Billionaire Backer Sues Trump Family's Crypto Firm Over Alleged Extortion (bbc.co.uk) 106
Ancient Slashdot reader Alain Williams shares a report from the BBC: The Trump family's World Liberty crypto venture is being sued by one of its billionaire backers over allegations of extortion. Justin Sun has accused World Liberty of an "illegal scheme" to seize his WLFI tokens, a cryptocurrency issued by the company. Sun alleges the firm, co-founded by U.S. President Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump, has "frozen" all of his tokens and stripped him of his right to vote on governance issues.
[...] Sun alleged that those running World Liberty, including another co-founder, Chase Herro, are using it as a "golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud." In his complaint, filed on Tuesday in a San Francisco federal court, Sun argues that initial promises to give token-holders the option to trade the currency in future "were false and misleading." While the tokens at large became tradeable, Sun said World Liberty has blocked him from being able to sell a single one, and is now threatening to "burn" his - deleting them entirely. WLFI said in a post on X: "Does anyone still believe @justinsuntron? Justin's favorite move is playing the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct. Same playbook, different target. WLFI isn't the first. We have the contracts. We have the evidence. We have the truth. See you in court pal."
[...] Sun alleged that those running World Liberty, including another co-founder, Chase Herro, are using it as a "golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud." In his complaint, filed on Tuesday in a San Francisco federal court, Sun argues that initial promises to give token-holders the option to trade the currency in future "were false and misleading." While the tokens at large became tradeable, Sun said World Liberty has blocked him from being able to sell a single one, and is now threatening to "burn" his - deleting them entirely. WLFI said in a post on X: "Does anyone still believe @justinsuntron? Justin's favorite move is playing the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct. Same playbook, different target. WLFI isn't the first. We have the contracts. We have the evidence. We have the truth. See you in court pal."
The only reason to buy into Trump's scheme (Score:5, Informative)
In other news, the president of the United States accepted a quarter billion dollar bribe in addition to several billion dollars worth of bribes for pardons and literally nobody cares.
I'm sure this is fine.
Re:Pardons are an even $1 million (Score:5, Insightful)
It only costs $1 million for a pardon. Proof. https://thehill.com/homenews/a... [thehill.com]
Re:Pardons are an even $1 million (Score:4, Interesting)
It only costs $1 million for a pardon. Proof. https://thehill.com/homenews/a... [thehill.com]
I don't think there's a price sheet. The amount will depend on what you can afford and on how much heat Trump will take for granting it. That second part is a weak consideration, though, as evidenced by the pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted for doing exactly what Nicolas Maduro is alleged to have done (though Maduro probably didn't, not nearly to the same degree, though he was a bad guy in a lot of ways).
Re:The only reason to buy into Trump's scheme (Score:5, Insightful)
Those are all public record by-the-book government contracts with all the requisite paperwork and bureaucracy and there has never been a whiff if impropriety about any of it. What did Tesla bride Obama with? What did Obama get? Has the investment in Tesla not been shown to be quite wise? Hell the Commercial Crew program was done under Obama and that's one of the best recent examples of the power of public/private partnerships. Look at what SpaceX has become since then.
I feel like all you're showing here is that Obama and Biden were both far, far, far more effective leaders of legislation and stewards of governance than Trump could ever be.
Do we have public record of every WLFI coin buyer?
Re:The only reason to buy into Trump's scheme (Score:4, Insightful)
Ehh, Musk didn't need bribes to get those contracts for sure, totally agree there. Anything post 2024 though we don't really know now do we?
Elon was hired to lead a government agency, a particularly controversial one and then left many of his own people in positions of government. That's a huge conflict of interest. Elon was the primary booster for Issacman to become NASA admin. I think Issacmean means well and is doing an alright job but still, gigantic conflict of interest when NASA is doling out contracts.
Elon bought Twitter seemingly really to help boost Trump in the election and has consistently supported his admin with both dollars, his algorithm and bully pulpit. Huge conflict of interest, like almost criminal in my opinion.
It doesn't help that this admin is the most opaque one we've ever had in our lifetimes. Elon can only be viewed as a corrupt influence at this point and honestly that's kinda sad considering the potential there.
