Trump’s Truth Social Payday Hits Road Bump As Co-Founders Sue Ex-President
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Former President Donald Trump’s much-needed, potential $3 billion payday from his Truth Social platform hit another snag this week as his co-founders sued him for allegedly scheming to diminish their stake in the company.
Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss sued Trump on Wednesday claiming he was part of a scheme “to deprive them of a stake in the company that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” reported the Washington Post.
Litinsky and Moss both held 8.6 percent of Trump Media’s shares after pitching the former president the idea of forming his own social platform after leaving office. The former contestants on The Apprentice gave Trump 90 percent of the company’s shares, while the rest went to a lawyer who put the deal together.
Trump Media has long been in talks to merge with Digital World Acquisition, a move aimed at taking to company public, which would allow Trump to eventually sell his shares valued in the billions.
Axios also reported this week that Litinsky and Moss “have threatened to try to block the merger unless they receive board seats to which they claim they’re entitled.”
Their lawsuit alleges that “Trump has recently attempted to ‘drastically dilute’ the partnership’s stake as part of what they called an ‘11th hour, pre-merger corporate maneuvering’ tactic designed to increase the amount of authorized stock, from 120 million shares to 1 billion shares,” reported the Post’s Drew Harwell.
The lawsuit will likely delay any merger and Trump’s ability to raise cash to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars he owes from recent court losses related to fraud and defamation trials. If Trump’s shares were ever realized he would only be able to sell them after the first six months of the company being publicly traded or he would need to receive a waiver.
