Two US senators have sent a new letter demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Treasury Department investigate Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) over token sales allegedly linked to illicit actors.
In a letter seen by the news media outlet, the senators requested that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent investigate claims that the Trump-backed company had allegedly sold tokens to sanctioned entities or individuals with ties to illicit actors in Russia and North Korea.
Warren and Reed reportedly argued that WLFI “lacks adequate safeguards to prevent bad actors from moving funds or gaining influence over its governance,” raising concerns over a potential conflict of interest.
To the senators, the reported token sales to individuals with “open and obvious connections to enemies of the U.S.” indicate “an absence of robust sanctions and anti-money laundering controls.”
Additionally, they consider that the company “risks supercharging illicit finance activity” and raises national security risks by giving bad actors “a seat at the table” to influence the firm’s governance.
The letter added that the Trump family’s ties with the crypto venture “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.”
Moreover, the representative told CNBC that “World Liberty Financial conducted rigorous AML/KYC checks on every pre-sale purchaser of the $WLFI governance token — the highest standard in the industry — and turned down millions of dollars from potential purchasers who failed the tests.”
It’s worth noting that the Democratic lawmakers have pressed multiple government officials, including the US Special Envoy for peace missions, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s former acting chairman, and the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), about Trump’s crypto ventures and potential conflicts of interest.
Nonetheless, the Democratic senators argued that the timing of their request is essential ahead of Congress’s efforts to develop new crypto regulation that could protect governance tokens like WLFI from current US oversight.
“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 letter added.
Ultimately, the senators requested that the DOJ and the Treasury provide the pertinent information against World Liberty Financial by December 1.
