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(Left) Wesley Moss (YouTube/WesMossMoneyMatters screengrab), Donald Trump (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee), Andrew Litinsky (HLN/YouTube screengrab)
Even as he fends off four criminal cases and multiple civil cases, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in the latter half of March against two Truth Social co-founders he once fired on “The Apprentice,” claiming that they aren’t owed any stock shares whatsoever now that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) has gone public.
Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky, aka Andy Dean, sued the Trump social media group in Delaware in late February, before Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) completed a merger with (TMTG), claiming that the former president was trying to shut them out from potentially hundreds of millions in dollars worth of stock.
On March 24, TMTG filed a lawsuit in Sarasota County, Fla., against Moss, Litinsky, their company United Atlantic Ventures LLC (UAV) and Patrick Orlando, whom the lawsuit accused of aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duties and conspiring to do the same. In essence, the lawsuit said that Moss and Litinsky should not be rewarded for “severe mismanagement” in the early stages of Truth Social that “substantially harmed” the business, even as they were “riding President Trump’s coattails.”
“The closing of TMTG’s merger with DWAC is imminent, with billions of dollars on the line. TMTG has already been substantially harmed by Litinsky and Moss’s disregard—aided by Orlando—of their fiduciary duties as officers and directors of the Company,” the lawsuit said. “And it needs protection from repeated and ceaseless opportunistic attempts by Litinsky, Moss, and UAV to disrupt the Company and the imminent closing of its merger with DWAC.”
The complaint sought a slew of declaratory judgments — and pointed to a voided services agreement — to prevent defendants from advancing their claim to “8.6% of the Company’s total stock, free of dilution caused by the issuance of new shares.”
“All Moss and Litinsky needed to do was diligently, faithfully, and loyally execute on a short-term plan: Get TMTG’s corporate governance established, get Truth Social ready to launch, and find a suitable special purpose acquisition company (a ‘SPAC’) to take the new company public and access capital to advance TMTG’s business plan,” the complaint said. Instead, under their watch, they allegedly subjected Truth Social to ridicule by a “hostile press” reporting on “long user wait times and technical failings” and damaged the company by leading the company down the path of SEC and DOJ investigations by approaching Benessere CEO Patrick Orlando to serve as the special purpose acquisition company, ultimately delaying a merger.
The lawsuit said that while Truth Social recovered only after Litinsky was “off of the Board,” after Moss was “no longer involved in day-to-day operations,” and after Devin Nunes became TMTG CEO, the defendants allegedly sought out to “retaliate.”
“With the SEC investigation resolved, the merger finally progressing, and TMTG’s business on a stable footing, Moss, Litinsky, and UAV sprung up a plan to retaliate against the Company by asserting rights under Services Agreement,” the complaint continued. “The plan was to use law fare and threatening communications to the Company and its stakeholders to try and prevent the merger from happening.”
Trump is asking a judge to declare that the services agreement is “not binding,” so defendants will surrender on the stock shares issue, and to declare that Moss and Litinsky cannot appoint two TMTG board members.
Read the lawsuit here.
