U.S. Senator warns that the UAE's deal with WLFI may involve criminal activity

According to Decrypt, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut has warned that a deal involving UAE investors secretly paying Trump-associated cryptocurrency firms may involve potential criminal activity. Murphy alleged that four days before Trump's inauguration, Aryam Investment, linked to UAE Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, agreed to acquire 49% of Trump-associated cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial for $500 million, with approximately $187 million flowing to entities associated with the Trump family and at least $31 million going to family-associated entities of Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Subsequently, the Trump administration approved the expansion of UAE's access to advanced U.S. AI chips, which had been restricted during the Biden administration. In his Senate speech, Murphy summarized the accusation as: a secret massive transfer of funds to Trump and envoy-associated families, followed by the U.S. sharing restricted security technology with the UAE. He stated that this is corruption, constitutes elements of bribery, and is potential criminal behavior, warning that although accountability may be delayed, the consequences are inevitable, the rule of law will return, and those who trade power for money will go to jail. Previously, it was reported that a confidant of the Abu Dhabi royal family secretly invested $500 million to acquire 49% of the Trump family's WLFI company; Trump responded that he was unaware of the $500 million investment from Abu Dhabi into WLFI, and that his sons were handling it.