Alleged fraud in Trump Media deal leads to ex-CEO being charged by authorities

The former CEO of the firm that helped bring Donald Trump’s social media company public has been accused by federal authorities of fraud in that same deal.

Patrick Orlando was accused by the SEC in Washington, D.C., federal court of making "fraudulent contact" and making "materially false and misleading statements and omissions" while serving as CEO of Digital World Acquisition Corp. in filings made with the commission.

The SEC said Orlando lied to investors by saying his special purpose acquisition company had no specific target companies before offering investors shares.

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"Through these publicly available filings, Orlando falsely represented that DWAC, a special purpose acquisition company ... that he controlled, did not intend to merge with any specific company and, indeed, had had no discussions or contacts with any specific company and, indeed, had had no discussions or contacts with any potential merger targets."

Orlando, the feds alleged on Wednesday, "knew these statements were false because he had personally engaged in numerous lengthy discussions with representatives of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. ..., a social media company, and because he had targeted TMTG for merger with DWAC for months."

TMTG is the parent company of Truth Social, which trades under the acronym DJT.

The agency settled with DWAC last year for $18 million over similar accusations of misleading investors, according to Bloomberg. Orlando exited his roles with the company in the spring of 2023.