US Securities and Exchange Commission examines the shell of Donald Trump's planned network

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Announcement of the "TRUTH Social" app on a smartphone

Photo: CHRIS DELMAS / AFP

With his planned media platform "TRUTH Social", ex-US President Donald Trump has come under the spotlight of the SEC.

The authority is scrutinizing the company that Trump wants to use to list his social network on the stock exchange.

The company called Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) announced that it had received a request for information from the SEC.

DWAC is a so-called SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies).

Investors in such an empty shell usually do not know in advance which company the company is merging with.

Trump is said to have already collected a billion dollars for his project.

Among other things, the SEC is requesting information about communications with Trump's companies and is looking at DWAC's trading in shares before it announces it will be working with the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG).

TMTG is to be brought to the US technology exchange Nasdaq through the back door via the merger with Digital World Acquisition.

The former Deutsche Bank investment banker Patrick Orlando is behind DWAC.

DWAC has raised $ 293 million to be made available to Trump's new network.

DWAC shares were valued at ten dollars in the original deal with Trump Media in October.

On Monday they were trading at $ 42.60.

SPACs are not without risk.

A SPAC initiated by the banker Orlando in China recently failed because investors had dropped out again.

Trump's Twitter competitor is set to launch in the first quarter of 2022.

dab / Reuters