Donald Trump was sued Thursday by a cryptocurrency company that claims he violated the Constitution by profiting from deals with a United Arab Emirates official while he was in office.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the complaint names the 80-year-old president, his longtime friend and special envoy Steve Witkoff, and World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm co-founded by Trump’s family, accusing them of “corruptly profiting” from more than $2 billion in transactions.
“No president in American history has profited from his office in such a brazen manner,” says the lawsuit filed by a Circle Internet Group shareholder.
Donald Trump and his sons / Brendan McDermid/Reuters
“The president himself has openly admitted that the lack of consequences encourages him not only to continue to use his high office to enrich himself, but also to increase the wealth he derives from the trust the American people place in him.”
The plaintiff is Joel Greenberg, a shareholder in Circle, a publicly traded crypto company that competes with World Liberty Financial.
At the heart of the lawsuit, Greenberg alleges that Trump is violating the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause by taking advantage of a foreign government without congressional approval.
Greenberg also alleges that Trump misappropriated Circle’s business by accepting hundreds of millions of dollars, thereby harming the company’s shareholders.
The case, filed Thursday, alleges that Trump violated the Constitution. / Screenshot/UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT / United States District Court
Four days before Trump’s inauguration, for example, the Trump family sold 49% of World Liberty Financial for $500 million to an investment entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, according to the lawsuit. Financial information confirmed this purchase after he became president.
“Millions of dollars from this deal, originating from a foreign government, were paid to President Trump after he took office,” the suit claims.
The suit also claims that Tahnoon orchestrated a scheme to inflate the value of Trump’s crypto holdings. He points to MGX, an investment fund created by the UAE government and chaired by Tahnoon, which announced a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance just weeks after Trump took office.
World Liberty Financial then announced the launch of its own stablecoin, USD1, which MGX used to pay for the Binance deal.
“The President blatantly violated the Constitution in order to enrich himself, his family and his business at the direct expense of Circle. He must be held accountable,” Greenberg said in a statement provided to The Daily Beast.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions from The Daily Beast.
Trump then made headlines by pardoning Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who was convicted of money laundering.
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