Dubai Court Issues Worldwide Freeze of $456 Million Tied to Justin Sun's Stablecoin Bailout

In brief

• The head of the Dubai Digital Economy Court ordered the continuation of a worldwide asset freeze and injunction against Aria DMCC for $456 million in assets.
• The firm is the first defendant in a case with connections to misappropriated stablecoin reserves that were reportedly filled by Tron founder Justin Sun.
• The asset freeze and injunction will continue until otherwise ordered by the court.

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A Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) judge has ordered the continuation of an injunction and worldwide freeze of $456 million worth of assets that have a connection to Tron founder Justin Sun’s bailout of the TrueUSD stablecoin reserves.

H.E. Justice Michael Black, the DIFC judge in charge of the Dubai Digital Economy Court (DEC), declared the order in an amended judgementon October 17.

“I direct that the following injunctions shall remain continued until further order of the Court: a worldwide freezing injunction, prohibiting the First Defendant [Aria DMCC] from removing from Dubai any of its assets which are in Dubai up to the value of USD 456,000,000,” Black ordered.

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The judge also ordered a proprietary injunction prohibiting Aria DMCC from disposing, dealing with, or diminishing cash or assets up to the $456 million that it was transferred.

The judgement stems from a July hearing of a case between the claimant Techteryx Ltd, and defendants Aria Commodities DMCC, Mashreq Bank PSC, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC.

Techteryx, which acquired the TrueUSD dollar-backed stablecoin in 2020, was unable to redeem full reserve funds—which were managed by First Digital Trust—from the stablecoin between 2022-2023.

Instead, those reserve funds had allegedly been diverted to the defendant Aria DMCC by First Digital Trust, instead of the Cayman Islands-based fund from which Techteryx was redeeming reserves.

“Those reserves were custodied in Hong Kong and, between May 2021 and March 2022, approximately USD 468 million was purportedly invested into the Aria Commodity Finance Fund, a Cayman Islands fund,” wrote Techteryx counsel Al Tamimi & Co in apost-judgement brief.

“In practice, USD 456 million of those sums were remitted directly to Aria Commodities DMCC in Dubai, rather than to the Cayman fund, giving rise to proprietary and personal claims including breach of trust and knowing receipt.”

This gap in reserves wasultimately filled or “bailed out” by Sun, who is listed as an alleged ultimate beneficial owner of Techteryx in the court filings.

The worldwide freeze order and injunction against Aria DMCC will remain in place until a further court order is provided.

Decrypt reached out to Al Tamimi & Co for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.