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The wild probe into investors of #DWAC, #Trump #Media’s proposed merger ally
Sales of #DigitalWorldAcquisition stock triggered a widespread federal probe that involved a confidential informant, a secret airport phone scan & an elite anti-#MoneyLaundering squad. Three people were indicted, but the investigation continues.
In Oct 2021, #Trump announced that his #media company, …owner of…Truth Social, had sealed an incredible deal: a merger w/a “special purpose acquisition company” that would deliver his firm $300M….
By then, however, the #InsiderTrading by #investors in the #SPAC, #DigitalWorldAcquisition, had already begun, acc/to documents filed recently in the #criminal case against 3 #DWAC #investors who’ve been charged w/ #securities #fraud in NewYork federal court.
#criminal #law #SEC #FederalSecurities
Digital World’s chief exec, #PatrickOrlando, a Miami financier #Trump had hosted at his golf clubs, had been telling #investors privately for months that he’d been talking w/Trump about the deal, the filings assert — a violation of #FederalSecurities #law, the #SEC would say later, given his company’s pledge in regulatory filings that its leaders had held no talks w/any merger targets.
One investor, the MiamiBeach businessman #AntonPostolnikov, had amassed a huge stake in #DWAC. Postolnikov, …born in #Russia &…nephew of a longtime #RussianGovernment ofcl, sold most of his stake just days after #Trump’s announcement sent the stock soaring, acc/to a #FBI …search warrant…. His profit: $22M.
Another, an Ukraine-born nightclub mgr turned private #equity investor named #MichaelShvartsman, told his business ptrs & a neighbor about the…opportunity…— before securing $18M …for himself.
Those profits caught the attention of federal ofcls who launched a sprawling investigation into #DWAC’s #investors, the details of which raise questions about how #Trump, who built his #political reputation in part on having mastered “the art of the deal,” ended up committed to a business arrangement that federal agents now allege was undermined from its inception by #FinancialFraud.
#criminal #law #SEC #FederalSecurities
…Rejected by #banks & #lenders over the #Jan6, 2021, #insurrection & his long history of &bankruptcies & #business #failures, #Trump had approved the merger of his company w/a #SPAC as a way to raise money in the months after he lost the WH. Often called “blank check” firms, SPACs promise access to public stock investors w/fewer #FinancialDisclosures than a traditional corporate listing requires.
…the cache of investigative documents, submitted as part of the pretrial discovery process ahead of a spring trial of those already charged, shows the investigation went far beyond the #SEC.
The docs detail the involvement of agents & investigators from the #FBI, the SEC & #HomelandSecurity Investigations, which is the division of the #DHS dedicated to rooting out cross-border #criminal activity & which includes one of the govt’s most elite anti-#MoneyLaundering teams.…
@Nonilex Let's all act surprised