Alt5 Sigma legal issues pile up as Trump-linked firm suspends top executives

Alt5 Sigma, a US fintech company that has been promoting a crypto project linked to the Trump family, has abruptly dismissed its top executives following recent disclosures about longer-standing legal issues at the company.

According to reports, Las Vegas-based Alt5 Sigma Corp. has cut ties with its acting chief executive officer, Jonathan Hugh, and its chief operating officer, Ron Pitters, and appointed replacements for both men. The company says the decision was not related to specific misconduct.

World Liberty Financial  publicly downplays the executive changes

Tony Isaac, the president of Alt5, is now the acting CEO. Before the company decided to focus on cryptocurrencies, he had worked for it in various capacities, including recycling appliances and assisting with opioid response operations.

The change follows another shakeup, in which the publicly traded company informed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had suspended the previous CEO, Peter Tassiopoulos, effective October 16. This suspension came after an internal email reportedly revealed that the board had placed him on temporary leave on September 4.

At the same time, Chief Revenue Officer Vay Tham was also placed on leave, according to the email obtained by Forbes from two sources close to the company.

The company struck a $1.5 billion deal in August to acquire WLFI tokens from World Liberty Financial, co-founded by members of the Trump family, under an arrangement in which a Trump family entity would receive 75% of the token-sale proceeds. 

That deal swiftly made Alt5 one of the many small public companies this year that changed their plans from expanding business operations to collecting crypto tokens.

Trump ally Zachary Witkoff chairs Alt5 Sigma’s board, while Eric Trump and co-founder Zachary Folkman serve as board observers. Eric’s brother, Donald Trump Jr., later joined executives at a Nasdaq bell-ringing ceremony to celebrate the partnership.

World Liberty Financial has publicly downplayed the executive changes. “The filing speaks for itself,” said spokesperson David Wachsman, adding the group remains “excited about the future for Alt5.”

The Alt5 controversies add to WLFI’s ongoing scrutiny

This year, the SEC abruptly dropped its investigation into Justin Sun, a major investor in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), shortly after Sun made a $30 million investment in the Trump-backed venture.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters have since called for transparency, saying there may be conflicts of interest and asking if Trump’s financial interests affected the SEC’s actions in WLFI.

As if this is not enough, behind the scenes, a subsidiary was ruled criminally liable for money laundering in Rwanda in May, months before the Trump-related deal was finalized.

The same case also found Alt5 principal Andre Beauchesne liable, with a court ordering his imprisonment. Alt5 has said both the subsidiary and Beauchesne appealed, arguing they were victims of fraud.

WLFI records double-digit surge

The WLFI token has surged approximately 14% in the last week. This has been brought about by the ongoing buyback. During the past day, the project has spent approximately $10 million to acquire a little over 59 million WLFI tokens via CoW Swap, a decentralized exchange.

The move follows a vote to pass a governance proposal on September 19, which aimed to reduce the token’s outstanding supply through burns and repurchases, thereby boosting the token’s value, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

The vote was unanimous with 98% support, while only 0.06% voted against it. WLFI previously said that passing the governance proposal serves as the cornerstone of the platform’s strategy for token repurchases. 

Meanwhile, the price of WLFI is up almost 1% and is now trading at $0.1603. By extension, the TRUMP coin is also steady with a 0.15% rise, now trading at $6.20. 

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