Crypto
As Trump’s wealth skyrockets, accusations of conflicts of interest mount
They crane their necks to get a glimpse of the helicopter as it descends on the lawns of Donald Trump’s Virginia golf club.
The event is black tie, a gala, a chance to dine with the president of the United States.
This invite is one money can buy. A kind of money, at least.
To get into this room, the guests have had to invest real money into the official Trump cryptocurrency. Collectively, they hold about $US150 million ($229 million) worth of the coin.
The group watches as he exits the helicopter and cheers as he enters the room.
The gala was for the top 220 holders of the Trump cryptocurrency, $TRUMP. (Supplied)
Donald Trump’s wealth, and that of his family, is skyrocketing.
Trump says he has stepped back from his business ventures since taking office, and his interests are now held in trust by his sons.
But critics say he is operating like no president has before, mixing business and politics in a way that may violate the US constitution and threaten the very foundations of American democracy.
His links to a plethora of business activities and cryptocurrency ventures have opened him up to accusations of conflicts of interest and profiting from the presidency.
‘He can do whatever he wants’
The event in Virginia was billed as a reward for the top 220 holders of the Trump cryptocurrency, called $TRUMP, which launched three days before his inauguration.
The Trump family makes money when the currency is traded.
In crypto circles, it is considered a “meme coin”, a kind of collectible inspired by internet trends that can be bought and sold, but has no guaranteed real-world value or practical application.
One of the investors in the room was 25-year-old Nick Pinto.
Nick Pinto wanted to film a TikTok with the president at the gala. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
The Lamborghini-driving Floridian got into crypto early and has made a lot of money from it.
He knows the money he has poured into $TRUMP has made the president and his family richer.
“I don’t mind that Trump is profiting off this currency because I am involved in the crypto space and the fact that he’s involved in cryptocurrency at all drives the price up, and when the price goes up, I’m profiting,” he tells Four Corners.
“So any time he tweets something about the currency, the price will go up or down.
“As long as I can profit from it, I feel like he can do whatever he wants. If there’s a way for the average American to make money off of the president, I feel like it’s OK.“
Nick Pinto says Donald Trump’s involvement in crypto helps his investments. (Supplied)
Pinto bought $TRUMP early, and then topped up his holdings to guarantee he would get a ticket to the gala. By the big night, he held about $US370,000 worth.
All he wanted in return was to film a TikTok or at least get a selfie with the president.
Within four months of launching, the token had generated $US320 million in trading fees.
The bulk of this went to those behind the meme coin. This included the Trump family.
Skin in the game
A former cryptocurrency sceptic, Donald Trump’s conversion began on the 2024 campaign trail.
In May that year, he met members of a powerful crypto lobby spearheaded by leading Bitcoin advocate David Bailey. In July, he appeared at the group’s conference, where he pledged to run a crypto-friendly administration if re-elected.
Watching closely was Corey Frayer, a senior adviser for crypto markets and financial stability to the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the time. He and his boss, Gary Gensler, had been cracking down on crypto.
“Almost the entire crypto industry is propped up by a belief and faith that there is something behind all of the magic of creating a crypto token,” Frayer tells Four Corners.
“So having the president get involved … just makes the entire market bigger and more dangerous.“
Corey Frayer says the president’s rhetoric on crypto changed once his family got into the industry. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
In September, just seven weeks out from the presidential election, the Trump family joined the crypto industry themselves.
Trump and his sons launched their own crypto platform called World Liberty Financial, with longtime Trump confidante Steve Witkoff and his sons as business partners.
The platform allowed people to invest through selling a token, with 75 per cent of the profit from each sale going to the Trump family.
It was a remarkable turnaround from the man who called Bitcoin a “scam” in 2021 and whose family had made its fortune from tangible assets like real estate, resorts and casinos.
Frayer noticed a change in the presidential candidate’s campaigning.
“He announced, to much applause, that he would fire the strong regulator, Gary Gensler, over his crypto policy,” he says.
“He started courting a lot of donations from the crypto lobby for his campaign, and all of that was very clearly driven by his new financial interests in this industry.”
