Guren Zhou, previously investigated in the UK for money laundering, was behind the Aqua 1 entity that bought $100M of WLFI tokens from the Trump family crypto business in June 2025, per NYT.
Alpha Score of 42 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, poor value, moderate quality, weak sentiment.
An individual previously investigated in the UK for money laundering after the collapse of a cryptocurrency business was reportedly behind a $100 million token purchase from the Trump family company, World Liberty Financial.
According to a Sunday New York Times report, Guren Zhou, also known as Bobby, was behind the Aqua 1 entity that bought $100 million of WLFI tokens from the Trump family crypto business in June 2025. The token purchase financially benefited members of US President Donald Trump's family and Zach Witkoff, a co-founder of World Liberty.
Zhou's reported involvement followed speculation that the individual behind Aqua 1 was Dave Lee. The Aqua 1 foundation acknowledged in July 2025 that Lee joined as co-founder and CEO in April 2025, but did not say whether he supplied the capital for the WLFI tokens.
Aqua 1 described itself as a "Web3-native fund" based in the United Arab Emirates. The source of the investment raised questions about potential conflicts of interest in the Trump administration, with foreign actors tied to his family's crypto company. White House spokesperson Anna Kelley has repeatedly said there were "no conflicts of interest" with the president's investments.
The New York Times reported that how Zhou was able to invest millions into World Liberty remained a "mystery," given his 2021 arrest in the UK for suspected money laundering and the collapse of a multimillion-dollar crypto business he launched.
Some of World Liberty's biggest backers include Tron founder Justin Sun, who initially invested $45 million in the company's tokens, and an Abu Dhabi entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan with a reported $500 million stake.
The NYT stock page carries an Alpha Score of 41 out of 100, labeled Mixed, within the Communication Services sector.
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