Elizabeth Warren, OCC Chief Spar Over Trump-Linked Crypto Bank Bid

By Vismaya V

The nation's top bank regulator refused Thursday to delay or deny a bank charter application from a President Trump-affiliated crypto company, even as an outspoken senator told him approving it would make him "an accomplice in his corruption."

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing on prudential regulators, Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) pressed Jonathan Gould, Comptroller of the Currency, to either reject or pause review of World Liberty Financial's pending national trust bank charter.

Warren cited the UAE's $500 million stake in the firm, Trump's unresolved financial conflicts, and Gould's own conflict of interest as a presidential appointee serving the same president whose company holds the application.

"President Trump's crypto company is now at the center of perhaps the most disgraceful Presidential corruption scandal in U.S. history," Warren said. "An American president who sells out our national security to make money for himself."

When pressed on whether the regulator would deny or delay World Liberty’s review, Gould declined, saying his agency would process the application "as we process all applications." 

"The only political pressure I have felt from any part of the U.S. government, Senator, is from you," the OCC chief said.

“Well, it is pressure to follow the law,” Warren retorted. “If you follow the law, you will reject the President’s application.”

Warren cited a Wall Street Journal report showing Aryam Investment 1, a vehicle linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security advisor known as the "Spy Sheikh,” had allegedly purchased a 49% stake in WLFI for $500 million just four days before Trump's inauguration. 

The deal allegedly directed roughly $187 million to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to Witkoff-linked entities, and within months, the administration reversed Biden-era restrictions to approve the UAE's access to advanced AI chips that had been blocked over concerns they could reach China.

“In a vacuum, a comptroller refusing to discuss a pending charter is just process, not scandal,” Hong Kong Web3 Association co-chair Joshua Chu told Decrypt. “Here, the applicant is the President’s own crypto venture, bankrolled by foreign money (ironic if one is to consider the MAGA narrative), at a moment when his crypto base is already rattled by a brutal correction heading into the midterms.”

He described the situation as a collapse of crypto’s “smart money” ideal, saying there is “nothing subtle about a foreign spy chief wiring hundreds of millions into the president’s family token shop on the eve of his inauguration,” noting it is not diversification but “foreign policy written straight into a cap table.”

Earlier in the hearing, Warren pressed Gould on whether World Liberty disclosed that a company tied to the “Spy Sheikh” held a principal stake, noting that OCC rules require disclosure of any entity with a 10% or greater direct or indirect interest, with failure grounds for dismissal.

Gould declined to confirm whether the disclosure was made, and when pressed, said: “Unlike the last four years of the Biden administration, under President Trump’s leadership, we are actually doing what we say we will do.”

She asked Gould to share the unredacted application with her and Committee Chairman Tim Scott in camera, noting the Banking Committee's oversight authority over the OCC, to which Gould said he would "be happy to entertain your request."

Forty-one House Democrats wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week, warning that approval of the charter could threaten "the legitimacy of the American banking system and its independence from foreign actors." 

Representative Ro Khanna separately launched a formal investigation earlier this month, urging federal prosecutors to scrutinize the UAE transaction and writing that "seemingly subordinating robust policy discussions to the President's personal financial interests is unacceptable."

The White House and World Liberty Financial did not respond to requests for comment.

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