World Liberty Financial allows people to invest through selling a token, with a share of the profit going to the Trump family. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
Corey Frayer believes there are other potential risks in a president being so invested in crypto.
“The transactions can be nearly anonymous,” Frayer explains
“If you want to use your presidency to sell influence or just make money, crypto is a great way to do that.“
The World Liberty Financial website states that Donald Trump was removed from his role with the company when he re-entered the White House. Steve Witkoff, now Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, also left his role after taking office. Both Trump’s and Witkoff’s sons, however, are still actively involved in the business.
In March this year, World Liberty Financial announced it had sold $US550 million worth of its token. Four Corners estimates this has delivered $US390 million in revenue to the Trump family.
The White House told Four Corners that Donald Trump’s personal assets were in a trust managed by his children and have nothing to do with his presidential decision-making.
Business and politics
Critics say the blurred lines between where Trump’s businesses end and the presidency begins heighten the risk of conflicts of interest.
While Frayer was at the SEC, it was pursuing Chinese-born entrepreneur and crypto billionaire Justin Sun over allegations of civil fraud.
Sun once bought a piece of conceptual art — a banana gaffer-taped to a wall — for $US6.2 million and then ate it.
He made two investments in World Liberty Financial totalling $US75 million — one was made the day before the inauguration.
Sun’s World Liberty Financial investments delivered close to $US50 million to the Trump family.
Not long after Trump returned to the White House, the SEC case against Sun was paused.
Justin Sun made two investments in World Liberty Financial totalling $US75 million. (Getty Images: Steven Ferdman)
Sun later attended the $TRUMP meme coin gala as the coin’s largest holder — he had about $US22 million worth at the time of the dinner.
But it is not just individuals who are allegedly receiving favourable treatment.
An investigation by The New York Times, led by journalist Eric Lipton, raises questions about the impact business interests are having on US foreign policy.
The United Arab Emirates’ state-owned investment fund MGX, which is chaired by Abu Dhabi’s deputy ruler, invested $US2 billion in the crypto exchange Binance.
This investment was made using one of World Liberty Financial’s coins. The Trump family could earn tens of millions of dollars from this investment.
“That’s on a scale that we’ve never seen,” Lipton says.
“[It’s] the single largest transaction in cryptocurrency history.
“It’s tens of millions of dollars that is effectively going into the pockets of the Trump and Witkoff families and their business partners from that single transaction.”
New York Times investigative journalist Eric Lipton. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
Two weeks after the $US2 billion transaction, Trump announced the UAE would be allowed to buy hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips from US technology giant Nvidia — something the Biden administration had refused to do.
There is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other.
Lipton says while the assertion was that the timing was coincidental, both involved “the same government officials and the same families that were benefiting”.
“The problem is, it creates questions about what is driving US foreign policy,” Lipton says.
It is impossible to put a precise figure on how much Mr Trump and his family have made since he retook office.
It is unclear how some profits are distributed from the array of real estate, crypto, media, and Trump-brand ventures.
Forbes Magazine estimates Trump’s current net worth is $US7.3 billion. Twelve months earlier, it was $US3.9 billion.
Questioning Trump
Donald Trump has strongly rejected suggestions that it is inappropriate for him to be involved in business activities while serving as the US president.
When Four Corners asked how much wealthier he was since returning to the White House, Trump replied:
“Well, I don’t know if the deals I made, for the most part, other than what my kids are doing. You know, they’re running my business. But most of the deals that I’ve made were made before [being re-elected]. And that’s what I’ve done for a life.”
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Trump said his children, not him, were running the business, and that the questions from Four Corners were “hurting Australia”.
“They want to get along with me. You know your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”
“Quiet,” he said when pressed further, pointing a finger.
Donald Trump tells reporter John Lyons he is setting “a very bad tone”.
Trump supporters believe he is acting within the limits of the law.
“The president has to abide by US law. When it comes to businesses, that’s normal. There’s no conflict of interest laws related to the presidency and the president, and so he’s operating within that space,” former Trump adviser and communications director Bryan Lanza says.
