Former 'apprentices' and Trump Media cofounders file lawsuit claiming company execs tried to dilute their stake ahead of a potential merger
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Vogue via Getty Images, Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
- Trump Media & Technology Group cofounders accused the company of conspiring to dilute their shares.
- Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, former contestants on "The Apprentice," pitched the venture in 2021.
- The lawsuit could complicate an upcoming shareholder vote on a merger that would take the company public.
Two cofounders of former President Donald Trump's media company have filed a lawsuit claiming executives at the company schemed to deprive them of shares that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of a possible merger.
Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who met Trump when they were contestants on "The Apprentice," filed the lawsuit through their partnership, United Atlantic Ventures (UAV).
In the suit, seen by The Washington Post, they claimed executives, including Trump, were using "11th hour, pre-merger corporate maneuvering" to dilute their stake in the business.
Trump Media's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, which was made outside of regular working hours.
The lawsuit is the latest of three that could complicate an upcoming shareholder vote on a long-pending merger that would take the company public.
The bid would see Trump's company, the parent company of his social media network Truth Social, merge with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition.
Litinsky and Moss first came to Trump in 2021 with a pitch for a Trump-branded media startup after he was barred from Twitter, and they agreed on a deal that gave Trump a 90% stake and UAV 8.6%, per The Post.
The new lawsuit claims that Trump and other leaders sought to increase the amount of authorized stock from 120 million shares to 1 billion shares, which would reduce Litinsky and Moss' stake to less than 1% ahead of the merger, the report said.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Digital World, Trump's shares would be worth more than $3 billion after the merger at Thursday's stock price, while UAV's stake would be worth nearly $300 million.
The sum would be a welcome financial boost for the former president, who faces huge legal costs of more than $450 million.
The suit also claims that the Trump Media board planned to give new shares to "Trump and/or his associates and children," per The Post.
The outlet previously reported that Trump had called Litinsky in October 2021 to ask if he would give up some of his shares to Trump's wife, Melania, and that he had refused.
Litinsky and Moss left Trump Media soon after UAV launched the business after a dispute with company leaders, but they retained their shares, per the Digital World SEC filing.
The two-year attempted merger between Trump Media and Digital World Acquisition Corp has faced ongoing delays, partly due to SEC investigations into potential securities violations.
Ahead of the final shareholder vote on March 22, the merger still faces complications as legal hurdles continue to mount.