World

Liberty

ZachXBT

Polygon

World Liberty Financial

A crypto developer has accused World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a crypto project with ties to US President Donald Trump, of stealing his funds by refusing to unlock his tokens.
In a Saturday <a href="https://x.com/bitfalls/status/1964213177245159656" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">post</a> on X, Polygon DevRel Bruno Skvorc shared an email from WLFI’s compliance team, which flagged his wallet address as “high risk” due to blockchain exposure. The team said his tokens would not be released.
“TLDR is, they stole my money,” Skvorc wrote. “And because it’s the @POTUS [The president of the United States] family, I can’t do anything about it. This is the new age mafia. There is no one to complain to, no one to argue with, no one to sue.”
In response to another user, Skvorc <a href="https://x.com/bitfalls/status/1964224647055937918" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">claimed</a> that he is one of six investors who were subject to 100% token lockups from the beginning. “It was not ‘high risk’ to accept money from this address, but it is high risk to unlock owed money into it,” he wrote.
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 <img alt="‘Scam of all scams’: Crypto dev claims Trump-linked WLFI ‘stole’ his money" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-09/01991ec0-dc9a-7fb0-bb00-4b2208528303" title="">
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 Bruno claims WLFI stole his funds. Source: <a href="https://x.com/bitfalls/status/1964213177245159656" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Bruno Skvorc</a>
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Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/whales-lose-millions-on-trump-linked-wlfi-s-40-dip-despite-47m-burn" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Whales lose millions on Trump-linked WLFI’s 40% dip, despite 47M burn</a>
<h2 id="compliance-tools-to-blame">Compliance tools to blame?</h2>
The incident sparked criticism of the compliance tools used by projects like WLFI. Onchain sleuth ZachXBT chimed in, explaining that automated tools often flag addresses as “high risk” for trivial or incorrect reasons, including interacting with DeFi contracts or exchanges.
“I helped a team manually review addresses for a presale because popular compliance tools labeled them high risk due to unrelated activity several hops away,” ZachXBT said. “These tools are deeply flawed.”
In Skvorc’s case, the flags were traced to a past transaction via <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-is-tornado-cash-and-why-did-it-get-into-trouble" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_self">crypto mixer Tornado Cash</a>, indirect links to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sanctioned-exchange-garantex-previously-had-a-contingency-plan-ahead-of-enforcement-actions" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_self">sanctioned entities like Garantex</a> and Netex24, and a previous interaction with a now-blacklisted dashboard.
Based in Croatia, Skvorc is a blockchain developer who worked on <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/ethereum-upgrades-a-beginners-guide-to-eth-2-0" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_self">Ethereum 2.0</a>. He is also the founder of RMRK, a company integrating multi-resource NFTs into gaming metaverses.
Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-whales-buy-456m-eth-bitcoin-rotation-altcoin-season-2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Crypto whales buy $456M Ether in ‘natural rotation’ from Bitcoin</a>
<h2 id="justin-sun-s-wlfi-tokens-frozen">Justin Sun’s WLFI tokens frozen</h2>
On Friday, Tron founder Justin Sun also revealed that his <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/justin-sun-trump-wlfi-unlock-frozen-token" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">WLFI token allocation has been frozen</a>. His wallet was blacklisted after blockchain trackers flagged a $9 million transaction, triggering accusations that he had started selling.
In a post on X, Sun called the freeze “unreasonable” and urged World Liberty Financial to unlock his tokens. He said the decision went against the core values of blockchain and called tokens “sacred and inviolable.”
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/privacy-survive-us-crypto-policy-roman-storms-conviction/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Can privacy survive in US crypto policy after Roman Storm’s conviction?</a>

‘Scam of all scams’: Crypto dev claims Trump-linked WLFI ‘stole’ his money

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