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Ehh, Musk didn't need bribes to get those contracts for sure, totally agree there. Anything post 2024 though we don't really know now do we?
So, Elon did not need bribes for a decade or more, Trump becomes president, Elons business change nothing, but now suddenly, "We don't really know"?
No, we do. All things staying the same, there is no logical reason to just suddenly pull doubt out from thin air just because you do not like the current admin.
I mean, when spelled out, you have to admit that this is a reach, right?
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Do you see a forest?
No, just a bunch of trees.
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Cool, so, that would be true for any person highly involved in the Space industry. So, we should only get the opinions of those that have nothing to do with NASA about the next NASA Administrator? Or, is it colored vision?
That said, you are going to get voted up for stating that even though previously they got all the contracts based on being awesome, once Trump got in and they got the same contracts it is sus.
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clearly see that SpaceX is the cheapest and most capable space program in existence currently
This can be true currently and it can also be true that anything Elon is associated with now in regards to the government can and should be viewed as suspect and corrupt since yes, 2024 and that is partly or majorly because this administration is suspect and corrupt. I'm sorry but is the party that spent my entire life decrying government corruption going to just handwave the richest man in history deeply in bed with the administration, going so far as to purchase an entire social media platform to help tur
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And for you TDDS trumps other things. You simply can't grasp with the idea that maybe all the worst shit this guy did and does is actually true. Sorry but you voted it, you supported it, you own it and all the damage.
If it were up to me you'd have to wear that hat the rest of your god-damned life.
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He did not need bribes to get contracts no, but regulators and prosecutors were circling several of his companies and himself.. all those investigations went 'poof'.
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There is a level of BLATANT corruption in almost everything Trump does, where he does things just to push people so they give him a "donation" in exchange for government contracts, or to avoid vindictive lawsuits. That is why it is questionable about everything that involves the Trump administration. SpaceX has a lot going for it, but Tesla....how much or little are they paying in federal income taxes in exchange for getting government contracts? Oh yea, not paying much in corporate taxes, getting a go
Elon had Been era GSA contracts (Score:2)
Elon was hired to lead a government agency, a particularly controversial one and then left many of his own people in positions of government.
Elon had a Biden era contract to do data processing stuff for the GSA. And what does the GSA say their mission is: "Delivering effective and efficient government services for the American people"
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Coal demand in 2025 grew only modestly above 2024 levels, rising by around 0.4%. In the United States, gas-to-coal switching and strong growth in electricity demand supported a 10% rise in coal use, reversing the trend of recent declines. Coal demand was flat in China: strong renewables growth pushed down coal use in electricity generation, while in industry, lower coal use in steel and cement production was offset by increased use for chemicals. Coal demand for power generation decreased in India, mostly due to an early, strong and long monsoon.
America's coal went up by 10%. Thanks to America's coal first policies. [whitehouse.gov]
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Which is going to collapse. I mean, I assume you have a coal-fired heater in your house. And do not buy electricity from a power company that doesn't burn gas...
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While the second post did indeed contain publicly verifiable facts, the claim that they contradict the original claim is disputable at best. All they show is that Musk's Companies were capable of getting contracts and Government loans under Obama and Biden without the need for bribes. They do not show that Musk did not bribe Trump. In some ways this is even more damning for Trump, because the implication is that bribing Trump is necessary even if your Companies are deserving contracts. Or at the very least
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They do not show that Musk did not bribe Trump.
So, now we are at the point where in order to not be wrong and evil Trump has to prove the negative?
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No. However there is considerable evidence that Trump requires bribing in some manner before he will do something that other Presidents would do without a bribe because they are the right thing to do for the Country. Whether these particular contracts were only given because of the bribes is impossible to prove since they are indeed contracts that should have been given. But the opinion that they would not have been given without a bribe is a valid one, and Musk at least seems to have held that opinion. Hen
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It's because they are drawing a correlation that government contracts == bribes.
It definitely did not help that they didn't elucidate the point they were making like, at all.
