At Hearing, OCC Comptroller Gould Says He Will Consider Warren Request to Review World Liberty Financial Bank Application

*Washington, D.C. *– Today, at the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on prudential regulators, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, pressed Jonathan Gould, Comptroller, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to share with her and Committee Chairman Tim Scott the the unredacted bank charter application of President Trump’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial (WLF). Gould responded to Senator Warren that he would consider her request.

In her exchange with Gould, Senator Warren highlighted how a few days before Donald Trump was sworn into office, the UAE spent half a billion dollars to secretly acquire a 49% stake in WLF. Warren questioned Gould on whether WLF disclosed in its bank charter application that this UAE company was a principal shareholder in the proposed bank. When Gould refused to answer the question, Warren called on him to share the unredacted application with the Committee.

*Below is Ranking Member Warren’s exchange with Comptroller Gould. *

Warren: Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on a story about ties between Donald Trump and the top spy in the United Arab Emirates, who is the President’s brother and the country’s National Security Advisor—he is actually called “Spy Sheikh.” A few days before Trump was sworn into office, this spy spent half a billion dollars to secretly acquire a 49% stake in Trump’s crypto company.

What does the U.A.E.’s top spy get for his half billion dollars? The Trump Administration agreed to sell the UAE our most-sensitive AI chips. Our own national security experts say the UAE– and the Spy Sheikh’s companies – may be a conduit for funneling high-tech to China — technology that strengthens China militarily.

Right now, Trump’s crypto company, World Liberty, has a bank charter application pending with the OCC, an agency that the President controls.

Comptroller Gould, you run the OCC. Did World Liberty disclose in its application that the Spy Sheikh’s company was a principal shareholder in the proposed bank?

*Gould: *Senator, thank you for the question. I’m not going to discuss the specifics of any application.

*Warren: *Are you telling us you won’t tell whether or not they disclosed it? Do you acknowledge that it is supposed to be disclosed to principal shareholders?

*Gould: *Senator, unlike the last 4 years of the Biden administration, under President Trump’s leadership we are actually doing what we say we will do. And I would refer you to the-

*Warren: *Well let’s see if you're doing what you say you will do.

Like all applicants for a bank charter, the OCC regulations require World Liberty to disclose all principal shareholders, which are persons with at least a 10% direct or indirect stake in the proposed bank. Those insiders must file a Biographical and Financial Report with the agency. Failure to do so would be grounds for a dismissal of the application. Evidently, you have not dismissed the application yet, so I assume the disclosure was made.

Will you show Chairman Scott and me an unredacted application so we can see that for ourselves and see that you are in fact following the law?** **

*Gould: *Senator, the only thing to which I will commit is following our established procedures which are outlined in the regulations that you provided, as well as the 131 pages in the Comptroller’s license and manual.

*Warren: *We are the Banking Committee and we have oversight here, I would like to see, in camera it is non public. I would like to see that, along with Chairman Scott, I would like to see that application, just to ascertain that the appropriate disclosures have been made. Will you commit to doing that?

*Gould: *Senator, I would be happy to entertain your request and discuss with my team and make sure we are doing and affording you the same privileges that we have afforded past administrations in similar situations.

*Warren: *I don’t know that anyone has had to ask that before because I don’t think any President has ever had a pending bank application before.

President Trump’s crypto company is now at the center of perhaps the most disgraceful Presidential corruption scandal in U.S. history. An American president who sells out our national security to make money for himself—and if you grant World Liberty a bank charter, you will be a party to that.

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