Guren Bobby Zhou, the businessman behind Aqua 1’s $100 million purchase of World Liberty Financial governance tokens, was arrested in Britain in 2021 on suspicion of money laundering and remains connected to an investigation that British officials said was still active as of late July, according to a New York Times report published Sunday. Zhou has not been charged.
UK court filing and status of the case
The Times said a British court record filed last November accused Zhou of participating with five other people in a laundering operation dating to 2019. The report added that two of his longtime employees were charged in the case last September. One defendant has pleaded guilty, and trial is scheduled for 2028.
Reuters was the first to identify Zhou as the person behind Aqua 1, a little-known UAE-based fund that bought $100 million of WLFI in June 2025, making it one of the largest known buyers of the project’s tokens.
How the WLFI purchase was distributed
Under World Liberty Financial’s revenue-sharing arrangement, as much as $75 million from the purchase was distributed to a company controlled by Trump and his sons. The transaction also benefited the family of co-founder Zach Witkoff, whose father Steve Witkoff serves as a special envoy in the Trump administration.
Links among Aqua 1, Web3Port and onchain wallets
The Times reported that Zhou led Web3Port, a crypto venture fund that announced a $10 million investment in World Liberty shortly after Trump’s January 2025 inauguration.
A Web3Port entity registered in the British Virgin Islands later changed its name to Aqua 1 GP Limited. Aqua 1 announced the $100 million purchase two weeks after that name change.
Arkham Intelligence found that a wallet controlled by Web3Port bought $20 million of WLFI in January 2025, while a wallet likely controlled by Aqua 1 bought another $80 million in June. Aqua 1 had previously denied any connection to Web3Port.
Earlier ventures cited in the report
Web3Port was also the market-making firm linked to the MOVE token scandal. The report said Zhou’s earlier ventures included a British flooring retailer that entered restructuring while owing roughly $5 million to his father’s company, and Caduceus, a crypto project whose token was effectively worthless by 2024 after spending about $7.6 million.
Caduceus had promoted backing from China Merchants Securities UK and the Bin Zayed Group. The Times said both organizations told the newspaper those claims were unauthorized and false.