Charges against Justin Sun put on pause following major investment in Trump Crypto Venture

In December 2022 the Dominica government entered into an agreement with Chinese blockchain entrepreneur Justin Sun to issue its own national token known as the Dominican Coin (DMC). This was done in collaboration with the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, DMC Labs, and TronDAO.

However, a scathing 27 March 2023 report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), alleged that Justin Sun was using Dominica to bypass financial regulators in China to reach Chinese nationals who want to trade in cryptocurrencies.

The WSJ also alleged that Huobi had signed a partnership with Dominica, which was willing to “grant so-called digital citizenship, even to those who have never set foot on its shores.”

Sun’s action obviously caught the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SCE), the United States government regulatory body, which announced charges against Sun and three of his companies in March 2023. 

Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent), were charged for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT). 

“The SEC also charged Sun and his companies with fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading, which involves the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership, and for orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to tout TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation.”

In late November 2024, just three weeks after Donald Trump’s election, Sun invested $30 million in the President’s World Liberty Financial (WLF), his crypto venture.

Sun would later invest a further $45 million into WLF, with 75 percent of that amount going directly to the President according to published reports in the United States. The President and his family allegedly benefited with an estimated $400 million windfall from Sun’s investment.

The well-timed investment by Sun seemingly paid off, as he was named an advisor to WLF. Then, in early 2025, soon after Trump assumed the Presidency, the SEC ‘paused’ all of its lawsuits and investigations against Sun and his firms. The SEC also dropped virtually all of its lawsuits and charges against alleged crypto violators, including exchanges Kraken, Coinbase and Robinhood. 

The 34 year old Sun is known for some high profile displays including his $6.2 million purchase in November 2024 at auction house Sotheby’s for a work of conceptual art: The Comedian. This was a banana duct-taped to a wall by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. A few days later he ate the banana onstage in front of a group of reporters in Hong Kong.

Forbes magazine puts his net worth at around $5 billion, and he’s believed to hold citizenships from at least two Caribbean countries Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis. There are also allegations that he secured a Dominican citizenship in securing the deal with the Dominican government. 

Sun also served as Grenada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) before being relieved of his position following the announcement of the SEC investigation.