Trump Crypto Project Partner Linked to Sanctioned Cambodian Scam Network

The Trump family's cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial has found itself entangled with a company connected to sanctioned individuals accused of operating a massive international fraud network, according to company records and Treasury Department sanctions announcements.

AB Network, which partnered with World Liberty Financial last November to deploy the project's USD1 stablecoin, is involved in a blockchain resort development in East Timor alongside three individuals later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department. Those individuals have ties to Cambodia's Prince Group, which federal authorities accuse of running a global scam operation.

The Sanctioned Connection

Company records show that Yang Jian, the majority shareholder of the East Timor development company, was sanctioned in October for allegedly collaborating with Prince Group CEO Chen Zhi. Two other sanctioned individuals were also involved in the project before being removed following the sanctions announcement.

Chen Zhi's operation represents one of the most significant cryptocurrency fraud schemes in recent history. The U.S. government seized $15 billion worth of Bitcoin from Chen last year. Cambodian authorities arrested him in January and extradited him to China.

The scale of the problem is staggering. According to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, Americans lost nearly $21 billion to online scams last year, with cryptocurrency-related fraud accounting for more than $11 billion of those losses.

Trump Project Claims Ignorance

World Liberty Financial insists it conducted proper due diligence on AB Network and claims it was never informed about the resort project or the sanctioned individuals involved. A lawyer for the Trump crypto venture described the alleged connections as "baseless and untrue."

That defense rings hollow given the timeline. World Liberty Financial announced its partnership with AB Network in November, granting authorization to use the USD1 stablecoin on AB's blockchain. The sanctions against Yang Jian and his associates came just one month earlier in October.

Either the Trump team's vetting process failed to catch publicly available sanctions information, or they proceeded with the partnership knowing about the connections and hoped no one would notice.

A Pattern of Pay-to-Play

This is not an isolated incident of questionable business dealings for World Liberty Financial. The entire project operates as a thinly veiled influence-peddling scheme, selling crypto tokens that provide no real utility beyond access to the Trump family and their political network.

The AB Network partnership fits this pattern perfectly. The company gained authorization to deploy World Liberty Financial's stablecoin -- a stamp of approval from a venture bearing the Trump name and backed by the former president. In exchange, World Liberty Financial expands its reach and collects fees.

Currently, AB Network has deployed approximately $3.6 million worth of USD1 tokens, held by only about 3,000 people. That's a tiny operation by cryptocurrency standards, raising questions about why World Liberty Financial would partner with such a small player in the first place.

No Evidence of Direct Illicit Funds -- Yet

To be clear, there is currently no evidence that money from the Prince Group scam operation flowed directly into the East Timor development project or that AB Network itself has direct ties to Prince Group. The connections run through individuals involved in both ventures.

But that distinction matters little when evaluating the judgment and ethics of the Trump family's business dealings. At minimum, World Liberty Financial partnered with a company whose leadership was doing business with individuals later sanctioned for running a multibillion-dollar fraud operation.

The Broader Context

This scandal illustrates why the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture represents such a dangerous conflict of interest. World Liberty Financial operates in a largely unregulated space, selling financial instruments to retail investors while the Trump family maintains significant political influence.

Every partnership, every token sale, every business relationship creates the potential for pay-to-play corruption. Foreign entities and domestic operators alike can purchase access and favorable treatment by doing business with Trump family ventures.

The AB Network connection shows how easily bad actors can infiltrate this ecosystem. Whether through incompetence or willful blindness, World Liberty Financial ended up in business with people connected to one of the largest cryptocurrency fraud operations in history.

Americans lost $11 billion to crypto scams last year. The Trump family is now profiting from an industry plagued by exactly those kinds of schemes, while claiming they had no idea their partners were connected to sanctioned fraudsters.

That's either catastrophically poor due diligence or a deliberate decision to look the other way as long as the money keeps flowing. Neither option is acceptable for a venture operated by a former president and his family.