Two Florida brothers pleaded guilty Wednesday to insider trading charges, admitting making over $22 million illegally before the public announcement in 2021 that an acquisition firm was taking former President Donald Trump’s media company public.
Michael and Gerald Shvartsman entered their pleas to a single count of securities fraud in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Lewis J. Liman set sentencing for July 17.
The men said that they knew they were committing a crime when they made trades in October 2021 through a New York broker, buying shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a so-called blank check company designed to take another company public without an IPO. The pair had been tipped off that Digital World had planned to merge with Trump Media & Technology, whose main asset is the social media network Truth Social.
In October 2021, shares of Digital World soared more than 800% after the deal with Trump Media was announced.
The indictment against the brothers did not in any way implicate Trump — who is …
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