Justin Sun was already one of the richest people in the world, having made his fortune in the no-rules early phase of the crypto industry, when he first met the three men from World Liberty Financial. It was October 2024, and the only thing Sun knew of the company they were hoping he would invest in was that it was being launched by then-candidate Donald Trump and his three sons.
Neither Don Jr., Eric, and Barron nor anyone else with the Trump name was on the video call that day. Instead, on the other side were World Liberty’s three top executives: an internet-marketing hustler who had spent time in jail on drug charges and been sued multiple times for fraud, a former professional pickup artist, and the son of Donald Trump’s best friend. Chase Herro, the internet marketer, was a wiry 41-year-old with sleeve tattoos, perma-stubble, and a vocabulary rich in blue-collar slang. Zak Folkman, the pickup artist, also 41, had both ears pierced and win! tattooed on one biceps in a comic-book-style speech bubble. He and Herro had previously launched a crypto platform that was hacked and drained of money, prompting accusations from at least one large investor of insider theft. The third co-founder was Zach Witkoff, the 33-year-old son of Steve Witkoff, the real-estate mogul who now serves as President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. Zach Witkoff had been arrested for cocaine possession leaving a Miami nightclub in 2022 and generally presented as an awkward rich kid (“If...
Executive Summary What’s new: The Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of an outsider’s qui tam action under the False Claims Act, outlining a potential path to dismissal where a relator lacks ins...