Financial world freedom ($WLFI), the crypto company co-owned by the Trump family, announced a partnership with a blockchain network called AB, less than a month after the US government imposed sanctions on more than 140 people and entities linked to what it described as one of Asia’s largest criminal organizations.
But according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), AB’s flagship resort project in East Timor involved three people who were sanctioned in that crackdown, raising questions about due diligence in Trump-linked crypto deals.
The partnership and its ties to a sanctioned report
The partnership, announced on November 12, 2025, gave AB the right to carry World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin on its blockchain network.
AB’s post on X at the time described it as a move to strengthen the platform’s “DeFi and payments ecosystem.” But the WSJ says that until recently the company had also promoted a planned “blockchain-themed resort” in the Southeast Asian country of East Timor, which had deep ties to people the U.S. Treasury Department had just blacklisted.
The resort company, AB Digital Technology Resort, was majority owned by Yang Jian, a Cypriot national who was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for allegedly helping Prince Group CEO Chen Zhi develop a separate resort in Palau, which the Treasury Department described as a “predatory investment.”
Yang Yanming, the resort’s general manager, was also sanctioned, as was Shih Ting-yu, a Taiwanese national identified as working on the project. All three were removed from the company shortly after the Oct. 14 sanctions were announced, company documents show, and none have been charged.
The Prince Group, based in Cambodia and accused by the U.S. government of running at least 10 violent fraud companies, is alleged to have stolen billions from victims through “pig slaughter,” which are online relationships built over time before the victim’s money was taken.
You might also like:
- Justin Sun sues Trump-linked World Liberty Financial for being frozen $WLFI Tokens
- How Musician Lost 5.92 BTC on Fake Ledger App
- BlockDAG under fire as researcher alleges $300 million scam
Who is behind AB and what World Liberty says?
According to the WSJ report, the AB network presents itself as decentralized, with entities in Ireland and the Cayman Islands, but researchers identified two ethnic Chinese businessmen as central figures: Sui Chenggang, the beneficial owner of AB’s Cayman Islands business, and Lin Xiaofan, a Guangdong-born entrepreneur who travels on a St. Kitts and Nevis passport and, by his own account, introduced Sui to World Liberty executives.
Sui signed an MoU with World Liberty on September 17, 2025, and claims the East Timor resort “was not discussed” during those talks.
Meanwhile, World Liberty’s lawyers have said the company conducted due diligence on AB and “was not notified of the resort or the people behind it.” The company said it only learned of AB’s connection to the East Timor project in January 2026.
“Claims attempting to link World Liberty Financial to sanctioned individuals are baseless and untrue,” the lawyers said.
AB, in turn, stated that the resort was the result of a separate memorandum of understanding that was canceled in November, before reaching “a substantive implementation phase.”
World Freedom has also faced criticism on other fronts. The company has also been sued by Tron founder Justin Sun, who claimed as much $WLFI team members froze his tokens and threatened to burn them without justification, a dispute the company says will be settled in court.