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There's really no denying that Elon (and his teams) can deliver technology, but regarding him, personally, and his ego ... quoting from Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender [wikipedia.org]:
Morty: When you're an asshole, it doesn't matter how right you are, nobody wants to give you the satisfaction.
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And there's the $52B from the DoD to Eric & Don Jr's drone company that's three months old. And the billion-dollar aircraft from the Middle East. And the now-former Labor Sec'ty. And... the list goes on, and that's *just* since Jan 20 of last year.
Oh, and before you mention Hunter Biden and $1.5M... you have to talk about Kushner's $2B from the Saudis.
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And there's the $52B from the DoD to Eric & Don Jr's drone company that's three months old.
Their new company purchased several existing companies. Some found by US Special Operations vets. That have existing products.
Oh, and before you mention Hunter Biden and $1.5M
Why? Biden sold "paintings" for access. Trump sold crypto for access. Both items of intrinsically zero value.
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Give one example.
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No, selling pardons is a democrat move.
Give one example.
I'm not defending Trump, nor supporting GP's assertion that corruption is somehow only a problem with one party. But since you asked for an example, there were credible if unproven allegations of Bill Clinton selling pardons and commutations. Also significant conflicts of interest. It got a lot of press at the time and there were some formal investigations.
You can look here for a few examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Or just google "Clinton selling pardons".
Unclear on the concept. (Score:5, Insightful)
'using it as a "golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud."'
Doesn't he realize that's the point of the whole Trump presidency?
Re:Unclear on the concept. (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparently, there are still people out there that think Trump is a good businessman, and not a complete charlatan.
Re:Unclear on the concept. (Score:5, Interesting)
I particularly love that we are currently in a war of literal negotiation right now, where the exact traits of the Art-of-the-Deal Master Negotiator himself, the reason we just had to have him in foreign policy because he just such the dealmaker is not only flopping at dealmaking when there's real actual stakes on the line, he doesn't appear to be leading the negotiations. The whole madman schtick was already played out his first term.
Also do we notice now how he always sends the same two numbskulls *to every negotiation*. Witkoff and Kushner, they do it all. Should you get a seasoned ambassador who knows the culture, has established relationships, maybe even speaks Arabic? Hell no, just throw fucking Witkoff and Kushner in there. We don't have a deep bench here.
It's not even if Trump isn't great at being a businessman it's the charade that he actually actively sucks shit at business and everything around it. The one thing an executive is supposed to have going for them is knowing who to hire and it might the thing he's the worst at.
Re:Unclear on the concept. (Score:5, Informative)
Just so we're clear here, the Iranians are Persian and they really hate being confused for Arabs.
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True, that's my bad there!
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I think it's worth mentioning that I thought the rest of your statement was spot-on, but this minor point of order should serve as a perhaps somewhat humbling bit of evidence that you probably wouldn't have done any better at managing the situation yourself.
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I wouldn't be doing better at managing the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran? I mean for the good of the nation I would hope I don't end up in that position.
Then again as part of my Presidential platform I will promise to have knowledgeable staffer proofread all my flip remarks on the internet to avoid such mistakes and ensure they are acceptable representation of the great weight the position carries. See I'm already doing better than the current President!
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Heh, fair enough.
Trump supporters retreated into safe spaces (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure you've noticed it. If you post something about Trump you don't get modded down immediately anymore and you don't get a bunch of idiots screaming tds. You get a couple of very obvious llm bots running off of people's gpus, they'll be one of them under this comment if it gets modded up, and that's it.
Trump supporters will not hang out anywhere that the mods don't protect them. They have become extremely fragile and protective of their egos
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"Think of how stupid the anonymous coward is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - with apologies to George Carlin
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Re:Unclear on the concept. (Score:4, Interesting)
Why does that all matter? Because in less than two months, at least some European and Asian football fans (mostly) are going to want to fly to the US to watch the vastly overpriced World Cup.(under Trump, why am I not surprised?). Even if they have the cash to burn on it, they can't do that if the airlines are forced to cancel their flights, can they? Remember how wound up Trump got over crowd & stadium numbers? Do the math.
