Billionaire Justin Sun sues Trump family's crypto business

by · UPI

April 22 (UPI) -- A billionaire backer of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial crypto business is suing the organization alleging extortion.

Justin Sun is accusing the company of a scheme to take his WLFI tokens, which are the cryptocurrency the company issued, the BBC reported.

"Unfortunately, certain individuals on the World Liberty project team have been operating the project in a manner that goes against President Trump's values," Sun posted on X. "They wrongfully froze all of my tokens, stripped me of my right to vote on governance proposals and have threatened to permanently destroy my tokens by 'burning' them -- all without any proper justification. I do not believe President Trump would condone these actions if he knew about them."

The firm was co-founded by President Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump in 2024, along with Steve Witkoff and his sons, Zach and Alex, and entrepreneurs Chase Herro and Zak Folkman.

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World Liberty denies wrongdoing, the BBC reported.

A single WLFI token is worth 8 cents, down from 31 cents since September.

Sun founded a separate multi-billion dollar crypto project called Tron. He said he backed World Liberty because of Trump and his support for cryptocurrencies. He also bought $100 million of Trump's meme coins in July 2025.

In his complaint, which he filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, Sun said promises to give token-holders the option to trade the currency in future "were false and misleading."

The tokens did become tradeable, but Sun said World Liberty blocked him from selling them.

Zach Witkoff, whose father is Trump's middle east special envoy, said Sun's lawsuit is a "desperate attempt to deflect attention from Sun's own misconduct."

"His claims are entirely meritless, and World Liberty looks forward to getting the case thrown out promptly," the BBC reported Witkoff said. Witkoff said Sun has engaged in "misconduct that required World Liberty to take action to protect itself and its users."

Eric Trump said: "The only thing more ridiculous than this lawsuit is spending $6 million on a banana duct-taped to a wall."

Sun bought, then ate, an art piece by Maurizio Cattelan