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Washington D.C. – This week, government watchdog Accountable.US sent letters to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the U.S. Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees calling for greater oversight of President Trump’s escalating involvement in opaque cryptocurrency self-enrichment schemes. The letter, first reported by Politico Influence, also urges an investigation into a recent alarming multi-million-dollar transaction between President Trump’s family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial Inc. (WLFI), and a Dubai-based crypto firm called DWF Labs, which has been suspected of engaging in market manipulation and whose Managing Partner is linked to Russia.

EXCERPTS FROM THE LETTER BY ACCOUNTABLE.US PRESIDENT CAROLINE CICCONE: 

The deal is emblematic of an unprecedented and rapidly worsening situation of the President of the United States using a web of Trump family crypto interests as his own personal mint while in office – interests that are largely out of public view and that almost certainly present conflicts against the public interest in many cases, including threats of foreign influence and to US national security. It is not even 100 days into the president’s second term, and Donald Trump has already been accused of ending an investigation into a major crypto mogul business associate, launching a scheme to enrich himself based on tariff policy, and launching a stablecoin as his administration pushed for stablecoin legislation to move forward in Congress. 

Just days before Trump’s second presidential inauguration, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump reportedly made nearly $100 million from crypto “meme” coins, a move that widely alarmed ethics experts for its potential for facilitating corruption and foreign influence. Those concerns were further elevated with the recent announcement that on May 22, the President will attend a private dinner “with the top 220 holders of the Trump memecoin” between the April 23 to May 12 time period – essentially setting up a race between wealthy investors of who can buy more influence with the President while the Trump family gets richer in the process. One of the event taglines even disturbingly reads: “Own a Piece of Trump.” 

The President is clearing the way for corruption and self-enrichment. He could have fully divested from all crypto interests given their near-limitless potential for corruption and self-dealing. Instead, Trump continues to push the envelope and open new pathways for foreign, corporate and bad actors to pay tribute to him off the books, expecting who knows what in return. From firing independent inspectors general and other watchdogs, gutting checks and balances, and politicizing and defanging other federal law enforcement, the Trump administration has put a “for sale” sign on the White House to attract the highest bidders, while everyday Americans suffer under a chaotic economy, higher costs, and the looming loss of healthcare, Social Security, education, veterans benefits, and other vital services. 

[…] 

Background on DFW Labs and Trump’s World Liberty Financial: 

World Liberty Financial was launched in the fall of 2024 with the goal of “allow[ing] people to access financial services using cryptocurrencies and without intermediaries like banks in what is called decentralized finance, or DeFi.” As of April 21, 2025, the project has no public DeFi platform. Despite having no publicly available platform, “World Liberty said in mid-March it had raised $550 million selling so-called governance tokens [$WLFI.] Most of those sales took place after Trump’s election win in November” according to Reuters.

[…]

DWF Labs is a Dubai-based company and claims to be “one of the world’s largest high-frequency cryptocurrency trading entities.” 

The company’s Managing Partner is Uzbekistan-born Andrei Grachev who previously stepped down as CEO of Moscow-based crypto exchange Huobi Russia after multiple scandals. Huobi was later found to potentially violate U.S. sanctions by allowing customers of sanctioned Russian banks. 

Notably, Grachev was also Vice President of Trading for RACIB, a non-profit “closely related” to Russian state-owned bank VEB, where Grachev worked with Vladimir Demin, a senior manager for Russian state-affiliated VEB Ventures who would go on to join Grachev in co-founding DWF Labs’ predecessor, VRM.trade. 

In May 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that DWF Labs was suspected of market manipulation by investigators at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, who found over $300 million in suspicious wash trades. Traders engage in wash trading to “create a false impression of market activity.”

Now, World Liberty Financial and DWF Labs have entered into a new partnership that demands Congressional oversight based on the series of events surrounding the deal.

Timeline of Key Events: 

    •     October 9, 2024: The Biden administration DOJ announces charges against 18 international crypto wash traders in a major sting operation. The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which was later disbanded by the Trump administration, was among the offices involved in the sting operation.

    •     Friday, April 4, 2025: DWF transfers 25 million $USDC tokens to World Liberty Financial,  ostensibly to purchase  250 million $WLFI tokens, making DWF one of $WLFI’s 25-biggest holders.  
    •     Monday, April 7, 2025: the Trump administration disbands the DOJ’s cryptocurrency crime enforcement unit, reassigning crypto market integrity prosecutors, and slashing the national cryptocurrency enforcement team— the same team that has prosecuted market-manipulating wash traders, among other bad crypto actors. We share the serious concerns raised by Senators Warren, Hirono, and Durbin about this “decision to give a free pass to cryptocurrency money launderers” and that “drug traffickers, terrorists, fraudsters, and adversaries will exploit this vulnerability on a large scale.”

    •     April 16th, 2025: Grachev announces that DWF Labs’ is “expand[ing] to the US market” with a new office in New York City, while in the same social media post praises Eric Trump and WLFI co-founderZach Witkoff by name: “Happy to support big things that you […] @ZachWitkoff @EricTrump […] are building, LFG!”

These facts raise serious questions in our view:

    •     Why did the Trump administration squash 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?

    •     Was the DOJ’s crypto crime unit, the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, or any of their financial crime enforcement partners investigating DWF Labs before the DOJ unit was shuttered?

    •     In 2024, DOJ and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) appointed compliance monitors as part of Binance’s settlements for alleged money-laundering and sanctions violations. Have these compliance monitors found any evidence to corroborate reports that Binance’s internal investigators found that DWF Labs made over $300 million in wash trades? Have these monitors found any other suspicious activity by DWF Labs?

    •     What would this suspicious foreign crypto firm want in return for their substantial investment in Trump’s WLFl? Are DWF Labs, Andrei Grachev, Vladimir Demin, or any of their associates in contact with President Trump or his administration, specifically advising on cryptocurrency policy or other matters?

    •     In mid-April 2025, shortly after its WLFI deal, DWF Labs announced its expansion into the U.S., with a new office in New York City. Has DWF Labs taken the proper compliance, registration, and licensing steps to operate in the country after operating in foreign jurisdictions?

    •     If this transaction turns out to be a quid pro quo involving administration policy, what exactly do the American people stand to lose?

    •     Why has the president positioned himself to appear open to possible corruption and self-enrichment by maintaining ties to his largely unregulated crypto interests, even expanding them since taking office? 

We urge you to conduct congressional oversight of President Trump and the Trump family’s foreign personal business dealings, generally, and regarding digital assets and the DWF Labs transaction specifically.

If the President’s personal business interests continue to receive foreign money and other highly unusual and unethical, if not illegal, investments, the American people should know what these investors expect in return. Who are these anonymous investors? Crypto and other entities seeking to end oversight, investigations, and accountability for lawbreaking? Big oil companies that want the administration to further gut clean air and water protections?  Big drug companies that want Trump to let them off the hook from negotiating cheaper drug prices with Medicare? Wall Street banks or predatory lenders that want federal probes into their anti-consumer behavior to magically go away?

These kinds of arrangements could allow for the Trump family to sell out the interests of the American people to the highest bidder, whether foreign or domestic. This a 5-alarm fire for potential corruption that could leave everyday Americans worse off, and Congress should act accordingly.  We look forward to assisting you as you investigate this matter further. 

PREVIOUSLY FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US:

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