I'm sure the Iranians know this, and have almost certainly also realised they just need to stall while keeping passage through the strait to a minimum (they don't even need to expend a lot of munitions for this; just keep the uncertainty high enough no one risks the passage) until the Trump administration realises this and has to make some major concessions to get the oil and gas flowing again. How close to the first match do you think that will be for our 5D chess playing grandmaster? He's got six weeks before the fans get given a red card by their airlines...
I hear Trump is supposed to be doing a Bible reading as a result of his recent spat with the Pope. Might I suggest Galatians 6:7?
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Because the Iranians can demonstrably control the Strait of Hormuz
That's not clear at all. There's not much population in the Iranian land region along the Strait, a relatively small military operation would take control of it. It would require boots on the ground.
The only hope the Iranian regime has is that Trump won't put boots on the ground. I have no sympathy for the Iranian regime.
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The military part of Afghanistan was easy. Rebuilding the country was hard. The US military can destroy, it's good at that.
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Might I suggest Galatians 6:7?
A VERY insightful choice. I suspect he is too dumb to understand it, even if his brain wasn't addled by old age.
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Obviously that's why the U.S. hasn't succeeded with negotiations: Trump is too busy with important matters like redecorating the White H
Re:Unclear on the concept. (Score:5, Informative)
Up until the grifting kicked into high gear (and making the IRS pay him a $10 billion settlement) it was proven he would have been more rich had he let his initial inheritance ride in the S&P 500 https://www.forbes.com/sites/d... [forbes.com]
Re: Unclear on the concept. (Score:3)
I'm not aware that Trump has ever lived in Charlotte.
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'using it as a "golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud."'
Doesn't he realize that's the point of the whole Trump presidency?
My understanding is that it's basically his business model.
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I thought el Bunko was defrauding others first so that the other flim-flam artists cannot take their money....sort of like Elvis taking all those drugs to protect other people from taking them.
businessman and upstanding citizen (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think he should be allowed to sue (Score:5, Interesting)
Only people who didn't choose to do business with Cheeto Benito and his crime family should be allowed to sue him at this point, because anyone who is paying even the slightest amount of attention knows he's a thief and a fraud. This fucker is just mad that he's not getting as much out of the fraud as he thought he would. Fuck him.
Re:I don't think he should be allowed to sue (Score:4, Interesting)
Bingo. Nobody gets to act surprised anymore.
Not only should this guy get fucked but he should be put under criminal investigation along with anyone at all involved with this crypto scheme. It's just a literal bribery machine, there's no other justifiable reason it exists as it does.
The enemy of my enemy... (Score:4, Interesting)
Only people who didn't choose to do business with Cheeto Benito and his crime family should be allowed to sue him at this point, because anyone who is paying even the slightest amount of attention knows he's a thief and a fraud. This fucker is just mad that he's not getting as much out of the fraud as he thought he would. Fuck him.
He may be a scumbag, but is he a useful scumbag? I have endless concerns about the Trump presidency, especially the second term, just like most Americans do by this point...however, impeachment didn't work...running 2 women against him didn't work....becoming an actual felon didn't work. The price of letting him win ranges from the problems introduced with his tariffs...AKA, the best bribe and extortion scheme in history and that whole coup in Venezuela and the new war in Iran which I don't think he knows how to win...not to mention his support (admittedly intermittent) of Russia in their war against Ukraine and the destruction of NATO and the USA's reputation for political and economic stability or even just being a good military ally. So yeah...fuck that guy, but we're kinda desperate at this point. Liberals and conservatives will be feeling the pain of the trump years for decades to come. He has caused a lot of damage and there's no sign in my mind that things will get any better....so perhaps if he's tied down in lawsuits and defections of supporters...perhaps he'll be less eager to start another war?...or best yet, just take his ball and go home...quit on his own terms...leave the mess for Vance to clean up (which I was amazed he hasn't done already).
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"quit on his own terms" he cannot, his ego would strangle him in his sleep. Regardless, dementia will completely claim him before long; until then it is anyone's guess how much damage he'll do. Even after he's gone, the illiterates in his alleged administration will continue to wreak havoc on the U.S.
