The former CEO of Trident Acquisitions Corp, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), will be sentenced in June after pleading guilty of misleading investors about Lottery.com’s revenues.
Charges were brought against Vadim Komissarov by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which accused him of assisting to inflate Lottery.com revenues ahead of Trident’s merger with the lottery courier company.
Trident and Lottery.com merged back in 2021, and the SEC began investigating the former in June 2023 and the latter in August 2023. The US markets watchdog determined that Komissarov was ‘engaged in a scheme to defraud’ Trident investors and subsequently Lottery.com investors between November 2020-May 2022.
According to the US Department of Justice, Komissarov subsequently sold 300,000 Lottery.com shares for over $600,000 in April 2022 and May 2022. This occurred prior to Lottery.com telling its investors it had identified errors in reported revenue and available cash.
“Vadim Komissarov, the former CEO of Trident Acquisitions Corp., defrauded his shareholders,” said US Attorney Jay Clayton. “He manufactured fraudulent revenue and then obstructed the SEC’s investigation, including by lying under oath.
“Whether it be SPACs or any other capital raising vehicles, when executives fabricate revenue and mislead our markets, this Office and our partners will pursue them vigorously.”
Since the SEC first began its investigation and subsequent charges against Komissarov, three former executives of Lottery.com have since been charged by the SEC for alleged involvement in the revenue inflation scheme – former CEO Anthony DiMatteo and ex-executives Matthew Clemenson and Ryan Dickinson.
The SEC alleges that all three executives conspired with Komissarov to inflate Lottery.com revenues ahead of the 2021 merger with Trident. According to the SEC, Lottery.com revenue for 2021 was overstated by over 300% and by nearly 800% for the first quarter of 2022.
SEGG Media, the company behind Lottery.com as well as a host of other sites like Sports.com and Tickets.com, has asserted that since 2022 – the year the allegations lead up to – it has ‘completely cleared house’.
Komissarov will be sentenced on 24 June 2026.