Shvartsman brothers plead guilty to insider trading on Trump Media merger plans

• Two Florida brothers pleaded guilty in New York federal court to insider trading charges related to their purchase and sale of securities of the company that eventually merged with Donald Trump's social media firm.
• The brothers, Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman, earned more than $22 million in illegal profits by trading in securities of the shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., in October 2021.
• The trades occurred after they learned of nonpublic information that DWAC planned a merger with the privately held Trump Media & Technology Group, prosecutors said.
• Although that merger was announced in late October 2021, it only was completed last month in a deal that led to Trump Media becoming a publicly traded company.

Two Florida brothers pleaded guilty Wednesday in New York federal court to insider trading charges related to their purchase and sale of securities of the company that eventually merged with former President Donald Trump's social media firm.

The brothers, Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman, earned more than $22 million in illegal profits by trading in securities of the shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., in October 2021 after learning of nonpublic information that DWAC planned a merger with the privately held Trump Media & Technology Group, prosecutors said.

Although that merger was announced in late October 2021, it only was completed last month in a deal that led to Trump Media becoming a publicly traded company.

"I've made a terrible mistake," Gerald Shvartsman, 46, told Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan federal court as he pleaded guilty, according to the Associated Press.

He also said that what he had done was "wrong and the mistake I will pay for dearly the rest of my