World Liberty Financial: The Trump Family's Crypto Company Faces a Lawsuit Over UAE Deals
A Circle shareholder has sued over two UAE-linked deals with World Liberty Financial. The White House and the company reject the suit. No court has ruled.
Key numbers
49% for $500M
UAE-backed stake
$2B
Binance deal paid in USD1
$70M-$82M a year
Circle's loss, as claimed
Filed 22 Oct, no ruling
Status
On Thursday 22 October 2026 a shareholder of Circle, the company behind the USDC digital dollar, went to federal court in Washington, DC, over two deals made by World Liberty Financial. World Liberty is the crypto company co-founded in September 2024 by the Trump family and the family of Steve Witkoff, and the Trump family holds part of it through two holding companies. Both deals brought in money from investors linked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The case, Greenberg v. Trump, No. 1:26-cv-03686, names World Liberty and four holding companies, and President Donald Trump and Witkoff, now the US special envoy to the Middle East, in their official roles. The White House called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said: "There are no conflicts of interest." World Liberty said the claims "are without merit, and we look forward to resolving them in court." Circle, the company the suit is filed for, says it did not ask for it. No court has ruled on any of it. Below is what the lawsuit claims, followed by the full answer from the White House and World Liberty.
Who filed it
J. Benjamin Greenberg, a software engineer from Jefferson County, Colorado, worked at Circle from 2016 to 2018 and still owns 10,000 of its shares. He filed what is called a derivative suit: a shareholder sues on a company's behalf when he says its board will not act, and any money recovered goes to the company, not to him. Circle is named only as a "nominal defendant", a formality, and no claim is made against it.
Greenberg did not ask Circle's board to act first. He argues that its directors cannot act independently of the President, and points to the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law Trump signed, under which Circle will be regulated; to Circle's $1 million gift in USDC to the inaugural committee; and to Binance's purchase of about $100 million of Circle shares in September 2026.
The rule the lawsuit relies on
The Foreign Emoluments Clause, in Article I of the Constitution, says that no federal officeholder shall, "without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." An emolument is an old word for a profit, fee or payment. Only Congress can approve an exception, and the complaint says it has not been asked.
A court would have to answer two questions first. Did the money come from a "foreign State"? The complaint says the buyers are controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security adviser, in his official role. Tahnoon is not a party to the case. And does a business deal count as an emolument at all? In Trump's first term the Justice Department argued that the clause was "not designed to reach commercial transactions" that a president carries out as an ordinary citizen through his businesses. No court has settled that question.
The two deals, as the lawsuit describes them
The first: on 16 January 2025, four days before the inauguration, Aryam Investment 1, a company backed by Tahnoon, agreed to buy 49% of World Liberty for $500 million. Half was paid up front. The complaint says $187 million of that went to DT Marks DEFI and DT Marks SC, the two companies that hold the Trump family's 38.25% share of the business, and that the second $250 million was due by 15 July 2025, after Trump took office. The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal on 31 January 2026, saying Eric Trump signed it and that at least $31 million went to companies tied to the Witkoff family. Two executives of G42, an Abu Dhabi technology company that Tahnoon chairs, joined World Liberty's board.
The second deal involves a stablecoin, a digital token meant to be worth exactly one dollar and backed by cash and short-term US government debt. The company that issues one keeps the interest earned on the dollars behind it, much as a bank earns interest on money held in current accounts. World Liberty launched its stablecoin, USD1, on 25 March 2025. Two weeks earlier MGX, an Abu Dhabi investment company that Tahnoon chairs, had announced a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. On 1 May 2025 Zach Witkoff, Steve Witkoff's son and now World Liberty's chief executive, said USD1 had been chosen to complete it: MGX bought $2 billion of USD1 with cash and passed the tokens to Binance. The complaint puts World Liberty's interest income from those tokens at about $80 million a year.
Where Circle comes in
About 96% of Circle's 2025 revenue came from interest on the reserves behind USDC, and in December 2024 Binance had agreed to use USDC for its own treasury. The complaint, citing the Journal, says Binance asked MGX to pay in USD1, and that $2 billion of USDC would have earned Circle $70 million to $82 million a year. Binance's lawyer told the Journal that Binance "did not control the stablecoin chosen by MGX."
What the lawsuit asks for
Greenberg asks the court to declare the payments unconstitutional, to bar Trump from accepting more of them without the approval of Congress, to bar Witkoff from seeking them for him, to order an accounting of payments from foreign governments linked to World Liberty, and to make the companies hand over what they received "to the United States Treasury or as the Court directs". Damages are sought only from the World Liberty companies, because they cannot be claimed from a President sued in his official role. He wants a jury trial. His lawyers are from Evergreen Legal Strategies in Washington.
What the White House and World Liberty say
The White House rejects the lawsuit. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly called it "frivolous" and said: "There are no conflicts of interest." When the UAE investment was first reported, in February 2026, Kelly said: "President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest." She added: "President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public." The White House counsel, David Warrington, said then: "The President has no involvement in business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities." He said Witkoff follows government ethics rules and stays out of official matters that could affect his own finances.
Trump himself, asked about the investment by reporters on 2 February 2026, said: "My sons are handling that, my family is handling it." World Liberty lists both Trump and Witkoff as "co-founder emeritus", a title that reflects their stepping back when Trump returned to the White House, and says neither had any role in the deal or has been involved in the company since taking office. The company and the White House both told the Journal that the investment did not influence US policy.
On the lawsuit itself, World Liberty spokesman David Wachsman said the claims "are without merit, and we look forward to resolving them in court," adding that "World Liberty Financial is compliant with all U.S. laws and regulations" and that "No one at World Liberty Financial works for the U.S. Government." Of the UAE investment, he said in February: "we strongly believe that it was what was best for our company as we continue to grow." He called the idea of holding the company to a special standard "both ridiculous and un-American."
What Circle says
"This lawsuit was filed by an individual shareholder, not by Circle," a Circle spokesperson said. "Circle did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing." Witkoff had made no public comment on the lawsuit by 23 October, and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Bloomberg.
The aftermath
As of 23 October 2026 the case had just been opened: the court record held the complaint, a civil cover sheet and summonses, and no judge had been listed. No defendant had filed a reply; under federal court rules, US officials sued in their official roles have 60 days from service to respond. Earlier cases show how suits like this have gone. Three emoluments suits were brought during Trump's first term. A federal appeals court threw out one, filed by about 200 Democratic members of Congress, in February 2020, ruling that they had no standing to sue, and the Supreme Court declined to hear it. The other two, brought by the ethics group CREW with hotel and restaurant businesses, and by the District of Columbia and Maryland, were still running when he left office; on 25 January 2021 the Supreme Court ordered them dismissed as moot, meaning there was no longer anything to decide. None produced a final ruling on whether the clause had been broken, and none recovered money from him. USD1 had about $4 billion in circulation, according to CoinGecko figures cited by Bloomberg.
What this teaches
- A derivative suit is brought by a shareholder in the company's name. Any money recovered goes to the company, which is why Circle can be named in the case and still say it did not ask for it.
- The Foreign Emoluments Clause has one exception, the approval of Congress. Whether a fund counts as a 'foreign State', and whether an ordinary business deal counts as an emolument, are questions a court has to answer before anything else.
- Stablecoin issuers keep the interest on the dollars behind their tokens, so one large holder is worth tens of millions of dollars a year to whichever issuer it picks.
- The first-term emoluments cases ended on standing and mootness, not on whether the clause had been broken, so who is allowed to sue matters as much as what is claimed.
- A complaint is one side's account. The White House and World Liberty reject it, and Circle, the company it is filed for, says it played no part in it.
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