World Liberty Financial sold crypto tokens to buyers linked to sanctioned Iranian and Russian networks, prompting a Senate probe request

On September 18, 2025, watchdog group Accountable.US published a report alleging that World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — the crypto venture co-founded by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Barron Trump, and a major source of the Trump family's crypto-related income — had sold WLFI tokens to buyers whose wallets showed prior transaction links to sanctioned or high-risk networks. The report cited a wallet that purchased roughly 3,468 WLFI tokens in October 2024 with a history of transacting on Nobitex, Iran's largest crypto exchange, and a wallet that bought over 10,000 WLFI tokens after transacting with A7A5, a ruble-backed token the U.S. Treasury sanctioned in August 2025 for sanctions evasion. The report also flagged a wallet it linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group hacking operation; independent blockchain security researchers, including Nick Bax of Ump.eth and MetaMask security lead Taylor Moynahan, subsequently disputed that specific finding, saying it stemmed from an unrelated joke memecoin contract that automatically routed tokens from a labeled Lazarus address, and that the mistaken identification led WLFI to freeze one user's roughly $95,000 in tokens.

In a November 17, 2025 letter, Senate Banking Committee Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed cited the Accountable.US findings in asking the Treasury and Justice Departments to investigate WLFI's compliance controls and national-security exposure. WLFI has said it froze a subset of user wallets in September 2025 following what it described as third-party security lapses — including phishing attacks and exposed seed phrases — and is working to verify affected users and reallocate funds to secured wallets, characterizing the episode as unrelated to its smart-contract or platform security.