A former nominee for director of the blank-check company that plans to merge with former President Donald J. Trump’s social media start-up is suing, claiming he was frozen out of the deal, The New York Times reports.
Brian Shevland, the former nominee, is seeking monetary damages over what his suit calls a “brazen act of fraud.”
The lawsuit, which is aimed at the chief executive of Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC that raised nearly $300 million for the merger, was filed in Miami federal court Tuesday. Shevland, who runs his own investment management firm, says that he only found out that he was no longer a nominee for the company’s board when Patrick Orlando, Digital World’s CEO, filed a document with the SEC that no longer included his name.
The lawsuit says the unexplained removal from the filing in August, a month before the Digital World’s initial public offering, “cemented the freeze-out” of Shevland, who said he was owed 7,500 shares of Digital World and was deprived of his right to buy more shares at a low price. The suit says Orlando also broke a commitment to involve Shevland in other SPACs.
The lawsuit does not provide much detail about the role Shevland, the CEO of Bluestone Capital Management, played in the merger talks. But it does confirm reporting by The New York Times that Orlando and his colleagues were in talks with representatives of Trump Media earlier this year. Read more.
