A middle finger Trump Media The investor sold an overwhelming majority of its shares, according to SEC documents filed Thursday.
Patrick Orlando, the former CEO of the special purpose acquisition company that took Trump Media public, and his investment firm ARC Global Investments now owns less than 0.01% of the company after previously holding a 5.4% stake in the company.
The latest filing shows that ARC’s current stake is only 30,147 shares of Trump Media. ARC owned more than 11 million shares of Trump Media as of September, according to a separate filing by the company.
The exact date of the sale is not known based on available documents. However, the event that triggered the filing occurred on September 30.
Orlando was an early investor in Trump Media, heading the shell company that eventually took it public. He would later argue with Trump Media leadership over how many shares of the company he would be owed when it goes public.
Both sides found themselves in a lawsuit over this. In September, a judge ruled that Trump Media actually owed Orlando more shares than it was originally awarded. Orlando then received an additional 8.1 million shares.
The move came just days before the lock-up period for early investors was lifted on September 19, meaning Orlando would have been free to start selling its shares shortly thereafter. The judge in the case also ruled that Trump Media must arrange for Orlando to obtain the shares in time for the lock-up period to expire. Thursday’s SEC filing shows that Orlando actually sold the majority of its shares.
Shares rose 4% on Friday and have surged 91% since the lockup ended as Trump’s election victory sent the so-called Trump trade soaring.
Still, massive stock sales by investors with significant stakes in the company may worry Trump Media insiders and shareholders because they may signal a lack of confidence and trigger a selloff. If this were to happen, their own stakes would be greatly reduced. President-elect Donald Trump is Trump Media’s largest shareholder with approximately 54% of the company.
Trump has repeatedly said he has no plans to sell his shares, which are worth about $3.2 billion, based on the company’s stock price at press time.
Orlando and ARC are not the only early investors to have since cashed in their stakes. In late September, shortly after the lockup deadline was lifted, Trump Media’s two other co-founders, Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss, sold 11 million shares for between $128 million and $170 million.
Coincidentally, Litinsky and Moss also fell out with Trump, finding themselves in their own legal battle with the company. Both men were also involved in the process of taking Trump Media public. The company claimed it botched the process and “failed spectacularly at every step,” according to court documents. trial. Similar to Orlando, the judge in the case ruled in their favor, granting them the shares Trump Media had attempted to withhold.