One of the co-founders of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., parent company of the Truth Social platform, has sold nearly his entire ownership stake in the firm, according to a regulatory filing this week. File Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE
Sept. 28 (UPI) — A co-founder of former President Donald Trump‘s Truth Social messaging platform has dumped his shares following the expiration of a mandatory “lockup” period, a public filing shows.
United Atlantic Ventures LLC, headed by Andrew Litinsky, a one-time contestant on Trump’s television show The Apprentice, now holds only 100 shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., Truth Social’s parent company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed Thursday.
At the time of its debut on the Nasdaq market following a merger with a publicly traded shell company in March, Litinsky’s firm held more than 7.5 million shares, representing an approximately 4% stake.
The former president owns a majority stake in the company, which goes by ticker symbol DTJ. Its share price has fluctuated wildly since March, largely in relation to Trump’s political fortunes and is considered a “meme” stock by most market observers.
Since mid-May, however, its share price has largely been on a steady downward trajectory and reached new lows this week as SEC-imposed rules restricting the sale of shares by company insiders in the wake of the merger expired.
Analysts questioned whether Trump himself would sell his shares — the former president has vowed he would not — but the prospect of other investors dumping their positions further depressed share prices.
Trump Media had a market capitalization of $2.954 billion at Friday’s close.
The peak was $79.38 on March 26.
DTJ closed at $14.75 per share on Friday, up from an all-time low of $11.75 on Tuesday. At this week’s low-water mark, United Atlantic Ventures’ sale would have been worth $89 million.
The share sale was not unexpected due to legal battling between Trump and the former Apprentice contestant.
In April, Litinksy and partner Wesley Moss, another former contestant on the show, were sued by Trump Media & Technology Group, which sought to force them to give up their ownership stakes and leadership positions in the firm.
The suit alleges the pair “failed spectacularly” in their leadership of the company and made “reckless and wasteful decisions” that damaged it. That action came after they sued Trump Media claiming their stake should have been higher.