World Liberty Financial's 'Due Diligence' Apparently Missed the Part Where Partners Were Sanctioned

A company that decided to buddy up with World Liberty Financial—the crypto venture blessed by President Donald Trump—apparently forgot to check if its new best friends had any pesky little sanctions attached. You know, the usual onboarding step: KYC, AML, and maybe a quick "are you on any government naughty lists?"

Turns out, a planned "blockchain theme resort" in Timor-Leste linked to partner AB Network involved three individuals who were later hit with U.S. Treasury sanctions as part of a crackdown on the Cambodia-based Prince Group. The project was marketed as a luxury paradise for cryptocurrency enthusiasts—which, in crypto terms, means it probably had better WiFi than most apartments and a bar that only accepted USDT.

Corporate records reveal that the majority shareholder of the development company was Yang Jian, a Cyprus-based businessman sanctioned in October for allegedly working with Prince Group CEO Chen Zhi on a separate resort project that U.S. authorities described as a "predatory investment." Because nothing says "crypto innovation" quite like a resort that requires a sanctioned associate as majority shareholder.

The three sanctioned individuals were removed from the Timor-Leste project shortly after sanctions were announced. There is no evidence that illicit funds flowed into the development, or that AB Network is directly connected to the Prince Group. But hey, at least they have excellent timing.

AB Network announced its partnership with World Liberty Financial in November, securing the rights to use the company's U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin USD1 on its blockchain. The collaboration followed a series of high-profile announcements by AB, which has promoted ties to global political figures and listed former world leaders among advisers to its Irish-registered nonprofit arm. If you didn't announce partnerships with world leaders, were you even in crypto?

World Liberty Financial, founded in 2024 by partners including companies affiliated with the Trump and Witkoff families, said it had carried out due diligence on AB and was not made aware of the resort, or of individuals linked to the Timor-Leste project. Lawyers for the company told investigators it is "committed to responsible practices and compliance" and said claims of links to sanctioned figures are "unfounded and untrue." Their due diligence process appears to have been about as thorough as reading the first slide of a pitch deck.

The collaboration has so far produced limited uptake of World Liberty's stablecoin on AB's blockchain, with a maximum total supply of around $3.6 million and just over 3,000 holders. That's roughly the population of a small town that collectively decided to ape into a stablecoin. Stability never looked so speculative.

The Prince Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate led by Chen Zhi, has been accused by U.S. authorities of operating one of the world's largest online scam networks, allegedly generating tens of billions of dollars annually through fraud schemes run out of compounds across Southeast Asia. The U.S. government last year seized $15 billion worth of Bitcoin from Chen in what it described as its largest forfeiture action against online scammers. That's a lot of lambos, even by crypto standards. The company has denied wrongdoing. Cambodian authorities arrested and then extradited Chen to China in January. His blockchain resort dreams? Also looking pretty liquidated.

AB Network's corporate structure has remained opaque. It describes itself as a decentralized ecosystem comprising an Irish nonprofit, a Cayman