The auditor for former president Donald Trump’s media company was charged with “massive fraud” Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the firm of being a “sham audit mill” whose failures put investors at risk.
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)
An April SEC filing for Trump Media reveals new details on early investors in Trump’s company - including ex FL AG Pam Bondi who owns 100,000+ shares worth several million dollars and her brother advised on the deal.
A new name in the Trump Media Apr S-1 Registration Statement is lawyer Michael Milkersen with 300,000+ shares (and several hundred thousand founder and ARC shares) making him one of the largest investors. It's not clear how he became involved in the deal.
A new name in the alternative financing group is 'Washington Muse Investments SPC' which has a Cayman Islands address and owns 4,166,666 shares and 1,388,888 warrants, making it one of the top owners - but there is almost no public info on this company.
Last week, #TrumpMedia reported sales of just over $4 million in 2023 as net losses reached nearly $60 million for the full year ending Dec. 31. The company warned it "expects losses to continue amid greater profitability challenges."
If #MAGA stooges think earning $4 million on top of LOSING $60 million is a "great business," then there's little wonder why they intend to vote for #Trump.
It's because they are stupid.
Based on its claims in '21 #TruthSocial / #DJT expected to generate $114M in sales in 2023. But the company recorded just $4.1M in net sales last year and lost $58.2M. 😳
So they hit about 3.5% of their target in sales for the year, while eating into their cash reserves to the tune of $54,100,000.
#Trump Media is losing a STAGGERING amount of money & is nowhere close to being a profitable company or meeting any growth projections. It's almost like Trump's not a great businessman. 🤔💸💸💸 #Oops🤷🏼♂️
If you are having difficulty understanding how abysmal $4.1M in annual sales is for #TruthSocial (2023), for context we should consider that the average for a single Chipotle franchise nets $3M in annual sales.
I don't know, I'm not a professional investor, but maybe it's not a great investment strategy to invest in a company, built on free opensource software that anyone can use, based on the reputation of a professional con artist, indicted in multiple states for serious crimes, including attacking the US itself, with 3/4 billion dollar in civil judgments for lying about raping a woman that is growing +/-$20 in interest every second of the day, 24/7
Then again, I'm just a novice investor #TrumpMedia
Funds that bet on a fall were set to profit as the parent of #TruthSocial came under renewed pressure after it registered new shares for a potential sale.
Shares of #Trump’s #socialmedia company plunged on Monday after the company filed to register the potential sale of tens of millions of additional shares.
#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.
"Watching Trump sell his swindle about migrants, it occurred to me that those suckered by the Trump Media IPO got a better deal, relatively speaking. Those who bought “DJT” shares lost only their shirts. But those who have been snookered into seeing migrants as diseased animals have lost part of their souls." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/05/trump-swindle-crowd-green-bay-rally/
🔥 🔥 🔥
"Now that Trump plans to surrender Ukraine to Russia, it seems inappropriate to have a major airport named after a fierce Cold Warrior such as John Foster Dulles, secretary of state in the Eisenhower administration. But couldn’t Reschenthaler cut out the middleman and just name the airport Putin International?"
🔥 🔥 🔥 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/05/trump-swindle-crowd-green-bay-rally/
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.
But #TrumpMedia almost didn’t make it to the merger after #regulators opened a #securities investigation into it in 2021 & caused the co to burn through cash at an extraordinary rate as it waited…for its IPO.
The situation led TrumpMedia to take emergency #loans, incl’g from an entity called #ESFamilyTrust, which opened an acct w/ #PaxumBank, a small bank registered on the #Caribbean island of #Dominica best known for providing #financial services to the #porn industry.
Postolnikov, the nephew of #AleksandrSmirnov, an ally of the Russian president, Vladimir #Putin, has not been charged w/a #crime. In response to an email to Postolnikov seeking comment, a lawyer in Dominica representing #PaxumBank threatened legal action for reporting the contents of leaked docs.