Trump Spac pays $15,000 per month for Caribbean home office

[ad_1]

The shell company set to merge with Donald Trumps media group has agreed to pay a business owned by its interim chief executive $15,000 a month for office space at a property located in a luxury gated community in Puerto Rico.

Digital World Acquisition Corporation struck an agreement earlier this month with Renatus Advisors to lease office space at 90 Candelero Drive in Humacao, according to securities filings, a residential property in a beach resort that boasts golf courses. and a beach club. The agreement also covers secretarial and administrative support.

Renatus, also registered at the same address, was founded by Eric Swider who lives in Puerto Rico and was named interim chief executive at DWAC after the contract of his predecessor Patrick Orlando was terminated. The agreement between Swider and DWAC was signed two weeks after he took the top job.

DWAC, Renatus and Swider did not respond to a request for comment.

DWAC, an Orlando-based special purpose acquisition company, has announced it will merge with Trump Media & Technology Group in October 2021 in a deal expected to provide more than $1bn in funding to Trumps company. However, the transaction has not been completed amid investigations from federal prosecutors and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In September, DWAC changed its listed address from a WeWork location in Miamis Brickell City Center to a mailbox at a UPS Store in the Coconut Grove neighborhood.

The company is at the time trying to persuade shareholders to vote in favor of a one-year extension that would allow more time to get the deal done. In the end, it borrowed nearly $3mn from its own sponsors to extend the deadline by three months and allow investors more time to vote.

DWAC appears to have had issues paying its bills on several occasions, including money owed to proxy solicitors Saratoga Proxy Consulting. In March it faced a stock exchange delisting over unpaid Nasdaq fees, which it has since corrected.

Swider has reshuffled DWACs board since he took over as interim chief executive in late March. The company disclosed in regulatory filings that it appointed Frank Andrews, who joined the board in January and is described as an independent media consultant, as non-executive chair.

DWAC also brought on Katherine Chiles as chief financial officer, a role previously held by Brazilian politician Luis Orleans-Braganza. According to his LinkedIn profile, Chiles last worked in 2018 when he spent more than a year as a reporting analyst for utility group Actavo.

I am pleased to see the board taking a very proactive position in strengthening our corporate governance structure, Swider said in a statement announcing the appointments.

[ad_2]