The Obscured Truth About Trump's Truth Social Media Platform
Op by Sunlit7
Among the media frenzy of stock purchases for the new Truth Social platform of former president Donald Trump it was lost on MAGA supporters to realize that Truth Social financial backings undermines one of the major underpinnings of the MAGA movement, that being, basically, made in China.
From a WeWork office in Miami, an obscure financier by the name of Patrick Orlando has become an unlikely power behind what is, for a meme-stock minute, the ultimate MAGA stock: the nascent media company of former President Donald J. Trump.
Orlando’s firm is set to be the money behind Trump Media and Technology Group, the former president’s attempt to fight back against Big Tech. Trump says he plans to start with a social network called Truth Social but has broader ambitions to create a conglomerate -- with news, streaming and technology businesses to compete with CNN and Disney+.
Yes that's right, MAGA supporters buying stock for a still yet nascent media company, built off the funding of a company located in China, in coordination with a partnership with investment bankers from Shanghai, run through a shell corporation from the Cayman Islands into a small WeWork office in Miami a meme stocked minute couldn't even begin to describe the irony. That Patrick Orlando's office is located in Wuhan pushes the whole thing right over the edge.
Patrick Orlando, chief executive officer of Yunhong International, a SPAC incorporated in the Cayman Islands and whose office are in Wuhan China most recently has embraced what's known as blank check companies.
Patrick Orlando is the chief executive officer of Digital World Acquisition Corporation who has acted as the special purpose acquisition company's (SPAC) public face. Abraham Cinta, Sergio Camarero, Carlos Lopex, Jesus Emilo Hoyos Quintero are managing partners of Arc Group Ltd, a Shanghai based investment bank listed in a regulatory filing as a financial advisor to Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a shell company merging with former president Trump's venture.
The US based WeWork office of Digital World Acquisition Corporation is at
Digital World Acquisition Corporation, unlike most SPAC's it doesn't have PIPE investors or private investment in public equity, they buttress SPAC mergers by helping enable a deal to go through even when early investors decide to redeem their shares. Shares sold drove Trump Media and Technology Group's stock up 73% giving a valuation of 6.3 billion to the company. Trump and other Trump Media and Technology Group shareholders will initially own 69% of the combined company after the merger with the SPAC showed a regulatory filing this week. Their ownership could reach 77% if the company's stock meets certain price milestones.
Arc Group members Abraham Cinta, Sergio Camarero, Carlos Lopez, and Jesus Emilo Hoyos Quintero have found themselves in trouble with regulators in the past:
A review of regulatory filings shows that while ARC has been actively involved in the creation of SPACs, especially over the past two years, its executives ran into trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2017. The regulator sued to block the initial public offerings of three companies where the four men had leading roles, accusing them of misrepresenting their connections, misstating the nature and scope of their businesses and failing to cooperate with regulators.
( https://news.yahoo.com/trump-media-deal-partner-advisers-095140095.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall)
Reuters could not determine what Trump or his company, Trump Media & Technology Group, knew of the ARC Group bankers' involvement in Digital World or their past troubles with regulators.
Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World did not respond to requests for comment. Orlando, who has worked on at least three other special purpose acquisition companies with ARC, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Stop orders, such as the one against the ARC executives, are extremely rare; only five have been issued by the SEC since the case against the ARC executives four years ago.
The situation has further been besmudged by a report that Donald Trump's SPAC merger may have violated securities laws according to a recent report by the Insider.
Former President Donald Trump and the founder of the SPAC that is merging with his new media company may have discussed the deal in March 2021, The New York Times reported.
Such a discussion could potentially have broken laws governing when SPACs can enter conversations with potential partners, the publication added.
On October 21, Trump announced plans for Trump Media and Technology Group, a company with a yet-to-launch social-media site. He said it would go public via a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Digital World had gone public in September. The news that Trump would be involved with the company sent its stock into the stratosphere. But the rally was short-lived, with the stock slipping early this week before trading mostly sideways into the weekend.
The timing of the first conversations between Trump and Patrick Orlando, the SPAC's chief executive and chairman, are of interest. This is because of securities laws that prohibit conversations between SPACs and merger partners before public listings, the Times reported on Friday.
Digital World was incorporated in December 2020, and said in its May IPO prospectus that it hadn't been in "substantive" discussions with any merger targets.
"We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us," the company wrote in the S-1 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company said it planned to target "technology-focused companies" in the Americas.
( https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-spac-digital-world-spac-securities-law-2021-10)
The complete sheer, utter irony of it all.
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