Politics
Trump Media scrambles to stop short sellers from tanking share prices
Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is scrambling to stop short sellers from tanking its share values.
NBC News reports that Trump Media this week sent around suggestions to shareholders to prevent their shares in the company from winding up in the hands of short sellers who are essentially betting on the company's failure to make money.
According to NBC, the "tips include holding DJT shares in a cash account at a brokerage firm as opposed to a margin account, 'opting out of any securities lending program,' moving Trump Media shares to the company’s designated transfer agent, and transferring shares to a bank and 'holding them in your retirement account.'"
Short sellers essentially pay brokerage firms fees to borrow shares on a temporary basis on the belief that the shares will sink in price.
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After borrowing the shares, the short sellers proceed to sell them on the open market and then by them back by a specific date when they have to be returned to their owners.
If the share price in that time has indeed gone down, then the short sellers pocket the difference they made between the original sale and the repurchase.
If the share price increases, however, the short sellers lose money because they'll be buying back the shares at a higher price than the original sale.
Short sellers have swarmed to Trump Media shares for weeks now, as its price has plummeted from a high of $66.22 on March 27th to a low of $22.84 on Tuesday, although its price has recovered some of that lost value in the last day-and-a-half of trading.
The longer-term threat to Trump Media's value likely isn't short sellers, however, but simply a lack of profitability. The selloff in shares started earlier this month when the company released an earnings report showing that it lost $58 million in the last fiscal year while generating just $4 million in revenues.
Judge strikes Rudy Giuliani’s demand to overturn defamation case verdict
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's request that a jury's verdict that he defamed election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman be thrown out was rejected Monday.
Just Security's Adam Klasfeld posted about the failure of his motion, stating that Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the "massive" judgment still stands.
Giuliani, who claims he is broke and has filed for bankruptcy, owes the Georgia women more than $145 million. Giuliani had accused them of committing election fraud while counting votes in Fulton County in 2020.
Meanwhile, an amendment to his bankruptcy declaration revealed his secretive defense fund is paying up to $675 an hour for bankruptcy lawyers.
"GIuliani's renewed motion urging this Court to reverse its prior findings and rulings and to override the jury's considered verdict on the basis of five threadbare arguments falls well short of persuading that 'the evidence and all reasonable interferences that can be drawn therefrom are so one-sided that reasonable men and women could not have reached a 'verdict in [plantiffs'] favor,'" Howell wrote.
"... The jury's verdict of awarding plaintiffs compensatory and punitive damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress caused by Giuliani and his co-conspirators, as reflected in the Final Judgment, in the amount of $145,969,000, plus post-judgment interest ... stands."
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The 48-page opinion also explained just how Giuliani's bankruptcy paused everything for the victims involved.
"A unanimous jury awarded plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, on December 15, 2023, a total of $148,169,000.00, in compensatory and punitive damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, against defendant Rudolph W. Giuliani," the filing began.
But Giuliani stopped all of it with his next move.
"This jury award was followed, in rapid succession, three days later, by entry of the final judgment against Giuliani, and two days after that, by this Court’s order dissolving the 30-day automatic stay for enforcement of judgment to permit plaintiffs to register their judgment immediately in any district," Judge Howell wrote.
"The very next day, on December 21, 2023, Giuliani filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the Southern District of New York, which filing automatically halted all proceedings in this case, including plaintiffs’ right to exercise the authority granted by this Court to seek prompt enforcement of the judgment against Giuliani."
