Former President Donald Trump has sued two of the co-founders of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. in Florida, claiming that they did such a poor job establishing Truth Social and discharging other responsibilities that they deserve no share in the company.
Trump says Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss did not live up to the terms of their agreement and therefore should not receive any of the 8.6 percent of the company to which they would otherwise be entitled, according to Bloomberg.
Those shares are worth roughly $581 million at noon Wednesday, when shares were trading at $49.95 each (down about 3.2 percent from Tuesday).
For comparison, Trump himself owns 57 percent of Trump Media, Bloomberg said, citing filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His stake is worth about $3.85 billion at the same valuation.
“[T]he pair brought their own suit against the former president in Delaware Chancery Court over their promised stake in the social media company,” Bloomberg reported.
The Associated Press noted that their suit had been filed in February. It also noted that Litinsky and Moss had both appeared on Trump’s “The Apprentice.”
In fact, the judge in Delaware said he was “gobsmacked” at the fact that Trump had filed his suit in Florida, rather than filing a counterclaim in Delaware, as would be more commonly expected.
Trump may, in fact, have opened himself up to sanctions by the Delaware court with the move, Judge Sam Glasscock III said, according to Bloomberg.
The Florida case — Trump Media & Technology Group v. United Atlantic Ventures, Florida Circuit Court, 12th Judicial Circuit (Sarasota)—was filed on March 24, but had not been reported in the media until Bloomberg’s article on Tuesday.
“Trump claims Litinsky and Moss failed to properly set up the corporate governance structure of Trump Media, launch his Truth Social platform, and find an appropriate merger partner,” Bloomberg reported. “That failure hurt the company, he argues.”
The two conspired to keep the company from going public for over 18 months, Trump claims, according to the AP.
Both outlets pointed out that shares in the “special purpose acquisition company” had been fluctuating significantly in recent days.
The stock price dropped 21 percent Monday after reporting a $58 million loss and almost no revenue for 2023, although it recovered a small amount of that loss the following day.
Trump could sell some of his stock in the company to pay off his legal expenses and judgments arising from recent cases against him, though he is not permitted to sell them until he has held them for at least six months.
In a separate article, Bloomberg estimated Trump’s net worth at about $6.5 billion, although that was prior to Monday’s stock price plummet. Most of that money is tied up in real estate and other holdings, of course.
The addition of his holdings in Trump Media to his portfolio made Trump one of the 500 richest men on earth, the outlet said.
CNN reported Tuesday that even after Monday’s selloff, Trump Media’s $6.6 billion valuation still “defies logic.”
via westernjournal