On June 26, an obscure entity called Aqua1 Foundation, which said it was based in the United Arab Emirates, announced it was buying $100m of WLFI tokens, the largest single purchase at the time. Now months later, the Financial Times has reportedly uncovered a link that hilariously ties the Trump crypto empire to a bunch of now-dissolved hardwood flooring firms.
The mysterious Chinese businessman behind Aqua1, who met with Eric Trump in Dubai, was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who has executive roles in multiple businesses and who is under investigation in Britain for money laundering, according to the UK National Crime Agency and a document filed in an immigration case at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.
“The Chinese businessman who met with Eric Trump in Dubai was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who has executive roles in multiple businesses and who is under investigation in Britain for money laundering,” https://t.co/5noairMyCc
— Steven G Young (@youngsteveng) October 28, 2025
Trump Crypto Empire and Its Hilarious Ties to Thirteen Now-Defunct UK Flooring Firms
A group called Aqua Labs Investment LLC told Reuters around the time of the $100m WLFI
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Official World Liberty Financial
4.07%
Official World Liberty Financial
WLFI
Price
$0.1476
4.07% /24h
Volume in 24h
$192.10M
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purchase that it “was a commercial decision consistent with its focus on advancing regulated, scalable digital-asset ecosystems”.
An Aqua1 spokesperson added, “Mr Guren (“Bobby”) Zhou has never been convicted of any financial crime in any jurisdiction, and any implication to the contrary is defamatory and false.”
However, in the Financial Times piece, it alleges that Companies House shows a Mr Guren Zhou worked as a director at 13 overlapping UK flooring companies, including Iwood Flooring, Glamorous Spirit, Stile Interiors, Underlay Republic, and Flooring Republic.
All the firms listed operated between Southampton, Preston, and London and were active between 2008 and 2019. The flooring companies listed have all since been dissolved.
Interestingly, Anbo Commercial, Anbo UK, Anbo Investments, Anbo Stile, and Anbo International, where Zhou was listed as a Director, were among the last to be dissolved.
The Anbo website remains up and running and describes how the group was founded by “well respected timber manufacturer” Zhou Senior in Shanghai in 1989. Exports to the US began in 1991. Bobby Zhou eventually took over and brought the company with him to the UK around 2005.
Aqua 1 Announces $100M Strategic World Liberty Financial Governance Token Purchase to Help Shape and Accelerate Decentralized Finance Adoption https://t.co/qjryzLv2dx
— Aqua1 Foundation (@Aqua1Fndn) July 10, 2025
DISCOVER: The 12+ Hottest Crypto Presales to Buy Right Now
Timeline of Anbo’s Pivot from Flooring to Crypto Investments
Now we have the origin story of how a Chinese manufacturing company ended up in the UK and was headed by the face of Aqua1, Bobby Zhou. Just how did Zhou end up in Dubai, meeting with the President’s son, and investing $100m into the Trump crypto empire via its WLFI token?
In 2017, Anbo snapped up Leeds-based online retailer Posh Flooring, securing a foothold in the north of England’s laminate market. A news report at the time said the merger would simultaneously “support the expansion of Posh Flooring into Dubai and the UAE”.
This gives us a clear idea of how Zhou ended up in Dubai, but it still leaves us scratching our heads over how, just eight years ago, the Chinese businessman was expanding a luxury flooring firm from the UK into the UAE.
This is cleared up via an administrator’s report in 2018, which stated:
“In 2017 the interior design and construction industries changed such that management could no longer predict demand for the products. Between January and November 2017 the Company [Anbo International] averaged sales of approximately £523k per month. In the latter period, December 2017 to March 2018, average sales were approximately £94k per month.”
According to the Anbo website, between 2018 and 2023, the firm expanded into the following sectors: global banking, technology, medical, biotechnology, wealth management, the metaverse sector, and entertainment.
Looking at this timeline, it is clear that the obvious next step for Zhou and his Anbo company was the cryptocurrency sector. It is a humorous turn of events that in less than eight years, Zhou went from supplying hardwood flooring in the UK to securing nine-figure crypto deals with Eric Trump and the broader Trump crypto empire.
The Trump-backed WLFI crypto asset has a market cap of around $4.1Bn, making it the 42nd largest digital asset by market cap, and has a daily trading volume of $246m, per CoinGecko data.
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