#SCOTUS is expected to hand down more rulings Wednesday. There are 10 more cases to be decided this term, including some of the court’s most politically salient ones. Those cases address topics such as whether #Trump is immune from prosecution for all acts during his presidency, whether the #Biden admin violated the #FirstAmendment in asking #SocialMedia companies to take down posts, & whether a federal #law means ER doctors can perform #abortions in states where they are restricted or banned.
Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. — The legality of a proposed Purdue #Pharma#bankruptcy plan that would allocate billions to help ease the nation’s #opioid crisis but shield the family that owns the company from future lawsuits.
City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson — Whether state & local ofcls can punish #homeless individuals for camping & sleeping in public spaces when #shelter beds are unavailable. #SCOTUS#law
"Yet another subpoena for documents is set to drop in Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, this time to learn more about financial ties between the 9/11 charity the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the former NYC mayor."
"In a news interview in 2011, when he was ostensibly mulling a run for president, Donald Trump said that 'part of the beauty of me is that I'm very rich. So if I need $600 million, I can put $600 million myself. That's a huge advantage. I must tell you, that's a huge advantage over the other candidates.'"
Then when he came down the golden escalator with applause from people hired to clap, he announced his presidential candidacy and talked about how he has the "greatest assets" worth millions.
And now he's in a bind. He needs to declare bankruptcy to shield those "greatest assets" and make bond, but if he does so, he admits his blowsy boasting about how rich he is has all been smoke and mirrors, a huge lie.
"In other words, declaring bankruptcy would not be simply a legal and financial strategy to buy him time, it would be a loud and clear message of the bankruptcy of the bill of goods he’s been dishing out all these years. A winner, a top businessman, a multi-billionaire can’t come up with half a billion to avoid financial disaster."
@GottaLaff IDK.
Trump has made much of his prior bankruptcy filings being business, but this would have to be personal, too. That may make a difference to non-hard-core MAGA
Second, bankruptcy means lots of reports about assets under penalty of perjury. If Trump is hiding assets and lies about it, it's a big deal.
Finally, he gets more monitoring? If he files, I'd suggest that the DNC buy Carroll's claim for a fair price just to be a creditor in bankruptcy. #Trump#Bankruptcy#Engoron#Stay
"Think of it yourself, a man who is notorious for not paying his bills. So much so that he’s filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy no less than six times, and he is probably on the verge of filing a seventh. So much so that he’s no longer welcome to stage his Hitleresque rallies in scores of cities across the nation because he skipped town after refusing to pay police and venue costs."
Robert Reich on why only the rich and powerful can go bankrupt:
"Bankruptcy was designed so people could start over. But these days, the only ones starting over are those with enough political clout to shape bankruptcy laws to their liking, and enough money to hire bankruptcy lawyers to use those laws to their full advantage."
In October 2021, Trump launched Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and TruthSocial, along with an ambitious plan to build a media empire that he claimed would compete with the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix. To do this, he would need to raise some serious cash. Enter Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a shell company to raise money and identify a merger target to take it public.
Fast forward to October 2023. Digital World is collapsing, and it’s taking Abu Dhabi-based ARC Global Capital LLC and other investors down with it. After Digital World initially raised $1 billion in private investments to merge with TMTG, it is now returning $533 million back to investors.
Shares of Digital World dropped to $15.54 on the news from a peak of $97 in March 2022. Digital World’s 2022 Annual Report, published April 26, 2023, reveals that ARC Global Capital owned 3.8% of Digital’s Class A common stock and 76.4% of Class B common stock, amounting to 14.8% of the SPAC’s total shares outstanding.
According to ARC Global’s website, “Since its inception, ARC Global Investment Capital LLC has invested in transactions totaling in excess of $2bn in combined enterprise value achieving top quartile returns and no losses to date.” That’s probably gonna need an edit pretty soon.
Digital World still owes its independent accounting firm, Marcum LLP, $361,660 in fees incurred during 2021 and 2022.
Perhaps that’s why Marcum stated in its audit of Digital World’s finances that “the company cash and working capital as of December 31, 2022 are not sufficient to complete its planned activities for a reasonable period of time.” As of December 31, 2022, Digital World has accumulated a total stockholders’ deficit of almost $31 million.
Digital World originally set a deadline of September 2022 to merge with TMTG. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission threw a wrench in those plans. Turns out, when you form a SPAC, you’re not supposed to have a predetermined acquisition target; the SPAC is supposed to seek potential acquisition targets rather than identify a target beforehand, as Digital World did. This, and many other legal missteps doomed the SPAC to multiple regulatory investigations.
The SEC settled its case in July 2023, ruling that Digital World violated the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws, and assessed an $18 million penalty.
Curiously, just before TMTG received subpoenas from the SEC and a New York grand jury, Trump resigned as board chairman, and Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump administration official Kash Patel resigned from TMTG’s board. Trump still owns 90% of TMTG.
In 2022, the Southern District of New York investigated TMTG for money laundering, after finding it received a $8 million in loans: $2 million from Paxum Bank, based in Dominica and chartered under the Offshore Banking Act No. 8 of 1996. Paxum is partially owned by a former Russian government official who now runs a maritime agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. The other $6 million came from “ES Family Trust” which shared a director with Paxum.
Investors are now backing away, leaving Digital World with only $293 million – an amount that would be transferred to TMTG if the deal ever closes. That amount could dwindle as the potential for investors to request further redemptions remains.
Losers include not only Trump, who won’t be realizing his dream to build a media juggernaut, but also early investors, such as Georgia congressional representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who invested between $15,001 and $50,000 in Digital World at $94.20 in 2022. Her losses based on current stock valuation of $15.54 amount to -84%. Hope it was worth it, Marge.
Count Devin Nunes among the losers as well. Devin Nunes (remember him?) vacated his congressional seat in favor of clinging to Trump’s disintegrating coattails as TMTG CEO. Nunes, despite representing California for nearly 20 years in Congress, is best known for losing his defamation lawsuit against a satirical Twitter account named Devin Nunes’ Cow. He can now add failed social media company CEO to his resume.
TruthSocial, Trump’s “Twitter alternative” social media platform has managed to garner only about 2 million monthly active users. For comparison, X (formerly known as Twitter) has about 245 million daily active users. Facebook has about 3 billion monthly active users. Even Mastodon and its larger group of interoperable servers known as “The Fediverse,” which is owned by no single individual or company, has 10.7 million registered users of which 1.5 million are daily active users.
So, it is safe to say that Truth Social and its parent TMTG can join a long list of Trump’s other business failures.