The board of directors at Digital World Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: DWAC), the special purpose acquisition company attempting to take former President Donald Trump's social media venture public, has received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury.
The subpoenas were disclosed in an 8-K filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The federal jury is the third entity to probe the SPAC, with the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority launching their respective investigations last year.
The 8-K form also mentions that director Bruce Garelick tendered his resignation, effective June 22. The statement claims that the resignation is not due to any disagreement between DWAC and Garelick. However, the filing similarly mentions that the federal jury is seeking information from the company about its relationship with Rocket One Capital, where Garelick is the chief strategy officer.
Sourcing further information on Garelick and Rocket One has been difficult, as the latter's website has been on "maintenance mode" since Monday.
The attempted merger between DWAC and Truth Social has been mired in controversy from very early in their relationship. At the core of that controversy are allegations that DWAC had been holding undisclosed meetings with Truth Social prior to an IPO, violating securities laws.
If the sheer scope of federal probes wasn't enough, Truth Social as a product doesn't appear to have much chance of securing a substantial share of the social media market.
Even before being launched to the public, the poorly optimized Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR) clone is plagued with technical issues. Hackers associated with Anonymous had little difficulty breaking into the beta version of the website, highlighting glaring security faults.
Within weeks of going live on the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store, the app plummeted in rankings and currently sits at #59 in the social networking category. There doesn't seem to be much interest in the platform aside from Trump's conservative base, with companies shying away from the platform (though that hasn't stopped Truth Social from making fake accounts for several brands such as NASCAR and the NFL.) Daily user numbers were as low as 513,000 in April, a pitiful fraction of Twitter's 217 million daily users.
The lack of scalability and the many problems with the Truth Social platform are already being priced in by Wall Street if Monday's $25.16 closing price is any indication. DWAC shares are down by almost 75% since their $97.54 March high. With no income, no merger coming soon, and a product that even Trump's conservative following struggles to use, the future of Truth Social looks bleak.