UAE ‘spy sheikh’ takes 49% stake in Trump family’s bank venture: WSJ

United Arab Emirates' national security advisor, also known as the "spy sheikh," is playing a major investment role in President Donald Trump's family's bank venture, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, who is also the brother of the country's president, and co-investors have a 49% stake in the holding company created by World Liberty Financial to pursue a bank charter, according to WSJ.

The report comes a few weeks after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty Trust Company, National Association preliminary approval to become a national trust bank.

Earlier this year, WLF created a new trust company to secure a banking license from the OCC that it said would allow it to offer stablecoin issuance and redemption, on-ramp and off-ramp services, and custody and conversion. WLF issues a stablecoin called USD1, which has a market capitalization of $4 billion and ranks as the fourth-largest stablecoin after Tether and USDC.

The WSJ reported that the bank's holding company is WLTC Holdings, but that Tahnoon and other investors used a separate entity called StringZ Holding RSC.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly pushed back and said there were "no conflicts of interest."

“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media," Kelly said in an emailed statement to The Block.

However, Trump has been repeatedly criticized for conflicts of interest over the past year amid reports from The WSJ earlier this year that found an investment vehicle backed by Tahnoon secretly acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial (WLFI) for $500 million just days before President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Top Senate Democrats have urged Republican leadership to hold hearings on the issue. Democrats in the House have also spotlighted the issue. In February, Rep. Ro Khanna launched an investigation into money going to WLF from the UAE royal family.