Warren, Waters probe SEC about Trump crypto firm to investigate potential influence

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., asked acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda to share any information about and communications with World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture linked to President Donald Trump.

The lawmakers said the move is necessary to investigate whether the company has had any influence on agency decisions.

“When the president and his immediate family stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from an industry the SEC regulates, the American people deserve transparency about how the commission is maintaining its independence and fulfilling its obligations to the public, not the president's personal financial interests,” wrote Warren and Waters, who serve as ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, respectively, in an April 2 letter to Uyeda.

An SEC spokesperson said in an email that Uyeda “will respond to members of Congress directly.”

The lawmakers’ letter points out that the Trump family “‘has a claim on 75% of net revenues from token sales and 60% from World Liberty operations once the core business gets going,’” according to reporting from Reuters.

Though the company first launched in the fall, World Liberty Financial entered the news again recently as the Trump-affiliated company announced plans in late March to launch a stablecoin, backed by U.S. Treasuries, dollar deposits and other cash equivalents, and intended to maintain the value of the U.S. dollar. The announcement came as House lawmakers were debating a bill to regulate stablecoins — that bill passed out of the House Financial Services Committee April 2, despite Democrats’ pushback on the bill’s potential to benefit Trump.

At the bill markup, Waters said she tried to work with committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark. to insert bill language that would prevent the president “from using this legislation to unjustly enrich himself,” but they could not come to an agreement.

“The Trump family’s financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump administration’s oversight — or lack thereof — of the cryptocurrency industry, creating an obvious incentive for the Trump administration to direct federal agencies, including the SEC, to take positions favorable to cryptocurrency interests that directly benefit the president's family,” Waters and Warren contended in their letter.

The lawmakers specifically reference the SEC pausing its case against crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly owned companies in February, after Sun invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, according to Reuters.

Sun did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Waters and Warren asked Uyeda for “copies of all records and communications” regarding World Liberty Financial at the SEC and regarding the agency’s decision to pause the case against Sun and his companies; “all internal memoranda justifying the initial enforcement decision” against Sun and his companies; and issued a series of questions regarding the communications between World Liberty Financial, the SEC and the White House.

“The American people deserve to know whether their financial markets are being regulated impartially or whether regulatory decisions are being made to benefit the president's family financial interests,” the lawmakers wrote, requesting the information and responses by April 14.