The media company that Donald Trump recently took public is suing its co-founders, accusing them of failing “spectacularly” to get the company off the ground and then trying to “thwart the deal.”
The lawsuit filed in Sarasota County, Florida, civil court seeks to bar Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ:DJT) co-founders Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky from appointing members to the company’s board — or from owning any of its shares.
Moss and Litinsky claim that a 2021 agreement that Trump signed with a company they founded, United Atlantic Ventures, LLC, guarantees them an 8.6% share of Trump Media’s total stock, undiluted by the issuance of new shares.
At DJT’s closing price Tuesday, that share would be worth about $601 million.
In February, Moss and Litinsky sued Trump Media in Delaware Chancery Court over their stake in the company.
The suit was filed in late March, around the same time that shareholders in the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. voted to approve a merger with Trump Media, a private company behind the fledgling social media app Truth Social.
Following the special purpose merger, stock in the newly public Trump Media began trading under the ticker DJT and shot up by as much as 50% in its NASDAQ debut last week.
DJT shares began Wednesday down 25 cents to $51.35.
