Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother of the country’s president, holds a 49% stake alongside co-investors in the holding company World Liberty Financial created to pursue a US bank charter, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Tahnoon is known as the “spy sheikh” for his position atop the Emirati intelligence apparatus.

The Journal identified the charter vehicle’s parent as WLTC Holdings and reported that Tahnoon and the other investors took their position through a separate entity, StringZ Holding RSC. The report comes barely two weeks after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty Trust Company, National Association preliminary approval to operate as a national trust bank.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

World Liberty applied for the trust charter in January, saying the entity would handle stablecoin issuance, redemption, on-ramp and off-ramp services, and custody, with BitGo remaining a partner.

This is the second Tahnoon-linked 49% position reported in the Trump family’s crypto business. The Journal reported earlier this year that a Tahnoon-backed vehicle agreed to acquire 49% of World Liberty Financial itself for $500 million, in a deal signed four days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration.

Five Senate Democrats demanded hearings in June over the UAE’s reported investment, and Representative Ro Khanna opened a House investigation in February into the matter.

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