Biden regulators could rain on Trump’s SPAC parade
“There is a huge risk the SEC will shut it down,” said Thomas Gorman, a partner at the law firm Dorsey & Whitney and former official at the SEC.
Robert Lamm, chair of the securities and corporate governance practice at law firm Gunster, said that although he’s not involved in the Trump deal his experience tells him the SEC could tap the brakes on the Trump SPAC by demanding the entities improve their disclosures.
“They are going to do everything they can to slow this deal, to the point that it can’t go,” said Lamm, who has represented companies on disclosure matters, often involving dialogue with the SEC.
The SEC declined to comment.
Regulators are investigating the Trump SPAC
SPACs raise money from the public and promise to use those funds to acquire private firms. It’s an increasingly popular way for private companies to go public, without the hassle and costs of a traditional initial public offering (IPO).
And Digital World has already disclosed that federal regulators are investigating the deal.
Yet, based on Digital World’s closing price on Monday, TMTG has achieved a staggering market valuation of $11.4 billion, according to Renaissance Capital, which provides IPO-focused ETFs and pre-IPO research.
Neither TMTG nor Digital World responded to requests for comment.
SPAC backer has a history with the SEC
Authorities are already familiar with Arc Capital, a Shanghai-based firm that is helping take Trump’s media company public. Arc, also known as Arc Group, is the sponsor of Digital World.
To protect investors in Arc deals, the SEC has resorted to a rarely used enforcement tool: Stop orders.
Although no charges appear to have been brought against Arc in these cases, the fact that the Trump deal involves a company whose transactions have been halted by the SEC is raising eyebrows among legal experts.
“As soon as I see a Chinese-sponsored company, with this kind of regulatory history, a red light goes on,” said Charles Whitehead, a professor at Cornell Law School.
“You don’t want a stop order because it’s such a black mark,” said Whitehead. “Normally, if there is an irreconcilable difference with the SEC, you withdraw your registration statement. Stop orders are uncommon because no one wants to get to the point of a stop order.”
Arc did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Timing is key in the Trump SPAC
Legal experts said the SEC is likely to look most closely at whether Digital World misled investors about the timing of its deal talks with TMTG.
That would call into question the accuracy of Digital World’s disclosures and whether it really is a blank-check company. Some investors who bought Digital World when it went public last year may not have if they knew Trump was the merger target all along. Others would have done so but didn’t because they didn’t know Trump was involved.
“A blank check company is supposed to be a blank check company, not a hideaway for the Trump media company or anyone else to access the public markets,” Whitehead, the Cornell professor, said.
The Times reported Trump had been discussing a deal with Digital World CEO Patrick Orlando since at least March 2021. However, in a filing last May, Digital World told investors it did not yet have a merger partner.
Disclosure scrutiny
Ashley Ebersole, a former SEC attorney who is now a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, said the timing in the deal talks could become the crux of an SEC enforcement action.
If the SEC finds evidence the promoters of the deal knew these discussions had to be disclosed and “intentionally hid it from investors,” Ebersole said, this will become the basis for a potential “fraud charge by the SEC.”
Ebersole, who represents clients targeted by the SEC and other regulators, said this would also give investors the ability to demand their money back.
Jill Fisch, a business law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said regulators will focus on the accuracy of disclosures — not the merits of the merger.
“The SEC doesn’t decide if a merger is good or bad for stockholders,” said Fisch. “That’s not the SEC’s job. The SEC is concerned about whether investors have the opportunity to evaluate the deal.”
Investors unfazed by regulatory scrutiny
Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, has raised concerns about SPACs broadly.
The Trump SPAC has generated considerable excitement among some investors. Although it remains off its peak, Digital World is trading about 450% above where it was before the Trump deal was announced.
Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, said trading activity suggests little worry about the regulatory risk around the Trump SPAC.
“I don’t think there is asny concern, but there should be,” said Tuttle. “I would be scared to buy this. I would be scared to short this. All I do is watch it in amazement.”
Tuttle added that given the enormous attention this deal has attracted, regulators are likely to scrutinize it very closely.
“If there is the slightest hint of wrongdoing, they are going to try to bring the hammer down on this thing,” he said.
‘Nobody saw that coming’
But this is a sensitive situation for the SEC, an independent agency run by a bipartisan five-member commission.
Blocking the Trump SPAC would open the agency to charges of political bias and a legal fight with a former president who has a legendary history of bringing lawsuits.
Lamm, the Gunster attorney, noted that Congress controls the SEC’s budget and the midterm elections this November could give Republicans control of both the US Senate and the House of Representatives.
“Does the SEC want to take a chance that its budget will be cut?” he asked.
Gorman, the former SEC official, said agency officials…
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