World Liberty Financial received a $100 million purchase of its WLFI governance token from a fund linked to Guren “Bobby” Zhou, a businessman who was arrested in Britain in 2021 on suspicion of money laundering and remains connected to an active UK investigation, according to a New York Times report published Sunday. Zhou has not been charged.
The purchase, made through a fund called Aqua 1, would have directed as much as $75 million to a company controlled by President Donald Trump and his sons under World Liberty’s reported token-sale revenue arrangement, the Times said. The transaction also benefited the family of World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff; his father, Steve Witkoff, serves as a special envoy in the Trump administration.
The Times reported that it could not determine the source of the $100 million used for Aqua 1’s WLFI purchase. World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman told the newspaper that the company complied with applicable laws and regulations and had a compliance program that “meets or exceeds industry standards.” He declined to say whether the company knew the source of Zhou’s funds.
A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, told the Times that Trump had no conflicts of interest. Zhou did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment.
Court filings describe a long-running UK case
Zhou was arrested in Britain in 2021 on suspicion of money laundering, according to the Times. British officials told the newspaper in late July that the investigation remained active.
A British court record filed in November accused Zhou and five other people of participating in a money-laundering operation dating back to 2019. The filing is an allegation, rather than a criminal conviction. Two longtime Zhou employees were charged in September 2025, the Times reported, and one defendant has pleaded guilty. A trial for the charged defendants is scheduled for 2028.
The case places fresh attention on the due-diligence questions surrounding World Liberty, which has become a major source of crypto-linked income for the Trump family while conducting business with overseas buyers. The available reporting does not establish that World Liberty or its executives were involved in the UK activity under investigation.
World Liberty sells WLFI as a governance token, giving holders voting rights in the project’s ecosystem. Its token sales have also been structured to send a large share of proceeds to entities affiliated with Trump, creating a direct financial link between token demand and the family’s income.
Separate reporting has stated that 75% of WLFI token-sale proceeds flow to DT Marks DEFI LLC, a Trump-controlled entity. Trump’s latest financial disclosure reported more than $65.6 million from the sale of equity in WLF Holdco and $236.25 million in distributed World Liberty token-sale proceeds.
Aqua 1’s links to Web3Port
The Times identified Zhou as the person behind Aqua 1, the fund that announced the $100 million WLFI purchase. Blockchain analysis by Arkham Intelligence found that a wallet controlled by Zhou’s Web3Port venture bought $20 million in WLFI tokens in January 2025, according to the newspaper.
Arkham also determined that a second wallet, likely controlled by Aqua 1, purchased another $80 million of WLFI in June. Together, the transactions align with Aqua 1’s stated $100 million commitment.
Web3Port announced a separate $10 million World Liberty investment shortly after Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. The Times reported that a British Virgin Islands entity called Web3Port later changed its name to Aqua 1 GP Limited. Aqua 1 announced its $100 million WLFI purchase two weeks after that name change.
Aqua 1 had previously denied a connection with Web3Port following earlier reporting tying the two operations together, the Times said. The fund did not specify which details it disputed.
That corporate trail gives the WLFI purchase a more identifiable source than Aqua 1’s public branding initially suggested, while leaving unanswered questions about the origin of the capital used in the deal.
Past ventures drew disputed claims
The Times’ review of court records, confidential documents and interviews described a series of earlier ventures associated with Zhou, including failed businesses and claims of corporate backing later disputed by the organizations named.
Before relocating from London to Abu Dhabi in 2024, Zhou ran a British flooring retailer that entered restructuring proceedings without repaying roughly $5 million owed to his father’s company, according to the Times.
He later launched Caduceus, a cryptocurrency project that spent about $7.6 million in funding. By 2024, the project’s token was effectively worthless, the newspaper reported.
Caduceus had announced backing from China Merchants Securities UK and the Bin Zayed Group. Both organizations told the Times that the claims regarding their involvement were “unauthorized and materially false.”
After moving to the United Arab Emirates, Zhou led Web3Port, described by the Times as a crypto venture fund. The newspaper reported that his finances changed substantially after his relocation, though it could not determine the source of the money used for the Aqua 1 transaction.
Financial and legal questions remain separate from market claims
The reporting raises compliance and reputational questions for World Liberty because the token purchase came from a fund associated with an individual tied to an active money-laundering investigation. It does not, by itself, establish criminal conduct by Zhou, Aqua 1, Web3Port or World Liberty.
Nor does the information presented support claims that WLFI or other crypto assets face imminent court-ordered freezes, broad bank-account seizures, forced wallet searches or an industry-wide market collapse. Such measures would require specific legal processes and facts beyond the allegations and transactions described in the Times report.
The more immediate issue is whether World Liberty’s compliance procedures were sufficient to assess a nine-figure purchase whose funding source remains unclear, particularly given the project’s revenue-sharing structure and the Trump family’s financial interest in token sales.
Wachsman’s statement that World Liberty followed applicable laws leaves that question centered on the company’s internal screening and disclosure practices. With the UK investigation continuing and the underlying source of Aqua 1’s $100 million unresolved, scrutiny of the transaction is likely to remain focused on those controls rather than on unsupported predictions of a market-wide selloff.
For deeper context on this controversial token, explore what WLFI is and why it’s trending in crypto right now.
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