The former chief executive of the special purpose acquisition company that brought Lottery.com Inc. public pleaded guilty to a charge of securities fraud tied to representations made to the SPAC’s and then digital lotto company’s investors.
Former SPAC Trident Acquisitions Corp. CEO Vadim Komissarov changed his plea to guilty on the securities fraud count before Judge
Already, a pair of former Lottery.com executives pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges connected to a fraudulent scheme boosting the financial results of the company which billed itself as the lottery equivalent of Uber or Doordash.
Ryan Dickinson, the company’s former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty to several counts—including securities fraud, making false Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and improperly influencing the conduct of audits. Former chief revenue officer Matthew Clemenson similarly pleaded guilty, minus the count for influencing the conduct of audits.
Prosecutors accused Komissarov and the other executives of a scheme between 2020 and 2022 of taking Lottery.com public, reporting fake revenues, and selling off their shares before the market discovered it.
Lottery.com, which is rebranding to Sports Entertainment Gaming Global Corp., went public in 2021 during the height of the SPAC merger craze only to reach the brink of collapse a couple of years later—a near implosion chronicled by Bloomberg Tax. Called AutoLotto before the blank-check merger, the company pitched itself as offering an app to buy lottery tickets by phone.
The official name change announced last month came as the SEC sued the company, these three executives, and former Lottery.com CEO Tony DiMatteo with similar civil charges.
Addressing the SEC’s lawsuit, the company said last month that since the middle of 2022, it “has completely cleaned house, implemented substantial changes to its management team, governance framework, internal control environment and have become fully compliant with the SEC.”
Komissarov is represented by Loeb & Loeb LLP. A firm spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
“He manufactured fraudulent revenue and then obstructed the SEC’s investigation, including by lying under oath,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said of Komissarov in a statement Tuesday. “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.”
The case is USA v. Komissarov, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cr-00061, 2/3/26.
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