It has emerged that Austin Private Wealth, a financial services company, executed a massive short sale of millions of shares of Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM), raising questions about a possible conflict of interest. Notably, Rumble is backed by Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance.
According to data shared by researcher Health Ranger on July 18 indicated that the company shorted 34 million shares of Rumble on the day before an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
It is worth noting that Rumble is a video platform linked to Trump. This move suggests that the financial services company might have acted on insider information.
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“Fascinating how Austin Private Wealth, the company that shorted 12 million shares of $DJT and 34 million shares of Rumble stock ($RUM) says they accidentally added SIX orders of magnitude to the size of their order, and it was a mistake,” Health Ranger said.
Conflict of interest questions
The purchase just before the assassination attempt casts doubt on the transparency of Austin Private Wealth’s operations. If the assassination attempt had been successful, the transaction could have yielded the firm hundreds of millions of dollars.
At the same time, Vance’s investment in the company is estimated to range between $115,000 and $300,000, highlighting the potential conflict of interest.
Interestingly, this shorting was in addition to another investment, where they shorted 12 million shares of Trump Media & Technology (NASDAQ: DJT).
Additional data indicates that 71% of all put options on DJT Holdings in the last 90 days were executed by Austin Private Wealth on that single day, raising concerns about the firm’s intentions and the timing of their actions.
The error explanation
Austin Private Wealth claimed that the massive shorting of shares resulted from an accidental addition of six orders of magnitude to their order size. However, the investment firm attempted to explain the intrigues behind the alleged error.
“No APW customer holds, or has ever held, a put option on DJT in the quantity originally reported. The correct quantity was 12 contracts, or 1200 shares – not 12 million shares, as was erroneously reported,” the company said.
This alleged mistake has raised questions regarding its possible implications, considering the potential impact of an assassination of a former president and frontrunner in the upcoming November 5 polls. Notably, these transactions could be a possible subject of investment by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Meanwhile, as of press time, DJT traded in the red at $34.24, with daily losses exceeding 8%. On the other hand, Rumble was also experiencing losses, valued at $6.38, dropping over 5% in the last 24 hours.
