But sources… said #DOGE's involvement in crafting new #policy has rankled some #SEC officials, raising concerns over whether a #Trump initiative should be involved in the core work of an agency long seen as #independent.

Under the #Biden admin, the SEC adopted the #SPAC & private funds #regulations to protect investors from potentially unscrupulous claims by investment promoters & prevent the unchecked buildup of risks to financial stability in the private funds sector.

#DOGE officials at the #SEC, who have so far focused on cutting costs, have in recent weeks sought meetings with staff to explore relaxing what some companies have described as burdensome & unnecessary #regulations, including reworking #Biden-era rules adopted last year on so-called Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, #SPAC, & requirements that private investment advisers confidentially disclose more data so regulators can better spot systemic risk….

The company, which went public via special purpose acquisition company, or #SPAC, last year, now trades with a market capitalization of around $4.9 billion.

The stock nearly doubled in 2024 as #Trump won the US presidential election in November. As of Friday's close, the stock was down nearly 48% this year.

…In simplified form, the process involves 2 basic parties. One is a private company that wants to go public. The other is a #ShellCompany that is already trading on the #StockMarket but has no operations — just a pile of cash that it can use to acquire a business. #SPAC shells are often called “#BlankCheck” companies because their investors have given them a certain amount of money but have no idea yet who the check will be made out to.

#criminal #Trump #law #FEC #SEC
#VoteBlue #Harris2024

Celebrities & athletes were looking to join the frenzy, from Shaquille O’Neal to Martha Stewart. Even if their business plans were fundamentally stupid, even if mom-&-pop investors would later lose nearly all their money, the people who got in on a #SPAC at the beginning could make a pile.

#Fraud, acc/to the #SEC, began almost immediately.

#criminal #Trump #law #FEC
#VoteBlue #Harris2024

Taking #Trump public may not have been possible w/o the rise of an obscure financial instrument, the special-purpose-acquisition company [#SPAC]. In 2020, the pandemic stock market was surging, & the perception among entrepreneurs was that SPACs let private companies get in on the action quicker & w/less #oversight than the traditional way of going public, the #IPO.

#criminal #law #FEC #SEC
#VoteBlue #Harris2024

#Trump Media & Tech stock fell 18%, erasing hundreds of millions from its *market value* — & putting a dent in Trump’s majority stake, worth >$3B. Since a surge in its 1st days of trading as #TrumpMedia, which lifted the value of the co to ~$8B at one point, the company’s shares have dropped by >50%.

Trump Media was expected to register the potential sale of new shares after the completion of its merger w/ #DWAC, a #ShellCompany known as a #SPAC.

The vote Fri by investors in #DWA authorized the #SPAC, to merge w/ #TrumpMedia & #Tech Grp as part of a process that will avoid a more traditional #IPO.

#Trump will own ~60%, which at DWA’s current share price would be worth ~$3.3B. He & other investors could earn tens of millions more shares through an “earnout” provision tied to the stock’s performance, DWA said in an #SEC filing.

The merger will net TrumpMedia $300M that DWA initially raised from investors.

After #Trump was booted from the #birdsite following the #Jan6, 2021, #insurrection, 3 men played pivotal roles in building & promoting #TrumpMedia as an online challenger [] against the “cancel culture” of #BigTech: #AndyLitinsky & #WesMoss, fmr “Apprentice” contestants who co-founded the company & launched Truth Social; & #PatrickOrlando, who as chief exec of #DWA, a #SPAC [#BlankCheck], offered Trump’s company a path to investor #cash.

#law
https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/112130283180375331