World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the crypto project involving the Trump family, is facing another dispute over the source and destination of funds. According to Aug. 9 reports by The Block and The New York Times, WLFI received a $100 million token investment, the largest publicly disclosed single purchase of WLFI governance tokens so far.
$100 million entered through a UAE foundation
The investment was made on June 26 through Aqua1 Foundation, an entity based in the United Arab Emirates. The reports traced the funding to Guren “Bobby” Zhou.
Zhou was arrested in the UK in March 2021 on suspicion of money laundering. UK authorities confirmed that the investigation was still ongoing as of late July.
Reports say up to $75 million went to Trump family-controlled entities
According to the reporting, as much as $75 million of the $100 million flowed to entities controlled by the Trump family and to businesses linked to WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff.
The reports also listed several other red flags tied to Zhou: an unpaid $5 million debt from a collapsed flooring business, a failed crypto project that burned through investor money, and a string of fabricated corporate partnerships that were later withdrawn.
Warren and Reed seek an investigation
The case has again reached Capitol Hill. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed have called for an investigation into WLFI, questioning whether the project had “once again” failed to identify links to sanctioned or criminally implicated individuals.
For critics cited in the source material, the central issue is whether a crypto project closely tied to the sitting president’s family had due diligence strong enough to block suspicious money.
ABMedia also noted earlier reporting by Chain News saying Trump’s financial disclosures showed more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income, with WLFI and meme coins making up a major share. This new $100 million controversy adds another episode to the broader scrutiny around how the president’s family has monetized crypto while facing repeated questions over fund flows.