Trump Claims No Awareness of WLFI's $500M Investment from Abu Dhabi
President Donald Trump has stated he was unaware of a $500 million investment deal reportedly made between a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family and World Liberty Financial, his family's crypto venture.
President Donald Trump of the United States has stated he was not informed about an alleged multimillion-dollar investment arrangement between members of his family and a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family involving a substantial ownership position in the World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency platform.
When questioned by reporters on Monday regarding his participation in the transaction, Trump responded, "I don't know about it."
Trump further explained, "My sons are handling that — my family is handling it," and continued, "I guess they get investments from different people."
According to a Saturday report from The Wall Street Journal, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is part of the royal family of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, acquired a 49% ownership stake in WLFI for $500 million just four days prior to Trump's inauguration ceremony.
The reporting by the WSJ was derived from documentation related to WLFI and statements provided by individuals who have knowledge of the transaction.
According to the report, the initial payment from Aryam Investment 1, a company backed by Tahnoon, totaled $250 million, with $187 million of that amount being allocated to entities controlled by the Trump family.
An additional $31 million was reportedly allocated to an entity connected to Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, two individuals who co-founded WLF.
The investment deal would position Aryam as the largest shareholder in WLFI, sparking worries regarding foreign influence within a United States-based cryptocurrency enterprise that has close connections to the president, who serves as one of nine co-founders of WLFI along with his sons Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and Barron.
Sheikh Tahnoon holds diplomatic ties with the United States and serves as the chairman of Group 42, an artificial intelligence conglomerate based in Abu Dhabi that received authorization from the US Department of Commerce in December to acquire advanced processing chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Senator criticizes Trump's crypto ties
The disclosure of Sheikh Tahnoon's ownership stake in WLFI may intensify regulatory oversight and media attention regarding Trump's connections to the cryptocurrency sector.
During January, Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Senator, called upon the nation's banking regulatory authority to postpone consideration of World Liberty Financial's application for a bank charter until such time as Trump divests himself of his ownership interest in the cryptocurrency platform.
Subsequently, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rejected Warren's request, clarifying that neither political connections nor personal financial interests would influence the procedural examination and that the application would undergo the identical "rigorous review" applied to all applications.
David Wachsman, who serves as spokesman for WLFI, conveyed a comparable position to Bloomberg:
"The idea that, when raising capital, a privately-held American company should be held to some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous and un-American."