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…Then the Administration Disbanded the DOJ’s Crypto Crime Unit One Business Day Later

Washington D.C. – Today, government watchdog Accountable.US called on Congress to investigate a highly suspicious transaction between Donald Trump’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial Inc. (WLFI), and a foreign crypto firm suspected of potentially illegal market manipulation practices. 

At Issue: On Friday, April 4, 2025, Dubai-based DWF Labs transferred 25 million $USDC tokens to Trump’s WLFI, which then transferred 250 million $WLFI tokens to DWF Labs, making DWF one of WLFI’s 25 biggest holders. A new Accountable.US analysis, first reported by Rolling Stone, found that DWF Labs is run by a shady Russia-tied foreign actor whose company was reportedly suspected of hundreds of millions of dollars in “wash trading,” a form of crypto market manipulation targeted by a major FBI sting in October 2024. DWF Labs has also made over $562 million in deposits on crypto exchanges restricted against U.S. users, including Binance, OKX, and Bybit.

The transaction became all the more alarming on Monday, April 8th, when the Trump administration suddenly disbanded the Justice Department’s cryptocurrency crime enforcement unit, reassigned crypto market integrity prosecutors, and slashed the national cryptocurrency enforcement team, the same team that has gone after market-manipulating wash traders, among other bad crypto actors. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and other senators urged Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to reverse his decision to gut DOJ crypto enforcement, saying it gives “rise to concerns that President Trump’s interest in selling his cryptocurrency may be the reason for easing law enforcement scrutiny.”

On April 16th, DWF Labs’ Managing Partner Andrei Grachev – who stepped down from Moscow-based crypto exchange Huobi Russia after multiple scandals – announced the company is “expand[ing] to the US market” with a new office in New York City, while in the same social media post praised Eric Trump by name: “Happy to support big things that you … are building, LFG!” 

“Something smells rotten about the Trump administration squashing its crypto crime unit one business day after a Russia-tied foreign investor suspected of illegal market manipulation poured millions into one of the opaque Trump family crypto ventures,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “President Trump seems to have deliberately left the barn door open for potential corruption and self-enrichment by maintaining ties to his largely unregulated crypto interests — and even jumping into more since taking office. If the President’s business will continue openly taking foreign money, he must be transparent about what these foreign investors are asking for in return. The interests of American working people should never be sold out to the highest foreign investor through Trump crypto schemes, but until Congress demands more transparency, questions will linger.” 

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