A federal judge in Delaware has ruled in favor of an organization that sought assurances that it could sell its minority stake within the parent company of former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform.
The judge on Friday granted summary judgment to Florida-based United Atlantic Ventures LLC in a lawsuit against Minnesota-based Odyssey Transfer and Trust Co., an organization that handles securities transfers between registered shareholders.
UAV is owned by Andrew Litinsky and Wesley Moss, two former contestants on Trump’s television show “The Apprentice” who also participated within the merger that took Trump Media public in March.
Since then, UAV and Trump Media fought in court in Delaware and Florida over UAV’s stake in the corporate. Attorneys for Trump Media assured a Delaware judge earlier this 12 months that UAV was entitled to an 8.6% stake and that the merger wouldn’t lead to dilution. But they now claim that UAV will not be entitled to its shares because of mismanagement by Litinsky and Moss prior to the merger.
Friday’s ruling addresses UAV’s concerns that it’s going to not get its Trump Media shares, currently valued at about $350 million, back from Odyssey when a post-merger lock-up period expires on Sept. 19. According to court documents, Odyssey told UAV earlier this 12 months that it will follow instructions from TMTG and its lawyers.
After Odyssey filed suit, the parties appeared to have reached an agreement. Odyssey stated that it will lift the transfer restrictions on the stock after the lock-up period expired “without favoritism to any TMTG shareholder.” However, after Odyssey obtained approval from Trump Media, the corporate attempted to vary that language to “on the same basis as other similarly situated TMTG shareholders.”
Trump owns roughly 115 million TMTG shares, or about 60% of the corporate’s outstanding shares.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Williams questioned Odyssey’s conduct, stating that the corporate had described the change in wording as “immaterial” while allowing the change to derail settlement negotiations.
“Even outside of the settlement negotiations, Odyssey’s conduct was difficult to grasp,” Williams wrote.
Williams ordered that if Odyssey is notified by TMTG of the expiration of the lock-up period, it must promptly notify UAV, lift the transfer restrictions on all shares, and never impede the delivery of the shares.
TMTGs Share price reached a high of $79.38 on its first day of trading but is now hovering around $17, closing at $17.10 on Friday.
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