Tron founder Justin Sun is seeking $263,821.20 in sanctions against World Liberty Financial and its lawyers, accusing the Trump family-linked crypto company of filing a misleading court disclosure about its ownership in a legal dispute over his $45 million WLFI token investment.

In a federal court filing, Sun and two co-plaintiffs alleged that World Liberty initially listed Florida as its sole citizenship before amending its disclosure nearly three months later to identify 22 individuals and entities in its ownership chain, including parties 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 amended disclosure came six days after a federal judge questioned World Liberty's bid to move Sun's claims into arbitration, a private process that would take the dispute out of public court proceedings. The company's lawyers subsequently argued that its UAE citizenship deprived the federal court of jurisdiction because foreign parties were on both sides of the lawsuit. Citizenship disclosures carry that weight because US federal courts can hear cross-border cases under diversity jurisdiction only when the parties' citizenships are fully diverse, and foreign parties on both sides of a lawsuit fall outside that grant.

World Liberty Financial did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph's request for comment.

Layered legal battle

The sanctions motion adds a new chapter to a dispute that began in April, when Sun sued World Liberty, alleging fraud and the unlawful freezing of his tokens. In May, World Liberty filed a defamation lawsuit against Sun, alleging false statements and violations of token-sale terms. Sun denied the allegations.

Sanctions motions in US federal litigation ask a judge to order one side to cover costs, such as attorney fees, tied to the opposing party's conduct during the case — the mechanism Sun's team is invoking with its $263,821.20 request.

The legal back-and-forth followed a January 2025 agreement under which an Abu Dhabi-backed investment vehicle agreed to purchase a 49% stake in World Liberty for $500 million. Sun had previously backed the Trump family's crypto ventures by investing in World Liberty and buying President Donald Trump's TRUMP memecoin, topping the token's leaderboard for a May 2025 dinner with Trump with holdings valued at about $18.5 million.

UAE ownership disclosure prompts jurisdiction dispute

In an Aug. 26 email included in the court exhibits, World Liberty's lawyer Sam Cleveland said his team had “recently” learned of additional citizenship information, maintaining that World Liberty already held UAE citizenship when Sun filed his lawsuit in April.

Sun's lawyers subsequently sought corporate records and testimony about World Liberty's ownership and when its attorneys learned of the UAE connection. They allege that the company provided limited documentation but declined to explain why its original disclosure omitted the information.

According to attorney Edward Moss's sworn declaration, the $263,821.20 request covers fees for four attorneys' work opposing arbitration. It excludes other lawyers' fees and costs related to jurisdictional discovery and the sanctions motion.

Sun said Tuesday that he plans to refile his claims in California state court once the sanctions motion is resolved. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Dec. 10.