Circle Shareholder Sues Trump Over $2 Billion USD1-Binance Deal

The Greenberg v. Trump Complaint

J. Benjamin Greenberg, a shareholder and former employee of Circle Internet Group, sued US President Donald Trump, his family’s crypto venture World Liberty Financial, affiliated entities and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday, October 22. The complaint, filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the president’s crypto business built a channel for foreign governments to route money to him, in violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bars a sitting president from accepting benefits from foreign states without Congress’ consent. Greenberg reports holding 10,000 ordinary Circle shares and claims foreign-funded competition left the USDC issuer unable to compete. He asks the court to declare the arrangements unconstitutional, order an accounting of billions in foreign payments, compel disgorgement of the emoluments, and award compensatory and punitive damages. The full docket in Greenberg v. Trump is public. The complaint’s language is blunt: since Trump returned to office, it states, “foreign money has answered,” and token and stablecoin vocabulary should not obscure payments from a foreign power. Circle said it did not initiate, direct, authorize or participate in the filing, distancing the issuer from litigation that nonetheless centers on its competitive position.

The $2 Billion MGX-Binance Transaction

Two UAE-linked deals anchor the allegations. MGX, an investment fund created by the government of Abu Dhabi and tied to the UAE’s ruling family, used World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to place a $2 billion investment into the Binance exchange in 2025. In a separate arrangement, an investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan agreed in February to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty for $500 million, a transaction the complaint cites from Wall Street Journal reporting. Greenberg alleges the president improperly collected more than $2 billion through these and related foreign transactions. The filing further claims the Emirati leadership received access to advanced artificial intelligence chips and that Trump pardoned a convicted felon in return for the investment. World Liberty spokesman David Waxman called the claims baseless and said the company complies with all US laws and regulations; Trump stopped being involved in the project after taking office in 2025. World Liberty issues the WLFI token alongside USD1, and market data puts USD1’s market capitalization near $4 billion.

Midterm Politics and the Stalled Clarity Act

The suit lands less than two weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, with early voting already underway in some US states. Trump’s financial disclosure showed $1.4 billion of income from crypto ventures in 2025, while Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, put investor losses across those ventures at about $4.7 billion. Senator Mark Warner released a campaign ad last week claiming the president made more than $600 million from a single memecoin. Lawmakers blocked the Clarity Act, the market-structure bill Trump backed, last month, with several citing the Trump family’s crypto profits as a reason. The president and the White House deny any conflict of interest; Trump said in August, ahead of the Clarity Act vote, that Democrats criticizing his ventures had themselves profited from stock trading. World Liberty separately remains in litigation with Justin Sun over the freezing of the WLFI token.

Standing, Accounting, Disgorgement

This is a private shareholder action, not an enforcement case, so its trajectory depends on standing before it reaches the merits. Greenberg’s 10,000 shares and the claim that USD1-backed foreign competition injured Circle investors give him a theory, but emoluments plaintiffs have historically struggled to win disgorgement from a sitting president. The demand for an accounting of foreign payments is the step most likely to surface documents on the $2 billion MGX-Binance transaction if the case survives a motion to dismiss. Circle’s public distancing protects the issuer, yet the complaint’s competitive framing ties USDC’s market position, and the reserve income stablecoins earn from real-world assets, to the litigation. With the midterm calendar fixed, expect the emoluments narrative to run through the campaign regardless of how the docket moves.