Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim challenged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to investigate a $500 million foreign entry into President Donald Trump’s family cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial.
In a letter dispatched to the Treasury, the lawmakers flagged a purchase that transferred a 49% equity stake in the project to a United Arab Emirates-backed vehicle just 96 hours before Trump took the oath of office.
US Lawmakers Demand Treasury Probe into WLFI
Warren and Kim demanded that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) determine whether this capital injection into WLFI threatens national security.
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“Given the speed at which the deal reportedly closed—which ‘granted swift paydays to entities affiliated with the Trumps’—it isimportant to know whether Trump officials gave UAE-backed investors special treatment,” the lawmakers wrote.
The senators focused their inquiry on the specific origins of the funds. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, reportedly steered the investment.
This transaction placed two executives from his artificial intelligence firm, G42, directly onto the World Liberty Financial five-member board.
The senators argue that this arrangement grants a foreign entity operational control over a company explicitly tied to the sitting president.
Warren and Kim highlighted the geopolitical risks associated with G42. They noted that US intelligence officials previously scrutinized the firm for allegedly supplying surveillance technology to the Chinese military.
“U.S.intelligence has long warned that G42 may have provided technology to assist China’s military, and G42’s current CEO reportedly worked with Chinese engineers to develop a messaging app disguised as a surveillance tool,” the lawmakers stated.
Lawmakers contend that G42’s involvement creates a direct channel for foreign influence within the president’s private financial interests.
The letter also emphasized the risks to data privacy. The senators warned that foreign investors could now access sensitive financial metadata.
They stressed that wallet addresses, device identifiers, and geolocation logs of high-level US officials using the platform could be routed directly to foreign intelligence services through the project’s backend.
Bessent now faces a strict March 5 deadline to explain how the Treasury will handle the conflict. The inquiry forces the secretary to decide whether to launch a probe into a deal that enriches his boss.
Notably, this is not the first time Warren has criticized Trump’s crypto deals with the UAE. Last year, BeInCrypto reported that the lawmaker raised concerns about national security and corruption following reports about the president’s dealings with the Middle Eastern country.
