A federal civil lawsuit filed in Florida accused a current member of the board of directors of former President Donald Trump's media company of hacking and plotting a corporate coup.

According to the lawsuit filed last month by investment firms led by a former CEO of the Digital World Acquisition Corp. that merged with Trump Media & Technology Group, board member Eric Swider allegedly hacked and stole their files.

Trump Media Director Accused of Plotting a Corporate Coup

According to CNBC, the firms also accused Eric Swider of planning a coup in early 2023 to replace Patrick Orlando as CEO of Digital World, a special-purpose acquisition company.

Swider and others allegedly stole access to the companies' computer systems as part of that attempted coup and utilized the stolen information against Orlando.

According to Benessere Investment Group and ARC Global Investments II, which filed the lawsuit, it was "an audacious scheme to seize control of and enlarge their holdings." 

The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction to prevent the defendants from using the stolen information and stop them from hacking the companies' files.

Orlando was ousted from Digital World in March 2023 and replaced by Swider. The company recently completed a merger with Trump Media that allowed it to trade on the Nasdaq. 

Shares of Trump Media, the parent company of the social media platform Truth Social, surged in its market debut, but those gains have since been wiped out.

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Lawsuit Against Former Digital World CEO

The lawsuit portrayed Patrick Orlando as successful in steering Digital World into a merger agreement with Trump Media. It accused Eric Swider of disseminating false and misleading information to mislead Digital World's directors and partners.

Swider also allegedly promised "outsized compensation" to other directors in exchange for supporting his coup that aims to take control of ARC Global Investments II, which owned about 19% of Digital World before the merger. 

Swider allegedly enlisted Orlando's former assistant to access critical information, offering to make him president of DWAC in exchange. 

The lawsuit claimed that the assistant repeatedly accessed the storage account of both investment firms and provided the information to Swider, who allegedly used it to spread "false and defamatory claims" about Orlando to ARC Global Investments II's members via email. 

According to the lawsuit, Orlando found out about the email as Swider failed to remove Orlando's wife from the mailing list.

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