Donald Trump's media company deal is being investigated by securities regulators.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Daily Business Briefing

Donald Trump’s media company deal is being investigated by securities regulators.

By Matthew Goldstein and David Enrich
Dec. 6, 2021, 10:24 a.m. ET

Securities regulators have opened investigations into the planned merger of a nascent social media company backed by former President Donald J. Trump with a so-called blank-check company that raised nearly $300 million in an initial public offering in September.

The investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority were disclosed Monday in a regulatory filing by Digital World Acquisition Corporation, the special purpose acquisition company that intends to merge with Trump Media Technology Group.

Both regulators are looking for information regarding the trading in shares of Digital World. The S.E.C. is also looking into “documents and communications” between Digital World and Trump Media.

Digital World said it was cooperating with the requests for information and “the investigation does not mean that the S.E.C. has concluded that anyone violated the law or that the S.E.C. has a negative opinion of D.W.A.C. or any person, event, or security.”

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/business/trump-media-spac-investigation.html

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Black-HeartedEvilPopehat Retweeted

https://twitter.com/Popehat

Breaking: The SEC and other regulators are investigating the financing for Trump's new media company. More to come
@nytimes
https://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1849635/000119312521348598/d242442d425.htm

Link to tweet

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Regulators are investigating a deal for Donald Trump’s social media company to go public by merging with a so-called blank-check company.

Link to tweet

[louis-t]

1. If orange dumbass is involved, laws were broken.

Oh, and $300 million is a long way from the 'billion' he claims they raised. There really are people with money that think anything associated with his name is a good bet?

[zuul]

2. Always a con with this mobbed-up guy.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. TWSJ.: The SEC is investigating a deal between Donald Trump's new social-media venture and SPAC ...

The SEC is investigating a deal between Donald Trump’s new social-media venture and a SPAC that would take Trump's firm public, a securities filing said

Link to tweet

[monkeyman1]

4. and here we go again ! so sick of "TFG" bull-shit ! lock his ass up !

[Ford_Prefect]

5. Who ever is hiding behind TLG's branding is setting up an enormous money laundering scheme.

DWAC is likely full of Russian and Saudi cash being passed through 3rd party and "offshore" shells. TMTG certainly is.

I would expect the SDNY prosecutor's office to have some questions they'd like answers to as well.

[Escurumbele]

6. So many investigations on the SOB and he is still at large...lock the SOB up, when is it going to

happen? Democracy in the USA needs the SOB in jail for his multiple crimes.

The article on the Atlantic is 100% correct..."Democrats, big and small D, are not behaving as if they believe the threat is real." THE THREAT IS REAL, I have seen it happen in other countries, republicans are taking the same steps other countries took as they took over and installed a totalitarian regime...this is real...It CAN happen in the USA as well.

[twodogsbarking]

7. I like it.

[brooklynite]

8. Which means that in six weeks or so, we'll have a new set of complaints...

…that they’re not doing their job fast enough.

[keithbvadu2]

9. identities of certain investors

Red flag for money laundering?

[Javaman]

10. I wouldn't' be the least bit surprised if it turns out to be a money laundering front. nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. WaPo's take: Trump SPAC under investigation by financial regulators

The publicly traded company that plans to merge with former president Donald Trump’s social media company is under investigation by two federal regulators, which have asked for stock trading information and communications.

Digital World Acquisition Corp. disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had received “certain preliminary, fact-finding inquiries” from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in late October and early November regarding stock trading tied to the merger agreement announced Oct. 20.

Separately, the SEC asked for information related to meetings of the company’s board of directors, information on investors, and communications, according to the filing.

A special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, is a shell company that is set up to take a private company public by merging with it. They are called “blank check” companies because public investors can purchase shares without knowing what the shell firm will eventually buy. For investors, the hope is that stock price will shoot up when an acquisition target is announced.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/trump-spac-under-investigation-by-financial-regulators/ar-AARwE54

[SayItLoud]

12. Here's how it plays out if there was illegal activity:

1. Correct the documents.
2. Claim it was a clerical mistake.
3. Say; "never do it again".
4. Pay a fine.

[twodogsbarking]

13. Trump's shell game. No pea.

[IcyPeas]

15. Saudi Arabia? crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman? that's where Kushner is getting his investors from:

https://www.businessinsider.com/kushner-investment-from-the-middle-east-with-mixed-success-nyt-2021-11

...
During the Trump administration, Kushner developed a close relationship with crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman, with whom he reportedly regularly exchanged friendly text messages and phone calls.

Kushner could be in talks to receive as much as $2 billion from the kingdom's $450 billion Public Investment Fund, according to Project Brazen, a journalism platform set up by two former Wall Street Journal reporters.

One source familiar with the Saudi point of view told Project Brazen that while officials did have faith in Kushner's abilities as a businessman, the greater appeal was his political sway.

"In Saudi Arabia, they love the idea of soft power," the source reportedly said. "There is a view that Jared is connected to a powerful network."

Kushner's attempts to raise money from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds raises ethical questions, The New York Times said, considering he was dealing with these countries in an official government capacity as recently as January.

Kushner's business dealings are further complicated by the possibility that Trump might run for office again in 2024.

[reACTIONary]

16. Follow the Truth, where ...

... "Truth" equals "Money".

[dalton99a]

17. Shady as shit

In the coming months, Trump Media & Technology Group would have to disclose its ownership structure and business information before the deal closes. Little is known about the new company and its social-media platform Truth Social.

The $1 billion in PIPE commitments still put the company among a select group of companies that choose to go public through SPACs. Only a few well-established companies, including Southeast Asian app operator Grab Holdings Ltd., electric-vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc., and personal-finance app operator SoFi Technologies Inc. have raised at least that amount.

The SEC has ramped up scrutiny of SPAC deals in recent months amid concerns that such mergers disproportionately benefit insiders through unique incentives at the expense of other investors.

Such mergers have exploded as alternatives to traditional initial public offerings in the past year, in part because they allow companies going public to make business projections that aren’t allowed in IPOs.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-social-media-spac-deal-being-investigated-by-sec-11638807224

[kwolf68]

18. So Trump is pushing for a media company

To compete with Newsmax, One America News, Fox, countless evangelical media groups. That "Liberal media" just keeps growing.