Trump Token Purchase Linked to Suspicious Scheme
Date: 2025-07-16 Author: Henry Casey Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
Independent journalist Jacob Silverman has published the results of his own investigation, which has brought to light potential links between the UAE-based Aqua 1 Foundation and Hong Kong-based market maker Web3Port, which was previously accused of cryptocurrency rate manipulation. Of particular interest is the fact that the foundation purchased tokens worth about $100 million from World Liberty Financial, a company associated with current US President Donald Trump.
The alleged fictitiousness of the foundation became apparent after the announcement of a major deal with WLF. Aqua 1's only contact person is listed as "Dave Lee", about whom there is almost no information in the public domain. Analysis of transactions showed that more than $80 million in USDT has already been transferred to WLF through a related structure.
Silverman began his investigation by studying the foundation's website, which led him to establish that the hosting matched domains associated with the Web3Port group and several similar crypto projects. On social media, "Dave Lee" mentioned his involvement with one of these projects. The investigation led the journalist to David Jia Hua Lee, who represented Web3Port at various crypto conferences in Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong. LinkedIn still has posts where he appeared, but after the journalist asked questions, his profile was deleted.
It also turned out that the geography of "Dave Lee" in X matches the biography of David Lee: New York, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, and Sao Paulo. According to his profile, he studied in New York, worked in Hong Kong, his business interests are related to the UAE, and his roots go back to Brazil. Chinese crypto media have previously also indicated that "Dave Lee" is a graduate of New York University and a representative of a Chinese-Brazilian family.
Silverman wonders: how did a young financier from the state energy sector of China manage to get access to such sums to buy tokens from a key crypto firm associated with the US president, and what does he expect to get in return.
In response to the accusations, Lee called the investigation data unreliable and said that he is already in contact with the author of the material to clarify the details. According to representatives of Aqua 1, the fund operates autonomously and does not have any financial or management ties with other organizations. However, they did not disclose the specifics of the controversial issues, citing current regulatory procedures.
Separately, Lee clarified that he left his previous place of work due to serious disagreements, but did not disclose which company he was talking about. Recall that Binance previously blacklisted Web3Port for manipulating Movement Labs' MOVE tokens. Following this, the Movement Network team launched its own investigation into possible anomalies in the market maker's actions.
