Trump’s new media company under investigation by SEC
The US’ Securities and Exchange Commission is probing Trump’s plans to take his new social media company public.
Having been banned from Facebook and Twitter Trump is forging ahead with plans to launch his own social media platform, Truth Social.
The campaign to launch the company today hit a roadblock, however, with an SEC filing revealing that the Wall Street regulator is investigating the proposed SPAC deal between Digital World and Trump’s social media company.
The filing showed that in November the SEC requested documents about the special purpose acquisition company’s board meetings as well as information on trading policies, investors’ contact details and communications between Digital World and Trump Media and Technology Group.
US broker-dealer watchdog Finra has also asked Digital World to share information on trading before the company’s merger’s announcement, the filing said. Digital World said in the filing it was co-operating with regulators and that their information requests did not suggest they had determined wrongdoing had occurred.
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren asked the SEC to investigate TMTG’s proposed merger over potential violations of securities laws, which included questions over whether they had sufficiently disclosed when deal talks began.
Proposals by Trump to launch a social media company through a merger have generate excitement amongst the former President’s supporters and retail investors. A trading frenzy of Digital World’s shares has driven TMTG’s valuation from $875m (£659m) in October to close to $4bn.
On Saturday, Truth Social announced it had raised $1bn of funding from unidentified investors. Trump said the funding “sends an important message to Big Tech that censorship and political discrimination must end.”