Trump Media & Technology Group, the media company that former President Donald Trump recently took public, has filed a lawsuit against two of its co-founders.
According to CNBC, the lawsuit filed in Sarasota County, Florida, civil court on March 24 accused Trump Media co-founders Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky of incompetence in launching the company and that they should not get any stock in it.
Trump Media Owned by Donald Trump Sues its 2 Co-Founders
The lawsuit also seeks to prevent Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky from appointing members to the company's board. According to the lawsuit, the two were responsible for setting up Trump Media's corporate governance structure, preparing Truth Social's launch, and finding a shell company to merge with and take the media company public.
However, Trump Media alleged that Moss and Litinsky "failed spectacularly at every turn," and made a series of "reckless and wasteful decisions" that caused "significant damage" to the company and a decline in the stock price of the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC).
The two men claimed they have an 8.6% share of Trump Media's total stock based on a 2021 agreement that Donald Trump signed with a firm they founded, United Atlantic Ventures, LLC.
However, Trump Media said the services agreement Trump signed with UAV in 2021 is no longer valid. The company noted that Eric Trump sent UAV a letter in 2021 stating that his father had "deemed" the agreement to be "void," and UAV allegedly "acquiesced" to the decision to void the contract.
Trump Media Co-Founders Accused of 'Breaches of Fiduciary Duty'
According to Bloomberg, the lawsuit asked the court to force Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky to return their stake in the company and award damages for what it claims were the two men's "breaches of fiduciary duty."
The lawsuit also named DWAC's former CEO and founder Patrick Orlando as a co-defendant, accusing him of being involved in these breaches.
Last month, Litinsky and Moss, through UAV, filed their own lawsuit in Delaware against Donald Trump, alleging that the former president tried to "drastically dilute" their stake in the new company. The lawsuit was filed around the time DWAC shareholders voted to approve a merger with Trump Media.
Trump Media now publicly trades under the ticker "DJT," and its stock surged by as high as 50% in its Nasdaq debut last week. However, the company's shares plunged Monday after it disclosed mounting losses in a regulatory filing, slashing $3.8 billion off its value.
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