Former President Donald Trump removed himself from the board of his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, just weeks before the company was issued federal subpoenas by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump, the Chairman of TMTG, was one of six board members , including Donald Trump Jr., removed on June 8, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported , citing state business records.
The report comes as the SEC has been investigating TMTG and has issued several subpoenas in connection with SPAC Digital World Acquisition ( NASDAQ: DWAC ), which is taking TMTG and Trump's social media app Truth Social public.
On Friday SPAC Digital World ( DWAC ) disclosed it received two more subpoenas related to a SEC probe from last week Certain current and former TMTG personnel have also recently received individual grand jury subpoenas, according to the 8-K filing. DWAC also last week disclosed other subpoenas in a previously disclosed SEC probe of the company.
The subpoenas come after DWAC in early December disclosed it received voluntary information and document request from the SEC. DWAC said in its most recent 10-Q filing in May that it had received a subpoena in relation to the probe on the business combination.
The disclosure about the regulatory probes followed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sending a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler requesting that the agency i nvestigate the transaction last year.
The Warren request followed a New York Times report that Trump's deal with DWAC may have skirted securities laws. The former president began discussing a potential deal with Patrick Orlando, the founder of the Digital World SPAC well before DWAC went public in September.
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Trump removed himself from his social media company's board weeks before subpoenas