As Congress Considers Potential Market Structure Legislation, Warren and Reed Press DOJ and Treasury on National Security Risks Posed by Trump-Affiliated Crypto Venture’s Sale of Tokens to Illicit Actors
“WLF has ‘[taken] money from people with open and obvious connections to enemies of the United States’ and raised national security risks by giving them ‘a seat at the table’ to set WLF’s forward-looking governance policies.”
“[W]e must ensure that crypto interests do not profit at the expense of U.S. national security and that illicit actors are not handed the keys to financial platforms that they can later exploit.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Jack Reed (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pamela Bondi calling for information into any efforts to investigate World Liberty Financial (WLF), a Trump-backed crypto venture, in light of recent reports that it sold its governance tokens to buyers linked to North Korea, Russia, and other illicit actors.
“By selling these tokens, WLF has ‘take[n] money from people with open and obvious connections to enemies of the United States’ and raised national security risks by giving them ‘a seat at the table’ to set WLF’s forward-looking governance policies,” wrote the Democratic Senators. “As Congress considers legislation on the market structure for digital assets, we must ensure that crypto interests do not profit at the expense of U.S. national security and that illicit actors are not handed the keys to financial platforms that they can later exploit.”
The Senators continued: “These reported sales to actors linked to North Korea, Russia, and other illicit actors raise serious questions about WLF’s due diligence policies or procedures, including whether its tokens or other products enable sanctions evasion, money laundering, and terrorist financing. The reports indicate an absence of robust sanctions and anti-money laundering controls; as it considers plans to tokenize additional assets, including real estate, on its platform, WLF risks supercharging illicit finance activity.”
The Senators raised concerns about the Trump family’s close ties to WLF: “The Trump family’s close ties to the company also create a financial conflict of interest for Trump Administration officials that report to the President: prioritizing token sales will directly enrich the Trump family—while compliance activities may interfere with this wealth creation …. [E]very time a governance token is sold, three quarters of that money goes directly to President Trump and his family, even for sales to entities linked to North Korea and Russia.”
They emphasized the importance of information on the agencies’ efforts to address WLF’s sale of governance tokens to illicit actors as Congress considers market structure legislation: “Legislation currently under development in Congress ... may exempt issuers of governance tokens like WLF from certain recordkeeping and disclosure requirements, including information about beneficial owners, making it even more difficult for law enforcement to detect and fight illicit finance that occurs on its platform.”
The Senators concluded by requesting answers to their questions on the national security risks posed by the sale of governance tokens to illicit actors, any current investigations into WLF’s sale of governance tokens, and any efforts the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice plan to take to insulate national security decisions from the influence of crypto interests like WLF by December 1, 2025.
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