Prosecutors seek years in prison for Trump Media insider trading Shvartsman brothers

Prosecutors are asking a New York federal court judge to sentence two brothers to years in prison for their admitted insider trading in a blank-check company's securities before it announced a planned merger with Trump Media.

Prosecutors want Florida venture capitalist Michael Shvartsman, who made more than $18 million in illicit trading profits, to be sentenced next Thursday to between 46 months and 57 months in prison, a court filing shows.

And they want his brother, Gerald Shvartsman, to be sentenced to at least two years in prison for his illegal trading, which earned him $4.6 million.

The Florida furniture company founder is due to be sentenced Wednesday by the same Manhattan federal court judge, Lewis Liman, who will sentence his brother.

Both men pleaded guilty in April in the case.

The brothers face possible deportation due to their criminal convictions after their sentences are completed, as they are not U.S. citizens.

Michael Shvartsman, 53, was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. His family emigrated to Italy in 1974, and then a year later to Toronto, Canada. Gerald Shvartsman, 47, was born in Canada.

A third defendant, Bruce Garelick, chose to stand trial and was convicted by a jury in May of insider trading.

Garelick, who is due to be sentenced on Nov. 7, faces a recommended prison term of between 108 months and 135 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory.

Garelick had been chief strategy officer of Michael Shvartsman's Miami-based venture capital firm Rocket One Capital.

He became a director of Digital World Acquisition Corp., after the Shvartsman brothers in 2021 were invited to invest in DWAC and another so-called special purpose acquisition company.

The brothers received non-public information from Garelick about Trump Media — whose majority owner is former President Donald Trump — being a potential target of a merger after they signed nondisclosure agreements.

All three men purchased DWAC securities based on non-public information related to that effort and then sold their shares after the stock price soared following news of the planned merger with Trump's company, which owns the Truth Social app.

Garelick earned just $49,000 from the illegal trades.

Trump Media's merger with DWAC was delayed until this past March. The merged company trades under the ticker DJT.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office, in a sentencing memorandum filed late Thursday, said that Michael Shvartsman's conduct "was flagrant, manipulative, and motivated by sheer greed."

The office's recommendation for his sentence is in line with what federal sentencing guidelines recommend.

Michael Shvartsman's defense lawyers, Alan Futerfas and Dennis Vacco, are urging Judge Liman to sentence him below those guidelines, citing his acceptance of responsibility in the case.

"Mr. Shvartsman has paid a steep price for his insider trading," those lawyers wrote.

"He has lost his reputation and suffered humiliation both personally and professionally. He has lost significant amounts of business through the loss of banking, credit cards, customers and vendors," the attorneys wrote. "His wife and children have suffered and there will continue to be huge collateral consequences of his actions, which is a significant punishment in and of itself."

Prosecutors revealed in Thursday's filing that a $14.7 million yacht, "Provocateur," that Michael Shvartsman agreed to forfeit to the federal government to secure a monetary judgment had been leased by him for summer charters in the Mediterranean without notifying prosecutors and that it since has been moved to Italy's Ligurian coast in contravention of a court order.

Prosecutors also said that Shvartman "has failed to provide financial statements" to the Probation Office before his upcoming sentencing.

"Altogether, Shvartsman exhibits a troubling pattern of acting as though he were above the law," prosecutors wrote.

"The sentence and term of supervised release imposed upon Shvartsman must deter him from committing future crimes."

Probation Office officials are recommending that Michael Shvartsman be sentenced to 46 months in prison, apparently due to his refusal to submit a personal financial statement to the office, his defense lawyers said.

Those lawyers noted in their sentencing submission that the full $18.2 million money judgment owed by him "has been paid" as of Monday, so there is no need to forfeit "Provocateur."

Defense lawyers said they had recommended that Shvartsman not submit a financial statement to Probation by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Those lawyers said that the purpose of the personal financial statement is to determine a defendant's ability to pay a fine.

But "there is no dispute that Mr. Shvartsman has the ability to pay a fine," the lawyers wrote, noting that he has already paid the forfeiture ordered in the case.

The two years in prison that prosecutors want as a minimum for Gerald Shvartsman is below the 37 months to 46 months recommended for him by those guidelines.

The Probation Office is recommending that he be sentenced to one year and a day in prison.

"The defendant is a wealthy, successful businessman," prosecutors wrote about Gerald Shvartsman, who is a married father of two children.

"He reports an annual income in excess of $600,000 and resides in a more than 6,000 square foot waterfront mansion," the filing said. "He had no need for these additional profits. His engagement in this scheme was driven by pure greed.

But, "The Government agrees that, relative to his co-defendants, the defendant is the least culpable of the three defendants who will be sentenced by the Court," prosecutors wrote in explaining their recommendation for Gerald Shvartsman.

Roland Riopelle, a lawyer for Gerald Shvartsman, is asking Liman for a sentence with no prison time.

Instead, Riopelle asked the judge to sentence him to 18 months of home confinement.

The attorney wrote in his sentencing memo that Gerald Shvartsman does not have $4.6 million in liquid assets to surrender, "so the Court should simply enter a forfeiture judgment against him in that amount."

Riopelle wrote that if a lengthy prison sentence is imposed on Gerald Shvartsman, "there is a very real chance" that his furniture company "will fail and the 150+ employees and independent contractors who work there will be put out of work."

The lawyer also cited Gerald Shvartsman's "significant health issues," which include a "serious back injury," Crohn's disease, two procedures to remove melanoma and "an acute and severe form of psoriasis, which requires medication and a special light therapy device.

The Crohn's disease requires "close monitoring and regular treatments," the filing said.

Like Michael Shvartsman's lawyers, Riopelle said the potential deportation of Gerald could harm his family.

"Judge Liman is a very serious and thoughtful judge and we're hoping that the oping that the potential damage that will naturally accrue to collateral persons here who were not involved in this crime will persuade the judge that the sentence we recommended is a good one," Riopelle said in an interview.