A company operated by President Donald Trump's three sons received a $100 million investment from a cryptocurrency fund managed by an individual currently under investigation for money laundering, according to a New York Times investigation published Sunday.

The Times uncovered new details about the investor behind the transaction: Guren "Bobby" Zhou, a figure described as having a "shady background" who is the subject of an active money laundering investigation in England. UK court records related to the matter are publicly accessible.

"The curious case of Mr. Zhou illustrates the ease with which buyers with unknown backgrounds and motivations can use the anonymity of cryptocurrency to shower Mr. Trump with money," the Times reported. "It is not clear how closely World Liberty scrutinized Mr. Zhou's past, but the money laundering investigation in England was publicly available information, as were portions of Mr. Zhou's troubled business history."

In June 2025, the United Arab Emirates-based Aqua 1 Foundation — run by Zhou — purchased $100 million in digital tokens from World Liberty Financial, an organization operated by the Trump family together with the family of Steve Witkoff, who serves as Trump's special peace envoy. Bloomberg previously reported on the transaction at the time.

The investment is part of a broader expansion of Trump family interests in digital assets. During his 2024 campaign, Trump positioned himself as a pro-cryptocurrency candidate, pledging to make the United States a global center for digital asset innovation and to ease regulatory enforcement that the industry faced under the prior administration.

Individuals familiar with Zhou's history expressed bewilderment at how "he was able to access so much money," the Times noted.

"[Many former associates] describe Mr. Zhou as a high-octane charmer with a British accent, persuasive enough to sell ice in a snowstorm, as one said," the Times reported. "But all were stunned to learn that after his departure from London, he was able to purchase $100 million in anything."

Zhou's recorded red flags include the active UK money-laundering investigation, an unpaid $5 million debt stemming from his collapsed flooring business, a failed cryptocurrency venture that depleted investor funds, and a series of fabricated corporate partnerships he was ultimately forced to retract.

World Liberty Financial is a decentralized finance venture launched in 2024 with ties to the Trump family. Decentralized finance platforms typically operate with fewer compliance and identity-checking requirements than regulated financial institutions, a structural feature of the sector that has drawn attention from lawmakers and regulators weighing new oversight rules.

The project has attracted significant attention as one of several crypto-related enterprises connected to the Trump brand during his political career.

"In any prior era, a windfall for the president of that size from a foreigner with no public signs of access to that level of wealth would have certainly gone against norms and might have spawned a congressional investigation," the Times report concluded.