World Liberty’s $100 Million Aqua 1 Buyer Tied to Active UK Money Laundering Probe

Guren “Bobby” Zhou has not been charged, but a British money laundering investigation connected to him was still active in late July, and as much as $75 million of his firm’s WLFI purchase reached a Trump-controlled company.

Guren “Bobby” Zhou, the businessman behind Aqua 1’s $100 million purchase of World Liberty Financial governance tokens, was arrested in Britain in 2021 on suspicion of money laundering and remains connected to an investigation that British officials said was still active as of late July, The New York Times reported Sunday. Zhou has not been charged.

A British court record filed last November accused Zhou of participating with five other people in a laundering operation dating to 2019, according to the Times. Two of his longtime employees were charged in the case last September and one defendant has pleaded guilty, with trial scheduled for 2028. Reuters first identified Zhou as the person behind Aqua 1, the little-known UAE-based fund that bought $100 million of WLFI in June 2025, making it one of the venture’s largest known token buyers.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Under World Liberty’s revenue-sharing arrangement, as much as $75 million of the purchase was distributed to a company controlled by Trump and his sons, and the transaction also benefited the family of co-founder Zach Witkoff, whose father Steve Witkoff is a Trump administration special envoy.

Zhou led Web3Port, a crypto venture fund that announced a $10 million World Liberty investment shortly after Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, according to the Times. A Web3Port entity registered in the British Virgin Islands later renamed itself Aqua 1 GP Limited, and Aqua 1 announced the $100 million purchase two weeks after the name change. Arkham Intelligence found that a Web3Port-controlled wallet bought $20 million of WLFI in January 2025 and a wallet likely controlled by Aqua 1 bought another $80 million in June. Aqua 1 had previously denied any connection to Web3Port.

Web3Port was the market making firm linked in the MOVE token scandal.

Zhou’s earlier ventures included a British flooring retailer that entered restructuring owing roughly $5 million to his father’s company, and Caduceus, a crypto project whose token was effectively worthless by 2024 after spending about $7.6 million.

Caduceus had advertised backing from China Merchants Securities UK and the Bin Zayed Group, both of which told the Times those claims were unauthorized and false.

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