Tron founder Justin Sun is asking for $263,821.20 in sanctions against World Liberty Financial and its lawyers. He accuses the Trump family-linked company of filing a misleading disclosure about its owners while a dispute over his $45 million investment in WLFI tokens was under way.
A hearing on the motion is set for December 10. Sun has already said that he will refile his lawsuit over the frozen tokens afterwards, this time in California state court.
$263,821.20 for the work of four attorneys
In the federal motion, Sun and two co-plaintiffs ask to cover the costs of fighting arbitration. A sworn declaration from attorney Edward Moss says the sum covers the work of four lawyers. Fees of other attorneys and the costs of jurisdictional discovery are not included, so the final bill could be larger.
The amount is small even against the $45 million Sun put into WLFI tokens, at under 0.6% of the investment. So the stakes in this case are about reputation and procedure rather than the money itself.
22 owners instead of one Florida
According to the plaintiffs, World Liberty first listed Florida as its only citizenship. Almost three months later it amended the filing and named 22 individuals and entities in its ownership chain, including structures from the United Arab Emirates.
The amendment came six days after a federal judge questioned the company's bid to move Sun's claims into arbitration. World Liberty's lawyers then argued that the company's UAE citizenship strips the federal court of jurisdiction, because foreign parties ended up on both sides of the dispute.
A timeline of the dispute across 2025 and 2026
In January 2025, an Abu Dhabi-backed investment vehicle agreed to buy 49% of World Liberty for $500 million. That very UAE link is now the main point of contention. In April Sun sued, alleging fraud and the unlawful freezing of his tokens, and in May World Liberty answered with its own defamation suit. Sun denies its allegations.
In an August 26 email attached to the court exhibits, World Liberty lawyer Sam Cleveland wrote that his team had "recently" learned of additional citizenship information. He insisted, though, that the company already held UAE citizenship when Sun filed in April.
What Sun wants from the court
Sun's lawyers asked the company for corporate records and testimony about its ownership and about when its attorneys learned of the UAE connection. They say World Liberty handed over limited documentation and declined to explain why the original filing left it out.
"World Liberty presumably always knew who its owners were. When we asked how this happened, World Liberty refused to tell us."
Justin Sun, Tron founder, from the sanctions motion in federal court
World Liberty Financial did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph's request for comment.
Former ally, current plaintiff
Sun used to back the Trump family's crypto ventures, putting money into World Liberty and buying the TRUMP memecoin. In May 2025 he topped the token's leaderboard ahead of a dinner with the president, with holdings valued at about $18.5 million. Sun leads Tron, where a large share of USDT circulates, so his split with the Trump family's best-known project is hard to miss.
- If the court grants the motion, it will signal that incomplete ownership disclosures carry a price.
- A denial strengthens World Liberty's position on federal jurisdiction.
- A California suit would reopen the frozen-token case under different rules.
What December 10 will settle
The ruling on the motion is still ahead, and $263,821.20 is only the tip. The real question is which court will hear Sun's claim over the frozen tokens, and after that whether the verdict will touch trust in Tron and in Sun himself as a WLFI investor. Anyone following the project's tokens should keep the hearing date on the radar.
Comments
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *