Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group closed lower on Friday after swinging wildly during the day following former President Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial.
After U.S. stock markets closed on Thursday, a jury in New York found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
After rising more than 2% to open trading on Friday, shares ended the day down 5.3%.
The stock, which trades under the ticker symbol “DJT,” has been extremely volatile since its debut in late March, joining the ranks of meme stocks prone to price swings from highs to lows as deep-pocketed investors try to build upside momentum. to take. waving at the right time.
The stock has tripled this year, often seeing double-digit percentage moves higher or lower in a single day. On March 26, the index peaked at nearly $80 during intraday trading. For context, the S&P 500 is up almost 10% so far this year.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission before going public, Trump Media warned investors of the potential pitfalls the former president faced and the negative impact it could have on the stock.
“President Donald J. Trump is the subject of numerous legal proceedings, the scope and scope of which are unprecedented for a former President of the United States and the current candidate for that office. An adverse outcome in one or more of the ongoing legal proceedings involving President Donald J. Trump could negatively impact TMTG and its Truth Social platform.”
Earlier this month, Trump Media reported that it lost more than $300 million last quarter, according to its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.
For the three-month period ended March 31, the company posted a loss of $327.6 million, including $311 million in non-cash expenses related to its merger with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC was an example of what happened. known as a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC, which can offer young companies faster and easier routes to getting their shares traded publicly, but with much less oversight.
Trump Media & Technology this month fired an accountant who federal regulators recently accused of “massive fraud.” The media company dismissed BF Borgers as an independent accounting firm on May 3, delaying the filing of its quarterly results.
Trump Media had previously passed over at least two other auditors — one who resigned in July 2023, and another who was fired by the board in March, just as BF Borgers was rehired.
Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying corporate records at his company in connection with an alleged scheme to cover up potentially embarrassing stories about him during his 2016 Republican presidential election campaign.
The charge, a misdemeanor, stemmed from fees paid to then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen after he made a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to silence her claims about an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump was accused of misrepresenting Cohen. refunds as legal fees to hide the fact that they were bound by a hush money payment.
Trump’s defense argued that the Cohen payments were for legitimate legal services.
