Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of social networking site Truth Social, plummeted Thursday after former President Donald Trump was convicted in his hush money trial.
A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Trump Media’s stock dropped nearly 9 percent in after-hours trading Thursday as news of the verdict emerged.
The stock, which trades under the ticket symbol ‘DJT,’ has been extraordinarily volatile since its debut in late March, joining the group of meme stocks that are prone to ricochet from highs to lows as small-pocketed investors attempt to catch an upward momentum swing at the right time.
Earlier this month, Trump Media reported that it lost more than $300 million last quarter, according to its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.
Truth Social stock dropped 9 percent after Trump’s guilty verdict – which means the former president stands to lose $532 million in the value of his shares
It was trading at $48.44 after the closing bell. It had closed at $51.12 during regular hours on Thursday, which gave it a valuation of $9 billion.
The former president owns 65 percent of the company and the stock price drop would amount to a $532 million decline in the value of Trump’s shares, according to Forbes.
Trump’s net worth was $7.8 billion as of market close at 4 p.m. ET, making him the 334th-richest person in the world, according to Forbes calculations.
A majority of Trump’s fortune stems from his $5.9 billion stake in Trump Media – which looks to lose $5.4 billion at the after hours share price.
A jury of seven men and five women at Manhattan Criminal Court deliberated for nearly 10 hours before convicting the former President of 34 charges of falsifying business records on Thursday.
It was the first time a former U.S. President has faced a criminal trial and the verdict could upend the 2024 White House race, proving a pivotal moment in the history of the United States.
The verdict comes after five weeks of dramatic evidence and 22 witnesses being quizzed on the stand.
The 34 charges Trump faces each carry a maximum potential sentence of up to four years in prison. A sentencing date is set for July 11 at 10am ET.
Prosecutors told of a plot by Trump to ‘corrupt’ the 2016 election by hiding a $130,000 hush money payment by his ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels alleged that she and Trump had sex a decade earlier, which he has denied.
The former president owns 65 percent of the company and the stock price drop would amount to a $532 million decline in the value of Trump’s shares
The case featured explosive evidence by Daniels and lifted the lid on the ‘catch and kill’ practices of the National Enquirer tabloid, which bought stories that could be damaging to Trump and suppressed them.
But the actual criminal charges concern something more prosaic – the reimbursements Trump signed for Cohen for the payment.
The reimbursements, paid by Trump in monthly installments, were recorded as being for legal expenses.
Prosecutors say that was a fraudulent label designed to conceal the purpose of the hush money transaction and to illicitly interfere in the 2016 election.
Defense lawyers argued that Cohen actually did substantive legal work for Trump and his family and was paid for it.