Former US president Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the co-founders of Truth Social, claiming that they should forfeit their shares in the recently public business due to their mismanagement of the social media network, as per a report in NBC News.
The IPO of Truth Social went public on March 26 while the lawsuit was filed on March 24. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. requested a judge strip executives Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss of their company shares, claiming that their costly errors caused the company’s IPO to be delayed. The arguments were presented in papers filed last week in a Florida state court. The former President has alleged that both violated the agreement about the setup and “don’t deserve their 8.6% stake, currently valued at $606 million”, as per Bloomberg.
The two, who participated on Trump’s NBC programme “The Apprentice,” approached him with the concept of Truth Social after he was banned from Twitter in the wake of the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. The lawsuit said that this turned out to be “a phenomenal opportunity for Moss and Litinsky” and that they were both “riding President Trump’s coattails.” It added, “Without President Trump, Truth Social would have been impossible.”
According to the lawsuit, the duo was entrusted with creating the new business’s corporate governance and locating a special-purpose acquisition firm that might help it go public and raise capital. The lawsuit stated they were unsuccessful on both occasions.
In February, Mr Moss and Mr Litinsky filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s business in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming that he was attempting to reduce the value of their shares by raising the company’s total authorised shares from 120 million to 1 billion.