Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the social networking site Truth Social, plunged Thursday after former President Donald Trump was convicted in a hush-money trial.
A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to a porn actor who claimed the two had a sexual relationship.
Shares of Trump Media Co. fell about 9% in after-hours trading Thursday as news of the verdict broke.
The stock, which trades under the ticker “DJT,” has been extremely volatile since its debut in late March, joining the ranks of meme stocks prone to jumping from highs to lows as investors with limited financial resources try to capture the rally. .
The stock has tripled this year, often posting double-digit percentage gains or losses in a single day in the process. On March 26, the index peaked at nearly $80 in intraday trading.
Earlier this month, Trump Media reported that it lost more than $300 million last quarter in its first earnings report as a public company.
The company lost $327.6 million in the three months ended March 31, including $311 million in non-cash charges related to a merger with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. Acquisition companies (SPACs), which can provide young companies with a faster and easier way to have their shares publicly traded, but with far less scrutiny.
Trump’s media and technology companies fired an auditor this month who federal regulators recently accused of “massive fraud.” The media company fired independent accounting firm BF Borgers on May 3, delaying the filing of its quarterly earnings report.
Trump Media has also previously replaced at least two auditors, one of whom resigned in July 2023 and another who was fired by the board of directors in March, when the company was rehiring BF Borgers.
Trump is accused of falsifying 34 business records at his company, allegedly hiding embarrassing stories about him during the 2016 Republican presidential campaign.
The charge, a felony, stems from a $130,000 hush-money payment made by then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to porn actor Stormy Daniels to quell allegations that she had extramarital sexual contact with Trump in 2006.
Trump’s defense attorneys said Cohen’s payments were for legitimate legal services.
