(Reuters) -Employees at a Miami investment firm had learned of a pending merger deal between former President Donald Trump’s social media company and a blank-check entity long before it was announced, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing three people familiar with the discussions.
Officials of the firm, Rocket One Capital, at the time talked about ways to profit off the soon-to-be-announced transaction with Trump Media & Technology Group by investing in the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), the Times reported https://nyti.ms/3ILscSe, citing two of the people.
“Mr. Shvartsman and Rocket One Capital intend to fully cooperate in the investigations. Any assertion that Mr. Shvartsman or Rocket One Capital had any advance knowledge of the potential transactions contemplated by DWAC is categorically false,” a lawyer representing Rocket One’s founder Michael Shvartsman said in an email to Reuters.
Trump Media did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Federal prosecutors and regulators are now investigating the merger, including the frenzied trading in the SPAC’s warrants, the report said, citing people familiar with the investigation and public disclosures.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the creator of social media platform Truth Social, agreed to merge with Digital World on Oct. 20. The deal was expected to close by the second half of this year.
Digital World shares soared as much as 350%, a day after the deal was made public.
(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York, Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)