Trump Media Alerts SEC to Potential Manipulation of DJT stock
SARASOTA, Fla., April 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT) ("TMTG" or "the Company"), operator of the social media platform Truth Social, the streaming platform Truth+, and the FinTech brand Truth.Fi, sent the following memo to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
MEMO: Suspicious Trading Activity of DJT Stock
To: Mark Uyeda, Acting Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission From: Trump Media & Technology Group
Date: April 17, 2025Subject: Potential Illegal Naked Short Selling and Market Manipulation of DJT Stock
CC: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA); Nasdaq; New York Stock Exchange
This letter serves to inform you of suspicious activity related to a disclosure filed in Germany by the U.K.-based hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies ('Qube'). The following data points raise critical questions about the timing and methods used in Qube's trading activities:
On April 10, 2025, Qube disclosed a nearly six-million share short position in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp ('TMTG') (NASDAQ, NYSE Texas: DJT). Thus, a U.K.-based entity, with a data center in Iceland, only disclosed these short sales in Germany.
According to Nasdaq, the total short interest in DJT as of March 31, 2025, was 10.7 million shares (see attached chart). Third party sources inform TMTG that the total short interest as of April 16, 2025, is virtually unchanged—approximately 11 million shares.
Neither Nasdaq, NYSE Texas, nor any other source has been able to confirm when the trades disclosed by Qube were conducted or if they were conducted at all.
The above factors, especially when combined with the history of suspicious trading surrounding DJT stock—including DJT appearing on Nasdaq's Regulation SHO Threshold Security List continuously for more than two months in 2024—could be indications of the illegal naked short selling of DJT shares.
We urge you to immediately investigate this suspicious trading and report your findings back to TMTG and any relevant civil and criminal authorities. American equities exchanges should be operated with full transparency and maximum efficiency, not as an opaque free-for-all reminiscent of a third-world casino.
Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/djt/short-interest
About TMTG
The mission of TMTG is to end Big Tech's assault on free speech by opening up the Internet and giving people their voices back. TMTG operates Truth Social, a social media platform established as a safe harbor for free expression amid increasingly harsh censorship by Big Tech corporations, as well as Truth+, a TV streaming platform focusing on family-friendly live TV channels and on-demand content. TMTG is also launching Truth.Fi, a financial services and FinTech brand incorporating America First investment vehicles.
Investor Relations Contact
Shannon Devine (MZ Group | Managing Director - MZ North America) Email: shannon.devine@mzgroup.us
Media Contact
press@tmtgcorp.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3c8f2402-0646-41da-8dd3-3556ca84e408Sign in to access your portfolio
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Forbes
33 minutes ago
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Have Reporting Burdens Led To More Firms Staying Private?
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This suggests that more of the earlier value is captured by private investors, as private equity firms seem to take longer to exit their positions now relative to before (3 years in 2007 relative to 6 years in 2015). One could argue that the costs of reporting, auditing and compliance have become too large for smaller IPOs to even think about going public. Vanguard points out that the missing IPOs are micro-caps. Is the loss of micro-caps a policy concern? Moreover, Mauboussin, Callahan, and Majd (2017) and Doidge, Karolyi, and Stulz (2017) note that half of what can be referred to as the 'listing gap' (exits more than IPOs) occurred before Sarbanes Oxley became law. Start-ups have declined too Somewhat intriguing, the number of start-ups appears to display mixed patterns since 1996. The Kaufmann index of startup activity falls from 1996 to its nadir in 2013, after which it picks up till 2017, when the index was last published but the 2017 number was still lower than the 1996 number. This suggests that there may be fewer businesses even available to go public. International exchanges I am in the UK as I write this and an institutional investor I know here suggested that the London stock exchange has suffered a similar decline in IPOs. In fact, there is some angst in the UK that they are losing listings to the US. The loss in listings applies to other advanced economies as well, as Espen Eckbo points out. The theory pushing for reporting burdens as the primary explanation will have to explain why UK reporting and reporting in other advanced economies has also become onerously burdensome. Burgeoning private equity (PE) A senior executive tells me,' the payouts achieved by management and their VCs by arranging acquisitions to PE firms, as well as PE to PE sales have been, in recent times, just as compelling as anything other than a truly dramatic IPO. 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