Trump’s social media company public. The men are accused of trading shares in Digital World Acquisition Corp. based on nonpublic knowledge and making bank in October 2021 when news it planned to acquire Truth Social made its stock soar. Neither the former president nor his family members are implicated. {Yet }
Meanwhile Truth Social's former ummm world headquarters at WeWork - they were just in the news: Stock spotlight: WeWork’s just hoping to be around to see any of it. The coworking company announced a 1-for-40 reverse stock split on Friday in an attempt to avoid getting delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Might DWAC do the same?
The grift may be about to implode... Trump's Truth Social deal facing 'catastrophic threat' of having to return $300 million to investors https://www.rawstory.com/trump-truth-social-deal/ Donald Trump's venture into social media with the creation of Truth Social could come to a screeching halt in the near future if the merger with Digital World collapses and he faces ending up with nothing from the deal that has been pending for two years. According to a new report from the Washington Post, there is a Sept. 8 deadline for the merger to close or be extended and, should it fail, Digital World will be compelled by law to return $300 million to investors. The Post's Drew Harwell is reporting, "With the $300 million Digital World had already raised from investors, Trump Media & Technology Group, creator of the pro-Trump social network Truth Social, pledged then that the merger would create a tech titan worth $875 million at the start and, depending on the stock’s performance, up to $1.7 billion later," before adding, "Now, almost two years later, the deal faces what could be a catastrophic threat." As the report notes, the past two years have been chaotic with executive departures, accusations of insider trading, and an $18 million settlement over accusations executives misled investors and the SEC. According to Jay Ritter, a University of Florida finance professor, "The deal does seem to be running out of time. You can’t just keep getting extensions forever.” "Digital World needs 65 percent of the shares held by its nearly 400,000 investorsto vote 'yes' on the deadline extension; unvoted shares are counted as 'no' votes. If the extension fails, Digital World said in a filing in July that it would 'cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up' and repay investors at a price of about $10.24 per share — far below what many shareholders paid," the Post is reporting. "Trump, who would retain his 90 percent ownership of Trump Media if the deal falls apart, has yet to make mention of the shareholder vote on his own Truth Social account," the Post's Harwell is reporting before adding, "Truth Social has attracted a relatively meager following. Though Trump Media projected in a 2021 investor presentation that the site would have 41 million total users by the end of this year, usage estimates from Similarweb, a data firm that analyzes web traffic, suggest it is a long way from reaching that goal." You can read more here