Tron creator Justin Sun is requesting $263,821.20 in penalties against World Liberty Financial and its legal counsel, claiming that the crypto project associated with the Trump family filed a deceptive ownership statement in court regarding their ongoing battle over his $45 million WLFI token purchase.
Within a federal court filing, Sun along with two fellow plaintiffs stated that World Liberty initially claimed Florida as its sole home state before modifying its filing nearly three months later to disclose 22 individuals and corporate bodies within its ownership structure, which included parties located in the United Arab Emirates.
“World Liberty presumably always knew who its owners were,” Sun said. “When we asked how this happened, World Liberty refused to tell us.”
The updated disclosure arrived six days after a federal judge questioned World Liberty’s attempt to push Sun’s claims into arbitration. World Liberty representatives later argued that the enterprise’s UAE ties stripped the federal court of authority because foreign entities existed on both sides of the litigation.
World Liberty Financial did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
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During April, Sun initiated legal action against World Liberty, citing fraud and the unauthorized freezing of his tokens. World Liberty launched a defamation lawsuit against Sun in May, accusing him of making false statements and breaching token-sale conditions. Sun rejected these accusations.
This legal friction followed a January 2025 agreement where an investment fund supported by Abu Dhabi agreed to acquire a 49% interest in World Liberty for $500 million.
Sun previously supported the Trump family’s digital asset initiatives by putting funds into World Liberty and purchasing President Donald Trump’s TRUMP memecoin. He secured the top position on the token leaderboard for a May 2025 dinner with Trump, holding assets worth roughly $18.5 million.
UAE ownership disclosure prompts jurisdiction dispute
In an email dated Aug. 26 found within the court evidence, World Liberty attorney Sam Cleveland stated his group had “recently” discovered supplementary citizenship data. He maintained that World Liberty already possessed UAE citizenship when Sun launched the lawsuit in April.
Sun’s attorneys subsequently requested corporate documents and testimonies regarding World Liberty’s ownership structure and the timeline of when their lawyers discovered the UAE connection. They claimed that World Liberty supplied restricted documentation while declining to clarify why the original paperwork left out that information.
Based on the sworn statement of attorney Edward Moss, the $263,821.20 demand covers compensation for four lawyers working against arbitration. It leaves out fees for other attorneys and costs tied to jurisdictional discovery and the penalties motion.
Sun mentioned on Tuesday that he intends to refile in a California state court once the sanctions motion reaches a resolution. A hearing is planned for Dec. 10.
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Originally published at https://cointelegraph.com/news/justin-sun-world-liberty-264k-sanctions-uae-disclosure?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound.