Lanza rejects suggestions by critics that the business deals benefiting Trump and his family while in office are improper.
“There’s nowhere in our constitution that requires family to be disqualified from earning a living,” he says.
“The president is not conducting these deals; it’s Don Jr and Eric.
“Every president benefits from their policies, every president benefits from a tax cut, every president benefits from their policies in the long term. Trump’s no different than any other president.”
‘Nobody does it like this’
Critics say, even if there are no quid pro quo deals, the president’s business activities fit within a broader definition of corruption.
“The classical definition of corruption is the exploitation of public office and public power for private gain,” lawyer and former Obama White House ethics adviser Norm Eisen says.
“So when you look at … the $US2 billion World Liberty Financial investment where he has a stake in the crypto industry, the auctioning off access to those who purchase his meme coin … they’re all about Donald Trump using his office, the official nature of the presidency — public office — for his private gain, instead of for serving the public interest.
“He is the most corrupt president that we have had in the modern era.
Trump supporters believe he is acting within the limits of the law. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
“When have we ever had a president who has huge financial interests, hangs onto them, gains from them, while regulating in that same area?
“Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust so that … there would be no question that he was making decisions about agriculture or farming or subsidies to benefit himself. Donald Trump is doing the opposite.”
His colleague, Virginia Canter, is one of America’s foremost ethics lawyers and has worked under both Republican and Democrat administrations, advising the US Department of Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
She says the UAE deal raises questions, given the immense benefit to the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial.
“You have to ask yourself, why didn’t the UAE state-backed investment fund called MGX just take their money and invest it directly in Binance?” Canter says.
MGX didn’t respond to questions from Four Corners.
Virginia Canter says the American people deserve better. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
Canter says the American people expect their president to represent the public’s interests.
“You can’t be confident of that because now this money is coming in and undoubtedly influencing his official activity,” she says.
“It’s an outrageous conflict of interest.“
She rejects assertions that, because the deals are public knowledge, Trump isn’t doing anything wrong.
“It doesn’t look as scary or nefarious, and in fact it normalises it and it makes it look like it’s OK, and that’s a terrible thing,” she says.
“It perpetuates this idea that everybody does it. Nobody does it like this.
“We deserve much better.”
Lipton says Trump’s sons are using every avenue they can to create new businesses and intensify profits.
“The diversity of new ventures that they’re creating to profit off of policies that the president is involved with is just across the map, and it is creating a quagmire of ethics. The hardest part is that we just can’t keep up.”
Money maker
The scope of business activity Trump and his family are engaged in has surprised Republican strategist Doug Heye.
“The Trump family is certainly using this as a very big opportunity to make a lot of money, and they’ve been very successful at it,” he says.
He says Trump is such a unique figure, and no other president would be able to get away with what he does.
“The rules just don’t apply to him in the way they do to everyone else, and he exploits it,” he says.
“Business is Donald Trump’s DNA and it’s also hardwired in the American psyche.
“For most voters, it is so factored in because they’ve known Donald Trump as a successful businessman their entire lives.
“Many Americans don’t see a problem with this president enriching himself while in office.”
That was true of Nick Pinto, to a point.
The 25-year-old crypto entrepreneur never got to film his TikTok with Trump at the meme coin gala.
Nick Pinto was left disenchanted by the meme coin gala experience. (Four Corners: Cameron Schwarz)
Once Trump had arrived, he delivered a speech before heading back to his helicopter and leaving. His appearance lasted less than 30 minutes.
Pinto, who was served a meal of steak and mashed potatoes, was left disenchanted by the experience and unimpressed by Trump’s apparent disregard for those who had invested in his crypto.
“I would say the entire dinner was about making money,” he says.
“They did advertise it as having dinner with Trump, and Trump did not eat anything at all.
“If there was a big table … and he’d sat down at least and drank a Diet Coke with us or something like that.
“I do feel like I maybe kind of got scammed.“
Watch the Four Corners investigation, Chasing Trump’s Billions, tonight from 8:30pm AEDT on ABC TV and ABC iview.
HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise. The Henrico County Police Division has some tips to help you protect yourself.
In a recent Facebook post, officials provided the following guidance on how to avoid getting scammed:
- Only scammers ask for cryptocurrency. Legitimate businesses and government agencies will never ask for cryptocurrency as payment,
- Never send crypto to someone you haven’t met in person. Scammers commonly pretend to be someone they’re not. Make sure you truly know and trust someone before you send them cryptocurrency.
- All cryptocurrency payments are final. Once you send someone cryptocurrency, there’s no reversing the transaction — something scammers know and take advantage of.
- If they ask for cryptocurrency, hang up. If someone calls, texts, emails or contacts you on social media to pressure you into sending them cryptocurrency, it’s a scam. Hang up or delete the message.
- Stay suspicious. Slow down and don’t let scammers push you to act quickly. Trust your instincts — if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
You can report any suspicious activity to the Henrico County Police Division by calling 804-501-5000. You can also file a report online here.
PRESS RELEASE.
Dubai will host RWA SUMMIT Dubai on May 1, 2026, at Uptown Tower (DMCC), bringing together institutional investors, regulators, founders, and infrastructure leaders shaping the next phase of real-world asset tokenization. The summit forms part of the broader global initiative RWA WEEK, an international platform designed to connect regional tokenization ecosystems and accelerate the institutional adoption of blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
The announcement follows the strong momentum generated earlier this year in Asia, where RWA SUMMIT Hong Kong gathered 2,322 registrations, 745 senior attendees and 147 active investors, demonstrating that tokenization has moved decisively beyond experimentation and into structured institutional deployment. The conversations emerging from that gathering reflected a market no longer questioning whether real-world assets will transform finance, but focusing instead on execution, interoperability, and scalable infrastructure.
RWA WEEK was created as a global framework uniting industry stakeholders across jurisdictions that are advancing regulatory clarity and practical implementation of tokenized assets. Within this broader initiative, RWA SUMMIT Dubai represents the Middle East’s institutional entry point into the rapidly forming Asia–Middle East corridor of digital finance. The UAE’s progressive regulatory environment and growing concentration of capital allocators have positioned Dubai as a natural hub for discussions surrounding the next stage of tokenization adoption.
The summit is expected to convene more than 400 senior participants supported by over 1,500 ecosystem registrations, including institutional investors, founders, financial institutions, technology providers, and policymakers actively involved in bringing real-world assets on-chain. Discussions throughout the event will address the evolving regulatory landscape in the UAE and globally, the tokenization of financial products, commodities and real estate, the emergence of new payment and settlement infrastructure, institutional scaling strategies, the rise of RWAFI at the intersection of decentralized and traditional finance, the positioning of tokenized assets as a distinct institutional asset class, and the integration of artificial intelligence within tokenization ecosystems as the industry transitions from narrative-driven experimentation to operational deployment.
RWA WEEK will gather a distinguished lineup of global speakers contributing to the evolution of digital finance and tokenized markets, including Mohammed Ebrahim Al Fardan (Al Fardan Ventures), Ahmed Bin Sulayem (Executive Chairman & CEO, DMCC), Ruben Bombardi (VARA), Mohammad Raafi Hassain (Fasset), Charles d’Haussy (dYdX Foundation), Kate Kim (KAST), Talal Tabbaa (CoinMENA), Alex Scott ( Solana Superteam Middle East), Rajat Sakhuja (Mastercard), Joseph El Am (PRYPCO), Juliet Su (NewTribe Capital), Philipp Caspers-Pabst (ZIGChain), Mark Dymock (SC Ventures), Adam Bilko (RockawayX), and other industry leaders.
“Hong Kong demonstrated that institutional capital is no longer watching from the sidelines,” said Ivan V. Ivanov, Founder of UVECON.VC and Co-Host of RWA WEEK. “ RWA SUMMIT Dubai represents the next step in building a strategic bridge between Asia and the Middle East — regions that are advancing fastest in real regulatory implementation. The future of tokenization will depend on coordination between infrastructure builders, capital allocators and regulators working toward shared standards.”
