A co-founder of Truth Social’s media parent company was kicked off the company’s board after ignoring Donald Trump’s demands to donate some of his stock to Melania Trump, a pitcher has claimed Washington Post alert.
Trump lobbied for the gift to his wife even though he had already received 90% of the shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) in exchange for the use of his name and another “minor involvement”, l ex-corporate executive Will Wilkerson told the Post.
The company’s co-founder reportedly dodged the request, telling Trump it would leave him with a tax bill he couldn’t pay. “Do whatever you have to do,” Trump retorted, according to Wilkerson.
He was kicked off the board five months later in what Wilkerson sees as payback for not handing a “small fortune” to Melania Trump, the newspaper reported on Saturday.
The incident was part of a series of explosive revelations backed up by multiple documents seen by the newspaper about bitter infighting in Trump’s business, technical errors, questionable financial representations and what Wilkerson insisted were violations of the Securities and Exchange regulations, according to the Post.
Wilkerson filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August regarding the company. Wilkerson’s attorney told the newspaper that he is also cooperating with ongoing investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and by federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York.
Wilkerson was fired from his position as senior vice president of operations at TMTG on Thursday after speaking to The Post.
Trump Media said in a statement responding to several specific questions from the Post regarding Wilkerson’s information that Trump, as chairman of the company, had hired former California Republican congressman Devin Nunes as CEO to ” create a culture of compliance and build a world-class team to lead Truth Social.”
The statement complained that the Post “sent us an investigation full of knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas.”
He did not specifically answer any of the Post’s questions, according to the newspaper.
The new information follows a long list of bad news for Trump’s Truth Social and Media company.
Digital World Acquisition Corp. — the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that Truth Social is to make public — revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month that investors had already given up $139 million in commitments on the billion of dollars previously announced by the company.
There’s probably more to come. The investors, who agreed to pay the money nearly a year ago, can now walk away from their commitments as Digital World missed its original Sept. 20 deadline to merge with Trump Media. That deadline was extended by three months after shareholders refused to approve his offer for a 12-month extension. But investors can still withdraw.
A major web hosting operator complained in August that Truth Social owed about $1.6 million in contract payments, an allegation suggesting the operation’s finances are in “significant disarray”, Fox Business reported. News.
In another setback, Truth Social’s trademark application was denied in August because its name sounded too similar to other operations.
Trump insisted last month that he was not concerned about Truth Social’s money troubles because, he explained, “I’m really rich,” he posted on the social media platform. “I don’t need financing.”
Yet in the next sentence he asked, “Private company, anyone???” in what appeared to be an invitation to investors.
Check out the full Washington Post story here.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.