Worse for the U.S., la Presidenta and Project 2025 have shown just how brittle is the American system of governance. The Europeans have noticed this and are not going to trust the U.S. ever again because that s
Re: The enemy of my enemy... (Score:4, Insightful)
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You can see hints of it in Canada, Australia, the Europeans, and a few I cannot remember that are banding together to put a new defence pact in place.
That may be true, but Australia is still all-in on handing the USA $368 billion dollars for some submarines that nobody really expects the USA ever to deliver. There's not even a clause in the deal for Australia to get any kind of refund when those submarines don't arrive. Of course, step one is for Australia to pay the USA to build a new submarine factory, and indeed the cheques began arriving some years ago. Expecting Australia to show any sort of courage against the USA in anything vaguely military is sh
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Only people who didn't choose to do business with Cheeto Benito and his crime family should be allowed to sue him at this point, because anyone who is paying even the slightest amount of attention knows he's a thief and a fraud. This fucker is just mad that he's not getting as much out of the fraud as he thought he would. Fuck him.
So you think it's better if Trump can't be sued for fraud? I don't disagree with your assessment, but I think we're still all better off if Trump's scam business has to defend itself in court.
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OK, fair, but he should at least have to give a good explanation as to why he's not a willing accessory or be forced to serve as DJT's diaper genie.
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Someone got into crypto not understanding -- shock (Score:4, Insightful)
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Even more than that.
Someone goes into alt-coin crypto with DONALD TRUMP and expects not to get screwed?
There's reality, there's fantasy and make-believe, and then there's... whatever this is?
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Even more than that. Someone goes into alt-coin crypto with DONALD TRUMP and expects not to get screwed?
I don't know, some people made money of off Trump High Top sneakers. :-)
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It will be morbidly interesting to see how his 'attempt to seek justice through the courts against someone whose lawlessness he has bene abetting' plan will work out for him.
Re: Someone got into crypto not understanding -- s (Score:5, Insightful)
This is my shocked face (Score:1)
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Same. Here's mine: :-|
Funny how ... (Score:3)
Billionaire Backer Sues Trump Family's Crypto Firm Over Alleged Extortion
The word "alleged" gets used a lot with Trump and his family. :-)
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Billionaire Backer Sues Trump Family's Crypto Firm Over Alleged Extortion
The word "alleged" gets used a lot with Trump and his family. :-)
That's true of all criminals; the Trumps aren't exceptional in that regard. The news is pretty careful to add that hedge around all reports of criminal activity until the perpetrator is convicted. For example, when discussing the business record fraud that Trump used to attempt to hide his payoff of Stormy Daniels, the news no longer uses the word "alleged" because he was convicted of all 34 felonies.
When are people going to learn (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:When are people going to learn (Score:4, Insightful)
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The True Mark... (Score:4, Insightful)
...is the one that thinks they are in on the con.
A moden fable in action (Score:2)
Surely the leopards won't eat my face said the man as he handed his money.
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Offtopic but Iran had a working deal made with Obama. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Trump tore it up simply because Obama.
Obligatory: (Score:2)
hahahaha (Score:1)
Re:hahahaha (Score:5, Insightful)
Unreasonable expectations of the Epstein class (Score:2)
90% of US politicians, 99% billionaires, and 99.9% of lobbyists deserve prison or worse because they are the worst kind of criminal slime.
Paid the bribe but got screwed anyway (Score:3)
Replacing "currency" (Score:2)
What's going on here, exactly? (Score:1)
It all seems to originate from an X post (linked above), where the poster simply claims that "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."
There's literally nothing else here to even hope to understand what is going on, other than one guy claiming he's getting screwed...and a bunch of anti-trump slash-dotters saying WHAT DID YOU EX
Oh, did they threaten to burn your tokens? (Score:2)
Listen sweetheart, he threatened to destroy civilization last week. I'm gonna need you to go take a seat waaay in the back until we call your number.
"That's nice equity you got there" (Score:2)
It amazes me that criminals would ever hand their money over to and believe a lawless, criminal loser would keep their promises. All I hope is that the greedy criminals all get cheated and then finally experience accountability and prison time.