Digital World Acquisition Corp.
DWAC,
+0.72%,
the blank-check company planning to take former President Trump’s media ventures public via a merger, said on Monday that it had reached a “settlement in principle” with the SEC’s enforcement division, after the agency launched an investigation into the proposed tie-up between the two companies. If the SEC approves that settlement, the agency would issue a cease-and-desist order finding that the company violated anti-fraud laws related to its IPO filings “concerning certain statements, agreements and omissions relating to the timing and discussions the Company had” about the proposed deal with Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which oversees the social platform Truth Social. If Digital World makes some revisions to its IPO filings, it will pay an $18 million civil penalty to the SEC following the closing of any merger deal. Digital World said the Trump media company is not a party in the settlement in principle and has yet to agree to the settlement, and it said the Trump company may try to kill the merger deal. Digital World also said that while it and Trump Media & Technology Group disagreed over how much time was left to complete the merger, the blank-check company was still “very interested” in the deal. Shares of Digital World were up 0.7%.
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