“Tokenization scales only when legal architecture, regulatory clarity and capital alignment evolve together. The UAE has invested significant effort in building that foundation, and Dubai now provides an environment where asset issuers and founders can bring real-world assets on-chain at institutional scale,” added Irina Heaver, Founder of NeosLegal and Founding Member of RWAlabs.ae.
RWA WEEK is co-hosted by UVECON.VC and RWAlabs.ae, with strategic partners including dYdX Foundation, NeosLegal, NewTribe Capital and LynxCap Investments, while Forbes serves as media partner. As tokenization transitions from a market narrative into financial infrastructure, RWA SUMMIT Dubai positions itself as one of the defining gatherings shaping how real-world assets integrate into the global financial system.
Register now: https://luma.com/rwasummitdubai
_________________________________________________________________________
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A Newport Beach man has been sentenced to federal prison for laundering money for a group of young con artists who prosecutors said stole $263 million in cryptocurrency and used the loot to purchase luxury cars, rent out mansions and private jets and spend as much as $500,000 at nightclubs.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sentenced 22-year-old Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in December. She also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release.
Tangeman admitted to federal authorities that he laundered at least $3.5 million for the group, which scammed more than $263 million in cryptocurrency from investors in the U.S.
Federal authorities said Tangeman, whose monikers included “E,” “Tate” and “Evan Exchanger,” was one of nine members of a “social engineering crime enterprise” made up of hackers, scammers, residential burglars and crypto money launderers.
Social engineering is a type of fraud scheme used to trick victims into providing scammers with passwords, PINs and other personal information.
Federal investigators said the group impersonated security technicians and employees of cryptocurrency exchange companies such as Coinbase and Gemini to steal from their victims. An associate of the group referred to them as the “crypto kids.”
“This criminal enterprise was built on greed so brazen it borders on cartoonish,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. “They stole millions, spent it on half-million-dollar nightclub tabs, Lamborghinis, and Rolexes.”
Federal authorities said the group formed through online gaming platforms. Its members, including some who were teenagers, lived in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and in other countries.
Federal authorities said the group had begun its crime spree by October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025.
Earlier this year, one of the members of the group, a 17-year-old, testified against Eric Halem, a former Los Angeles police officer who was convicted last month of robbing $350,000 worth of cryptocurrency from the teen in 2024.
In testifying against Halem, the teen, who was sworn in to testify just under his first name, Daniel, revealed a subculture around newly created crypto wealth. The so-called crypto kids included fixers who set them up with homes, cars, clothes and other luxuries.
Among the fixers was Tangeman, who federal authorities said not only converted the stolen cryptocurrency into cash but worked with real estate agents in Los Angeles to obtain large mansions for members.
They said the group was made up of unemployed young men, often under 20 years old, who feared drawing attention from authorities for renting homes at $40,000 to $80,000 a month with no source of income.
“Some of those homes were valued from $4 million up to nearly $9 million,” federal prosecutors said in a news release announcing Tangeman’s sentencing.
They said the group also had rental homes in the Hamptons in New York and in Miami.
Federal officials said the money Tangeman laundered was spent by the group to live lavishly, including hundreds of thousands of dollars spent at nightclubs, and luxury handbags valued at tens of thousands of dollars that were given away at nightclub parties. The group also bought luxury clothes and watches that cost up to $500,000. It also had a fleet of luxury cars ranging in value from $100,000 to nearly $4 million.
Federal prosecutors said Tangeman was rewarded well for his services. At least one member arranged for the purchase of a wide-body Lamborghini Urus worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal agents seized a black 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost, valued at more than $300,000, while serving a search warrant at Tangeman’s home. They also seized a Porsche GT3 RS.
“Finally, when the first members of the criminal enterprise … were arrested and the massive scale of their fraud revealed, it was Tangeman who took it upon himself to direct co-defendant Tucker Desmond to destroy digital devices belonging to members of the enterprise,” the new release read.
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