Former CEO Of Special Purpose Acquisition Company Sentenced To Prison

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today that VADIM KOMISSAROV, the former Chief Executive Officer of Trident Acquisitions Corp. ("TDAC"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC"), was sentenced to three years in prison for committing securities fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud TDAC investors and investors in TDAC's successor company, Lottery.com Inc., by publicly reporting false and misleading revenue and business information. KOMISSAROV pled guilty to one count of securities fraud on February 3, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who imposed today's sentence.

"Vadim Komissarov, the former CEO of Trident Acquisitions Corp., is going to prison for defrauding his shareholders," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "This Office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold executives of public companies accountable when they commit fraud and lie about it."

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment and statements made in public filings and public court proceedings:

From November 2020 through May 2022, KOMISSAROV engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in TDAC and investors in TDAC's successor company, Lottery.com (the "Revenue Scheme"). In short, KOMISSAROV and his confederates created the false appearance of revenue-generating business activity for AutoLotto, in advance of a vote by TDAC shareholders on a proposed merger between TDAC and AutoLotto, and later for Lottery.com through a series of sham transactions, including a fraudulent $9 million roundtrip transaction that KOMISSAROV engineered using the alias "Vlad."

KOMISSAROV later schemed to obstruct the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC")'s investigation. For example, during a call with two Lottery.com executives, KOMISSAROV said he wanted to "sync" his "clock[]" with them and align on a false and misleading narrative that concealed his involvement in some of the sham transactions that were part of the Revenue Scheme. KOMISSAROV warned the Lottery.com executives, "guys, you do understand, you say that I was involved with this transaction . . . . if Trident and me specifically knew about it, then I am in deep, deep, deep, deep water . . . . So, if you come out and say that I was involved, then I am in deep shit." KOMISSAROV also gave false and misleading sworn testimony to the SEC about his prior communications with the Lottery.com executives and his involvement in the $9 million fraudulent roundtrip transaction that was part of the Revenue Scheme.

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In addition to the prison term, KOMISSAROV, 54, of New York, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $607,028.70, representing the proceeds of KOMISSAROV's sale of Lottery.com stock before the market was made aware of the fraudulent scheme.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Clayton also expressed appreciation for the assistance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

This case is being handled by the Office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin V. Rodriguez and Matthew R. Shahabian are in charge of the prosecution.