Cryptocurrency Scammer Pours Millions in Trump's Venture and Gets Charges Dropped

Giving campaign contributions to a politician in the hope that he will back your agenda is one thing. Here’s something different: Chinese cryptocurrency booster Justin Sun just had a pending securities case dropped—after pouring millions into one of Trump’s crypto ventures.

According to Popular Information:

In March 2023, … the SEC accused Sun of wash trading, which involves buying and selling a token quickly to fraudulently manufacture artificial interest. Sun was also charged with paying celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy, for endorsing his crypto “without disclosing their compensation,” which violates federal law.

A few weeks after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Sun publicly announced that he had become WLF's largest investor, buying $30 million of its tokens. Sun added that his company, TRON, was “committed to making America great again.”

Sun’s purchase put millions in Trump's pocket. …

Now, the SEC seems poised to negotiate a favorable settlement with Sun or drop the case entirely.

The concept of “conflict of interest” seems quaint given the sheer number of ways Trump has devised to benefit financially from his political supporters. The lack of any underlying value to cryptocurrency makes it especially easy for Trump cronies to directly inflate his wealth.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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