US President Donald Trump said he was unaware of a reported multimillion-dollar investment by an Abu Dhabi royal into World Liberty Financial’s crypto platform. “I don’t know about it,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he was involved. “My sons are handling that — my family is handling it. I guess they get investments from different people.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, purchased a 49% stake in WLFI for $500 million four days before Trump’s inauguration. The WSJ’s account was based on WLFI documents and people familiar with the matter.
According to the report, the first installment from a Tahnoon-backed company, Aryam Investment 1, was $250 million. Of that, $187 million was directed to Trump-family entities and another $31 million went to an entity tied to two WLFI founders, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro. The agreement would make Aryam WLFI’s largest shareholder, prompting concern about foreign influence in a U.S. crypto company closely tied to the president — who is one of nine WLFI founders alongside his sons Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron.
Sheikh Tahnoon is known for his diplomatic ties with the U.S. and as chairman of Group 42, an Abu Dhabi AI conglomerate that recently received U.S. Commerce Department approval to purchase advanced chips from Nvidia and AMD.
The report adds to regulatory and media scrutiny over Trump’s crypto ties. In January, Senator Elizabeth Warren urged banking regulators to delay consideration of WLFI’s application for a bank charter until Trump divested his interest. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency responded that political or personal financial ties would not alter the procedural review and that WLFI would face the same “rigorous review” as any applicant.
WLFI spokesman David Wachsman told Bloomberg that holding a privately held American company to a unique fundraising standard is “both ridiculous and un-American.”
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