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Ahmed Barakat
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A Wall Street Journal investigation has found that World Liberty Financial, the Trump crypto venture, partnered with a virtual-currency company called AB whose key figures were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for alleged ties to a transnational pig butchering scam network that stole billions from Americans.
The partnership, which enabled WLF’s USD1 stablecoin to operate on AB’s network, was announced less than a month after the October 14 sanctions. Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman, identified as central to WLF’s operational strategy, are now facing a DOJ Investigation into prior entities linked to the same fraud infrastructure.
The question this story forces is direct: how does a presidentially branded crypto project partner with a company whose controlling shareholder and general manager were simultaneously being sanctioned by the U.S. government for running violent scam compounds?
- Scam scale: Prince Group allegedly stole billions through pig butchering operations across at least 10 compounds in Cambodia
- Sanctions sweep: U.S. Treasury sanctioned more than 140 people and companies on October 14 for alleged Prince Group involvement
- WLF connection: World Liberty Financial enabled its USD1 stablecoin on AB’s network less than one month after the sanctions announcement
- Sanctioned individuals: Yang Jian (controlling shareholder) and Yang Yanming (general manager) of AB’s East Timor resort were both named in the Treasury action
- DOJ scrutiny: Federal investigators are examining Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman’s prior ventures – including Yield Game and Dough Finance – for infrastructure overlap with the scam network
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Who Are Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman – and Why Is the DOJ Looking?
Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman are identified in the WSJ investigation as the driving forces behind WLF’s technical and operational direction.
Federal investigators from the DOJ and SEC are scrutinizing their previous projects, specifically Yield Game and Dough Finance, for alleged infrastructure overlap with a pig butchering syndicate that defrauded investors of more than $100 million globally.
Blockchain forensics cited in the investigation show transactions flowing from wallets tied to early WLF development to addresses linked to the scam ring’s money-laundering operations. WLF also reportedly hired developers and consultants who had previously worked for those entities while they were already under federal scrutiny.
Neither Herro nor Folkman has been charged. WLF’s lawyers told the WSJ the company only learned of AB’s connection to the sanctioned East Timor resort project in January 2026 – roughly two months after the partnership was announced.
What Is Pig Butchering, and How Does This Network Connect to WLF’s Infrastructure?
Pig butchering is a long-con fraud scheme in which operators, often using enslaved workers in offshore compounds, build fake online relationships with victims before steering them into fraudulent crypto investments.
The U.S. Justice Department described Prince Group, the organization at the center of this case, as running at least 10 violent scam compounds in Cambodia using exactly this method.
The connection to WLF runs through AB, which was developing a blockchain-themed resort in East Timor.
Two of the men sanctioned on October 14, Yang Jian, the resort’s controlling shareholder, and Yang Yanming, its general manager, were sanctioned specifically for their alleged work for Prince Group.
AB removed all three sanctioned individuals from the company shortly after the Treasury action, but the partnership with WLF was announced weeks later, regardless.
The legal exposure here is not guilt by association alone. If blockchain forensics confirm wallet-level links between WLF’s early development infrastructure and the scam ring’s laundering operations, as the investigation alleges, that moves the story from reputational damage into potential sanctions evasion and crypto-enabled fraud territory that federal prosecutors have pursued aggressively.
Trump Crypto Exposure: What the WLF Brand Makes Worse
World Liberty Financial launched in 2024 as a DeFi lending and governance protocol backed by the Trump family, whose involvement gave the project immediate institutional visibility.
The USD1 stablecoin, the specific product enabled on AB’s network, is WLF’s primary financial infrastructure product, designed to function across partner chains.
There is no evidence Donald Trump or his family had knowledge of the alleged illicit histories of WLF’s technical partners. But the KYP failures described in the investigation are not minor. Sanctioning 140-plus entities on the same day your future partner’s two senior officials appear on that list is the kind of due diligence failure that regulators treat as a structural problem, not an oversight.
The political dimension compounds every legal question. Crypto companies facing regulatory scrutiny for politically connected financial activities operate under a different standard of press and congressional attention – and WLF, carrying the Trump name into every headline, has no buffer against that scrutiny.
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