Crypto Firm Tied to Trump Family Dismisses Top Executives — Barrons.com
By Matt PetersonA public company connected to a Trump-family backed crypto project has removed members of its top leadership, according to a government filing. The dismissals come after a sharp decline in its share price and disclosure of an overseas legal matter.Since summer, ALT5 Sigma has been a partner of World Liberty Financial, a privately held crypto company. President Donald Trump and some family members own about 38% of World Liberty's holding company, according to World Liberty's website.Eric Trump and Don Trump Jr., sons of the president, rang the Nasdaq bell along with others involved in the two companies to celebrate the relationship. Eric Trump is a strategic adviser and board observer to ALT5 Sigma.Under the partnership, ALT5 sold $1.5 billion in shares and used the proceeds to purchase WLFI crypto tokens issued by World Liberty.That strategy has come under pressure as prices of crypto have fallen this fall, Barron's has reported. ALT5's share price has declined by 72% since the Trump sons rang the Nasdaq bell, according to LSEG data.ALT5's shares rose nearly 7% on Wednesday after crypto news outlets reported that World Liberty had bought back some of its outstanding crypto tokens.ALT5 disclosed the firings on Wednesday in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.Those dismissed: Jonathan Hugh, who had been both acting chief executive officer and chief financial officer, and chief operating officer Ron Pitters.Hugh and Pitters didn't immediately respond to requests for comment sent through LinkedIn.ALT5 said in the filing that Hugh's removal as acting CEO was made "without cause." It didn't describe any misconduct or other specific concerns in relation to the dismissals.ALT5 Sigma didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Eric and Don Trump didn't immediately respond to requests for comment sent through the Trump Organization.A spokesman for World Liberty said ALT5's filing speaks for itself. "World Liberty Financial is excited about the future for Alt5," said, David Wachsman.Wednesday's said the board had received results of an investigation related to previously disclosed legal issues in Rwanda.An Aug. 29 filing said ALT5's board had just been made aware that a Rwandan court in May found one of its subsidiaries and a former executive criminally liable for offenses including illicit enrichment and money laundering. The subsidiary and former executive were appealing the decision and maintained that the subsidiary itself was "the victim of fraud," ALT5's filing said.The former executive wasn't mentioned in the latest update.ALT5 buys and holds crypto assets — in this case, World Liberty's WLFI token. ALT5's stock price is influenced by rises and falls in the underlying crypto asset. WLFI has gained 1.3% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.Write to Matt Peterson at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.