An 8-K filing with the SEC shows that Trump Media CEO David Nunes submitted a request to House of Representatives asking for an investigation into the short-selling of Trump Media stock, including the IDs of those potentially involved.
On April 23, Trump Media and Technology CEO Devin Nunes sent letters to the chairpersons of the U.S. House of Representatives’ committees on the Judiciary, Financial Services, Ways and Means, and Oversight and Reform regarding potential manipulation of the DJT equity.
In a form 8-K filing of the letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed on April 24, Nunes paints a picture regarding the company’s assessment that, “there are strong indications of unlawful manipulation of DJT stock.” He asked the chairpersons of the committees to investigate “anomalous trading of DJT”.
The purpose of the investigation goes beyond a TMTG-related focus, with Nunes, a former congressman for the state of California and head of the House Intelligence Committee, advising the committees to look for violations of RICO statutes and tax evasion.
IDs, please
Nunes goes so far as to tell the committees what material should be gathered:
• Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) trading data including trading records, quotes, market maker records, and add/drop records, and CAT tables revealing masked fields such as broker aliases;
• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) data including brokers’ short interest data and Trade Reporting Facility (TRF) data with brokers’ market participant identifiers (MPIDs);
• Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) information including daily position reports, CNS accounting summaries, participant daily activity statements, universal trade capture data, consolidated trade summaries (M209 records), and correspondent clearing records;
• Reports from DTCC member firms reflecting total shares short since February 14, 2024 (including trading under the ticker ‘DWAC’ prior to March 26, 2024), CAT data for loan/borrow reports, and daily locate and pre-borrow logs.
In short, Donnald Trump’s CEO is asking Congress to not only investigate the companies’ activities, but to uncover the names of the people who could have been involved.
The companies involved
In the letter to the House committees as well as in his letter to the NASDAQ on April 18, Nunes names the four companies that he claims make up approximately 60% of the ‘extraordinary’ volume of DJT-related trades. These companies are Citadel Securities, VIRTU Americas, G1 Execution Services, and Jane Street Capital.
Citadel, in a statement to FOX Business on April 19, said: "Devin Nunes is the proverbial loser who tries to blame ‘naked short selling’ for his falling stock price. Nunes is exactly the type of person Donald Trump would have fired on ‘The Apprentice.’ If he worked for Citadel Securities, we would fire him, as ability and integrity are at the center of everything we do."
