A Circle shareholder filed suit in US District Court on Thursday, alleging that President Donald Trump, his family’s crypto company World Liberty Financial, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause by accepting foreign government payments through cryptocurrency deals that harmed Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
J. Benjamin Greenberg, who holds 10,000 ordinary shares of Circle, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint centers on a $2 billion investment that an Abu Dhabi entity tied to UAE royalty, identified as MGX, made into Binance using USD1 stablecoin in 2025.
Greenberg alleges that Trump created a pathway for foreign governments to funnel money using World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin. “By accepting hundreds of millions of dollars from a foreign government, the President and his companies have diverted business from [Circle],” Greenberg said in the lawsuit filing.
The lawsuit also references a $500 million stake purchase in World Liberty by an investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which the Wall Street Journal reported in February 2026. Trump and his three sons are co-founders of World Liberty Financial.
Greenberg’s complaint invokes the US Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bars federal officials from accepting payments from foreign governments without congressional approval. The filing seeks a declaration that Trump’s alleged acts violated the Constitution, an injunction against further conduct, an accounting of payments from foreign states to Trump and his businesses, and compensatory and punitive damages.
“Plaintiff asks this Court to declare the President’s corrupt acts a violation of the Constitution, to enjoin the brazen corruption alleged below, to order an accounting of the billions in payments from foreign states to the President and his businesses, to require the companies holding them to disgorge the emoluments the President accepted through them, and for compensatory and punitive damages,” the complaint states.
Circle distanced itself from the lawsuit. A Circle spokesperson said the company “did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing,” despite Greenberg’s allegation that foreign payments harmed Circle’s competitive position.
The lawsuit emerges as Trump’s crypto ventures netted him $1.4 billion in 2025, according to figures cited in the complaint. Democrats have used Trump’s crypto dealings as a campaign issue ahead of the 2026 midterms. Senator Mark Warner referenced $600 million that Trump made from crypto memecoin in a campaign advertisement.
Neither the White House nor World Liberty Financial responded to requests for comment on the allegations.
