Trump Crypto Firm Received $100M From Investor Under UK Probe

A $100 million token purchase by a UAE-based firm tied to Guren “Bobby” Zhou has placed World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture linked to President Trump and his sons, under renewed examination. The transaction, executed through Aqua 1 in June 2025, directed as much as $75 million to entities controlled by the Trump family and the family of Steve Witkoff, the administration’s special peace envoy. Public records show Zhou faced an active UK money-laundering investigation stemming from a 2021 arrest, though no charges have been filed. The payment occurred amid broader disclosures that Trump collected $1.4 billion from crypto businesses last year, most from anonymous sources.

World Liberty Financial maintains a compliance program meeting or exceeding industry standards, according to spokesman David Wachsman. The company did not confirm whether it verified the source of Zhou’s funds. Patrick Prinz of Recoveris, a digital-asset investigation firm, told The New York Times that Zhou’s business failures, sudden wealth, transaction size, and ongoing probe should have triggered source-of-funds documentation under anti-money-laundering rules. A White House spokeswoman stated Trump has no conflicts of interest and acts only in the public’s interest.

Zhou’s prior ventures include a collapsed UK flooring business that left a $5 million unpaid debt to his father’s company and Caduceus, a crypto project that raised $7.6 million before becoming worthless by 2024. Court records from an immigration appeal confirm the UK investigation remains active. Reuters first identified Zhou as the principal behind Aqua 1. Former associates described him as persuasive yet noted his abrupt relocation to Abu Dhabi after the probe surfaced. No blockchain traces or additional corporate filings independently confirming the full $100 million inflow have appeared in other public reporting.

Bipartisan lawmakers have referenced the transaction when discussing potential congressional review of foreign inflows into presidential family businesses. The episode highlights how cryptocurrency’s pseudonymity allows large purchases without immediate public identification of buyers, a pattern observed across multiple platforms but rarely triggering equivalent scrutiny when unconnected to political figures.