A company run by President Donald Trump’s three sons received a mysterious $100 million investment from a crypto fund run by an individual under investigation for money laundering, The New York Times reported Sunday.
In its investigation, the Times uncovered new details about the investor: Guren “Bobby” Zhou, a man with a “shady background” who’s currently under investigation for money laundering in England.
“The curious case of Mr. Zhou illustrates the ease with which buyers with unknown backgrounds and motivations can use the anonymity of cryptocurrency to shower Mr. Trump with money,” the Times’ report reads. “It is not clear how closely World Liberty scrutinized Mr. Zhou’s past, but the money laundering investigation in England was publicly available information, as were portions of Mr. Zhou’s troubled business history.”
In June of 2025, the United Arab Emirates-based Aqua 1 Foundation – run by Zhou – purchased $100 million in digital tokens from World Liberty Financial, an organization run by Trump’s family, along with the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special peace envoy. Those familiar with Zhou's “shady” history expressed confusion at how “he was able to access so much money,” the Times noted.
“[Many former associates] describe Mr. Zhou as a high-octane charmer with a British accent, persuasive enough to sell ice in a snowstorm, as one said,” the Times’ report reads. “But all were stunned to learn that after his departure from London, he was able to purchase $100 million in anything.”
Zhou's red flags include the aforementioned active UK money-laundering investigation, an unpaid $5 million debt from his collapsed flooring business, a failed crypto venture that burned through investor funds, and a string of fabricated corporate partnerships he was forced to walk back, the Times learned.
“In any prior era, a windfall for the president of that size from a foreigner with no public signs of access to that level of wealth would have certainly gone against norms and might have spawned a congressional investigation,” the Times’ report reads.