The former CEO of Digital World Acquisition (DWAC), the blank check company that merged with Trump Media & Technology Group last month to take it public, is suing his replacement for allegedly hacking his files and staging an “audacious scheme to seize control” of the publicly traded company.
Patrick Orlando, who helmed the special acquisition company (SPAC) until March 2023, used his limited liability company Benessere Investment Group to sue Eric Swider, DWAC’s new CEO, just days before the merger was completed, according to a complaint filed in Miami federal court.
The lawsuit alleged that Swider and Alexander Cano, president and secretary of DWAC, plotted a “coup d’état” to oust Orlando. As part of the alleged scheme to install Swider as the new CEO of DWAC ahead of the merger, Orlando alleged that Swider enlisted Cano — who formerly served as Orlando’s assistant at Benessere — to use his credentials to hack and steal confidential files from Orlando.
Orlando was also a managing member of ARC Global Investments II, which sponsors DWAC and received approximately 19% of the interest in the company. ARC II is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the pair allegedly broke into Orlando’s Mailchimp and DocuSign accounts and used the stolen information to send an email to ARC II’s members “replete with false and defamatory claims regarding Orlando and his management of ARC II in an attempt to have Orlando removed as ARC II’s managing member.”
The lawsuit claimed that Swider and Cano “aimed to discredit Orlando and convince ARC II investors to disregard its managing member (and their own self-interest) and vote in favor of a merger on terms that promised to dilute their ownership percentages.”
Swider also allegedly offered “outsized compensation” to other directors for support in removing Orlando.
Swider replaced Orlando as DWAC’s CEO last July, four months after his ouster. Cano was named president of the company and received a convertible note, which converts into 165,000 shares of DWAC’s stock that had a value of more than $6 million at the time the lawsuit was filed, according to the complaint.
After nearly two years of delays, Trump Media, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social, completed its merger with DWAC and went public on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT on March 26. Despite a strong first trading week — when the company’s market capitalization topped $8 billion — the company has seen significant declines in its stock performance.
The company’s stock began to sink last week after it disclosed a loss from operations of almost $16 million in 2023, plus interest expense of $39.4 million, while bringing in just $4.1 million in revenue. That’s compared with a loss from operations of $23.2 million, plus interest expense of $2 million, on $1.5 million in revenue in 2022.
Shares of Trump Media were down 8.6% at market close on Wednesday, ending the trading day at $34.26 per share and with a market value of $4.52 billion.