UAE ‘Spy Sheikh’ bought stake in Trump crypto company: WSJ

A government official and senior royal from the United Arab Emirates bought a $500 million stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture last year, months before the Trump administration greenlit the sale of advanced artificial intelligence chips to the UAE. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as the “spy sheikh”, is the Gulf country’s national security adviser and manager of its largest wealth fund. Aryam Investment, a Tahnoon-backed company, acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, according to the Journal. The deal will make Aryam World Liberty’s largest shareholder and the company’s only known investor other than its founders, the Journal reported.

World Liberty is behind stablecoin USD1, which is pegged to the US dollar and backed by short-term US government treasuries, US dollar deposits and other cash equivalents.

The company counts President Donald Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff as honorary co-founders and is led by members of the Trump and Witkoff families.

According to the Journal, the agreement was signed by Eric Trump in the days before his father was inaugurated for a second term as president. This comes as Tahnoon is seeking access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States, which the Biden administration has blocked due to concerns the chips will reach China.

According to the Journal, the deal provided a flow of approximately $187 million to Trump family companies and $31 million to Witkoff family companies.

In May, months after the deal between Tahnoon and World Liberty, the US agreed to allow the UAE to purchase hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips from the American chipmaker Nvidia. The deal called for one-fifth of the chips to go to Tahnoon’s own AI company, G42.

The Journal report sparked renewed scrutiny of the Trump administration’s dealings with the UAE and Tahnoon, with some in Congress warning of potential conflicts of interest or corruption.

“This is corruption, plain and simple,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. “The Trump Administration should reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the United Arab Emirates.”

Warren called on Witkoff, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “testify before Congress on gathering evidence that the President sold out American national security to benefit his crypto company and whether any officials lined their own pockets in the process.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Journal: “[t]there is no conflict of interest here.” He added that Witkoff was working to “advance President Trump’s goals for peace around the world.”

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also defended the president on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“I love how these papers talk about something that is unprecedented or has never happened before, as if the Biden family and the Biden administration are not doing the exact same thing and are just in office,” Blanche said.

Republicans and Trump have long accused the Biden family of corruption due to former President Joe Biden’s family’s business dealings abroad. Although an impeachment investigation was launched in the House regarding the issue, evidence of Biden’s wrongdoing has never emerged.

“I have no comment on this other than President Trump’s family is completely transparent while traveling for business,” Blanche said. “This idea that something undesirable or unprecedented has happened is just a repeated story that is not true.”

Read the full Wall Street Journal story here.