The New York Times has identified Guren \u201cBobby\u201d Zhou, a businessman previously arrested in Britain on suspicion of money laundering, as the figure behind Aqua 1, the UAE-based fund that purchased $100 million worth of World Liberty Financial's WLFI governance tokens. Zhou was arrested in 2021 and has not been charged; British authorities told the Times the investigation remained active as of late July 2026.
According to the Times' reporting, Zhou relocated to the UAE and led Web3Port, a crypto venture fund that announced a $10 million WLFI investment shortly after Donald Trump's January 2025 inauguration. A Web3Port entity registered in the British Virgin Islands later changed its name to Aqua 1 GP Limited, and two weeks after that name change, Aqua 1 announced the far larger $100 million WLFI purchase. The source of that $100 million has not been disclosed, and as much as $75 million of it was distributed to a company controlled by Trump and his sons.
WLFI's Response
WLFI spokesperson David Wachsman said the company followed all applicable laws and maintains a compliance program that meets or exceeds industry standards, but he did not address whether WLFI knew the source of Zhou's funds at the time of the purchase. The unanswered provenance question sits at the center of the story: a $100 million token purchase tied to a fund whose principal figure has a documented, unresolved UK money-laundering investigation attached to his name, flowing in part to entities controlled by a sitting U.S. president's family.
A Pattern That Predates Aqua 1
Zhou's business history includes a UK flooring company that entered restructuring while owing roughly $5 million to his father's company, and involvement in Caduceus, a crypto project whose token later lost most of its value. Neither of those episodes has been shown to be connected to the current UK investigation, but they add context to a purchase that has already drawn scrutiny for its size, timing, and the unclear origin of the funds behind it.
Related: SEC to Begin Its Own Crypto Rulemaking as CLARITY Act Stalls
No charges have been filed against Zhou, and WLFI has not been accused of wrongdoing by any regulator over the transaction. The story nonetheless adds to the list of compliance questions trailing WLFI's rapid fundraising since its 2025 launch, at a moment when the project remains closely tied, both financially and politically, to the Trump family.
