Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11), Other Top House Dems “Demand All Suspicious Activity Reports Related to Trump Crypto Ventures, Musk PAC, and WinRed”

Investigation Targets Potential Fraud, Bribery, Campaign Finance Violations, and Predatory and Deceptive Practices Targeting Vulnerable Americans

Based on concerns about deceptive practices targeting vulnerable Americans, potential bribery, corruption, and conflicts of interest as well as threats to the integrity of U.S. elections, the Ranking Members are also seeking SARs related to the Trump family’s recently launched crypto venture World Liberty Financial (WLF) and Trump-branded meme coins.

“The Committees seek to determine whether legislation is necessary to prevent violations of campaign finance, consumer protection, bribery, securities fraud, and other anti-corruption laws in connection with fundraising by candidates for federal office and federal officeholders and to guard against deceptive and predatory campaign fundraising practices, illicit foreign influence over federal officials, and other financial misconduct connected to prospective or current federal officials,” wrote the Ranking Members.

The requests seek SARs from:

• WinRed: Republican for-profit digital fundraising platform WinRed has faced several investigations for potentially predatory and fraudulent conduct—including the use of prechecked boxes to automatically enroll donors in recurring contribution programs without their knowledge or consent, victimizing “hundreds of elderly Americans” and misleading “those battling dementia or other cognitive impairments into giving away millions of dollars—far more than they ever intended.”
• America PAC:  Elon Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, Inc., reportedly spent $250 million to help elect Donald Trump and placed a $1 million nationwide ad campaign touting President Trump’s first few weeks in office.  Musk’s financial support appears to have secured President Trump’s favor for his business activities.  In the face of worldwide protests of Tesla, the President turned the South Lawn of the White House into a Tesla showroom, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged Fox News viewers to “buy Tesla [stock].”
• Scam PACs:  Two scam PACs operating under the names “Patriots for American Leadership” and “Campaign for a Conservative Majority” raised millions of dollars through robocalls that used clips of Donald Trump’s voice to mislead listeners into believing that the PACs were supporting his reelection efforts.  According to the Campaign Legal Center, the scam PAC operators actually used the funds raised to enrich themselves and continue to support their scam operations.
• Trump Family Crypto Ventures:  In September 2024, then-candidate Trump and his sons launched their own crypto venture, WLF.  WLF sells a non-transferable governance token that confers no ownership rights and provides “no mechanism to accrue value.”  A leading expert on presidential ethics noted that “out of all of Trump’s conflicts as a businessman turned president, this ‘may be the most profound,’” particularly because the Trump Administration has adopted a strident agenda of promoting cryptocurrency and eliminating regulatory guardrails on the crypto industry.   WLF reportedly fell “dramatically short” of its initial fundraising goal but was saved by a $30 million investment from Justin Sun, a Chinese-born entrepreneur then under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for alleged securities fraud related to several of his companies.  In January, Mr. Sun bought $45 million of WLF’s token, bringing his total investment in the venture to $75 million.  Shortly thereafter, SEC asked the court to pause its enforcement action against Mr. Sun.  In March, WLF announced that it would launch USD1, a stablecoin. A fund backed by an Abu Dhabi investment firm announced earlier this month it would use USD1 to close a $2 billion investment in the Binance crypto exchange, thereby further enriching WLF.
• $TRUMP Coin:  On the Friday before his inauguration, then President-elect Trump launched the $TRUMP memecoin, described as “a type of joke cryptocurrency that typically has no purpose beyond financial speculation [and] whose value tends to whipsaw dramatically.”  Entities tied to Mr. Trump together own 80% of the entire supply of $TRUMP coins—1 billion coins in total—and thus stand to reap the lion’s share of any profits from the venture.  Trump-related entities reportedly have already made as much as $100 million on trading fees alone.  On February 27, 2025, the SEC announced its determination that meme coins do not constitute securities under the federal securities laws, and therefore are not subject to regulation by the SEC.  Because the identities of the coin purchasers are not publicly disclosed, there is no way to tell who is buying the coin, potentially allowing bad actors, including authoritarian governments, to enrich the Trump family and “curry favor with Trump.”

Click here to read the letter to Secretary Bessent.