Justin Sun has filed a sanctions motion against World Liberty Financial and its lawyers, accusing the Trump family-backed crypto company of hiding its UAE citizenship for months during an ongoing legal dispute over Sun’s $45 million investment in WLFI tokens.
Key allegations and timeline
Sun says World Liberty initially listed Florida as its only citizenship when litigation began in April. After an August court hearing, the company amended its disclosure to identify 22 entities in its ownership chain and claimed citizenship in Florida, Delaware, Puerto Rico and the UAE. Sun alleges the change came only after his legal team spent months and hundreds of thousands of dollars opposing World Liberty’s arbitration request.
In a November 3 statement on X, Sun said his lawyers moved to sanction World Liberty for failing to disclose its UAE citizenship until months into the litigation. He questioned whether the company’s lawyers failed to conduct appropriate diligence or whether World Liberty did not give them a straight answer.
Background of the dispute
Sun initially committed $30 million to World Liberty in November 2024, later raising his total investment to $45 million. He sued in April, claiming fraudulent inducement, frozen token holdings, blocked transfers and governance rights, and a threatened token-burning mechanism. World Liberty rejected the allegations. In May, the company filed a defamation lawsuit against Sun in Florida.
An August 20 hearing partially allowed Sun’s claims to remain in federal court while other claims were directed to arbitration. On August 26, World Liberty submitted its amended corporate citizenship disclosure. The federal case then entered jurisdictional discovery, with a September 29 order staying proceedings until October 22.
Sun argues that World Liberty marketed itself as American and committed to decentralized finance in the United States, while later relying on UAE citizenship to challenge federal court jurisdiction. He now plans to refile his lawsuit in California state court after the sanctions motion is resolved.
