Digital World Acquisition Attempts to Settle with SEC on Trump Media Merger

The top financial partner of former president Donald Trump’s media company has offered to pay $18 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle an investigation into its initial merger talks in hopes it could accelerate its long-delayed merger, the company said in an SEC filing Monday.

Digital World Acquisition — the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that had pledged to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group so it could be traded on public markets — said it had reached a preliminary agreement with the SEC stipulating that the company had “violated certain antifraud provisions” in filings relating to the “timing and discussions” of its proposed merger with Trump’s company, owner of the social network Truth Social.