A businessman who invested in the corporate that took former President Donald Trump’s social media company public was sentenced to 22 months in prison on Wednesday for insider trading related to the deal.
Gerald Shvartsman earned at the very least $4.6 million from trading on private information related to the merger between Digital World Acquisition Corp. and Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns social media platform Truth Social (DJT), in line with Bloomberg.
Shvartsman and his brother Michael Shvartsman each copped to securities fraud charges in April. One other person involved within the insider trading, Bruce Garelick, was found guilty by a jury in May. Michael Shvartsman will face sentencing on Thursday, and Garelick will probably be sentenced on Nov. 7.
Prosecutors asked that Gerald Shvartsman receive at the very least two years in prison, saying he was guilty of “brazen corruption and greed.”
Shvartsman’s lawyers were hoping their client would get 18 months of probation. They wrote that their client “has lost his fame and suffered humiliation each personally and professionally. He has lost significant amounts of business through the lack of banking, bank cards, customers and vendors,” in line with CNBC. “His wife and youngsters have suffered and there’ll proceed to be huge collateral consequences of his actions, which is a major punishment in and of itself,” his lawyers continued.
Trump Media (DJT) has had a volatile week. After a weekslong rally that saw shares roughly triple in value, the stock took an 8% nosedive Tuesday afternoon but rallied Wednesday, increasing 13% by the afternoon. Shares of the corporate behind Truth Social were trading at $30.78 as of Wednesday afternoon.
This see-sawing comes just weeks before the presidential election, which is able to see Trump face off against Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris on the ballot box.
Trump is a majority shareholder of Trump Media, holding roughly 57% of the corporate’s stock — and he has said he has no plans to let go of his holdings. The stock’s recent rally has added billions to Trump’s net value.
–Additional reporting by Rocio Fabbro.