United Arab Emirates’ ‘Spy Sheikh’ Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased a secret 49% stake in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial. Tahnoon, known as the ‘Spy Sheikh,’ is a UAE royal and government official who serves as the country’s national security adviser and manages its largest wealth fund. Aryam Investment, a Tahnoon-backed company, took a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial. The deal would make Aryam the largest shareholder of World Liberty Financial, and the company’s only known investor besides the founders.
World Liberty is behind the stablecoin USD1, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by short-term U.S. government treasuries, U.S. dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. The company counts President Donald Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff as co-founders emeritus, and is run by members of the Trump and Witkoff families. The deal was signed by Eric Trump in the days before his father’s second inauguration as president.
It came as Tahnoon was seeking access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the U.S., which the Biden administration had blocked over concerns that the chips would end up in China. The agreement saw roughly $187 million flow to Trump family entities and $31 million to Witkoff family entities.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said there are no conflicts of interest. She added that Witkoff is working to “advance President Trump’s goals of peace around the world.” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also defended the president on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Journal report has prompted new scrutiny of the Trump administration’s dealings with the UAE and Tahnoon. In May, the U.S. agreed to allow the UAE to purchase hundreds of thousands of advanced artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia. The agreement called for a fifth of the chips to go to Tahnoon’s own AI company, G42.
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