Justin Sun demands court sanctions over Trump-linked World Liberty Financial’s hidden UAE owners

Justin Sun accused the President Donald Trump-backed crypto firm World Liberty Financial of concealing UAE citizenship to escape his federal lawsuit.

The Tron founder said on Nov. 3 that his lawyers had requested sanctions against World Liberty Financial and its attorneys after the company disclosed foreign ownership connections months into litigation over his $45 million investment.

The disclosure introduced another controversy surrounding the president's cryptocurrency business, which has promoted itself as an American financial venture despite a reported $500 million investment from an Abu Dhabi-backed entity tied to a senior UAE government official.

Sun accused World Liberty of selectively invoking its national identity depending on whether it was raising money or defending itself in court.

He wrote on X:

“World Liberty was proudly American when it was selling tokens. It discovered its UAE roots only when it needed a way out of an American federal courtroom.”

The accusation followed an August court filing in which World Liberty expanded its ownership disclosure from one entity to 22, identifying citizenship in Florida, Delaware, Puerto Rico and the UAE.

Sun alleged the company initially disclosed only Florida citizenship, despite rules requiring it to identify the members of its ownership structure.

The revised filing came six days after an Aug. 20 hearing over World Liberty's attempt to move the investor dispute into arbitration. Sun said the judge had indicated that certain claims should remain in open court, while others could proceed through arbitration.

World Liberty subsequently argued that its UAE citizenship deprived the federal court of jurisdiction because foreign parties were present on both sides of the lawsuit.

Sun, who sued the company in April for allegedly inducing his investment through fraud and unlawfully freezing his tokens, said his lawyers had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars contesting World Liberty's arbitration request.

He accused the company of failing to disclose ownership information that could have determined the court's jurisdiction at the beginning of the case.

The ownership dispute carries broader political significance because World Liberty's ties to the UAE were already attracting scrutiny over potential conflicts involving the president's family.