Denmark has never made America ask twice. Danish troops fought and died beside Americans in Helmand, and for eighty years the Danes have been about as uncomplicated an ally as a superpower could hope for. This week we learned the exchange rate. A Texas outfit called Greenland Energy hauled drilling equipment onto Greenland’s east coast on an approval that expired in December. Seemingly relevant: They also gave Trump’s inaugural committee a $1 million check. Greenland Energy told investors on August 6 that regulatory talks were constructive. In reality, they received a formal warning from the Danish government. On August 12, the Government of Greenland (the Naalakkersuisut) ruled out drilling during this coming winter. The project is at step one of an eleven-step approval process and faces an increasingly hostile Danish government. Were the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a serious body, it would be investigating why the company is telling investors something that seems wildly divergent from reality. But instead of that world, where we’d also have a normally functioning federal government asking why an American company is so angering one of our most steadfast allies by trampling on Danish sovereignty, Americans are getting a six-part television series by Dr Phil about a project run by a Trump donor.
This president seems to view America’s allies as spoils for him to dole out to his billionaire supporters. And to make sure those billionaires have an easier time hiding their loot, the administration spent this week killing the only federal registry recording who owns an American company. FinCEN will not merely stop collecting beneficial ownership data. It will delete what it has.
In addition, the president’s nonprofits and committees received $800 million without disclosure requirements. Trump also took in $59.5 million in foreign licensing “income,” and wouldn’t you know it? Almost all of it was Persian Gulf money, the same region where Trump found investors for his crypto business.
Oh, there’s more. A Korean conglomerate fighting a tariff case paid a Trump company $2 million. More. Belgian diamond cutters gave Trump a gold ring set with 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds, and six rubies. Purely coincidentally, it was handed over three weeks before Belgian diamonds won a tariff exemption. More: A British money laundering suspect routed $100 million into World Liberty Financial through the UAE. For dessert, the Flamingo Revolution that Jared and Ivanka sparked in Albania with their corruption passed day 68.
How Trump Allies Are Linked to Controversial Greenland Oil Drilling Plan
Newsweek, August 11, 2026
Ken Griffin, the Citadel founder who gave $1 million dollars to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, took a 9.3% stake in the Greenland project in May. Carol Craig, who runs Sidus Space and works on Trump’s “Golden Dome” program, joined the board in June. Chairman Larry Swets has prior ventures with Paolo Tiramani, who says he gave $10 million to the White House ballroom project. And Phil McGraw — yes, Dr. Phil, lately of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission — is fronting a six-part documentary on his own network, promising weekly live updates from the drill site. $60 million committed to an 8,100 square kilometer basin in a territory this president has spent eighteen months threatening to annex. And Trump is using the federal apparatus to bully forward this investment by his donors. Anyone who asks the Greenlanders will hear them say they do not want this. And Danes are correctly asking if the US respects Danish sovereignty. In answering that question on your behalf, Trump answered no.
KNR (Greenland’s public broadcaster), August 11, 2026
Greenland’s public broadcaster went through the checklist that the company skipped and allegedly failed to mention to investors. A project description, a 35-day hearing on it, environmental and social impact assessments, an eight-week hearing on those, a community benefit agreement…and only then a drilling authorization. Yet, the equipment has already moved to Nerlerit Inaat, despite the permit for doing so having lapsed last year. That earned a stern warning on July 30. Department head Jørgen T. Hammeken-Holm was blunt — “We are NOT agreed that they can conduct a test boring this year.” The next day, the ministry ruled out the season entirely…six days after Greenland Energy assured investors that the talks were constructive. Asked what the company had told his community, Erling Madsen, a hunter in Ittoqqortoormiit, a settlement near the prospective drill site, said, “We hear nothing from them.” From the Greenlandic perspective, this was never an energy story. It is a consent story, and our government believes that campaign donors’ profits take precedence.
U.S. Treasury and FinCEN, August 11, 2026
The administration just ended – and deleted – the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership registry for every domestic entity and every US person. FinCEN will delete what has already been filed. Not seal. Not archived. Delete. The FACT Coalition’s reply the same day: “Criminals Get Free Pass in Treasury’s Rule Rolling Back Protections to Fight Dirty Money.” Co-director Erica Hanichak said Treasury “has handed a major victory to U.S. adversaries, corrupt officials, fraudsters, and tax evaders.” And drug cartels. Congress passed the CTA over a Trump veto because anonymous American shell companies had become the world’s preferred hiding place for stolen money. The United States is now, by administrative choice, a jurisdiction where you cannot find out who owns anything.
Base Group faces scrutiny over Trump ties as aluminum affiliate fights US tariffs
The Korea Times, August 7, 2026
South Korea’s Base Group, whose Keumyang arm already distributes Trump Winery wine, paid $2 million to a Trump family business in 2025, booked as a nonrefundable development fee for a golf course that has not been announced. Why? Perhaps it’s because its affiliate, Korea Aluminum, is staring down \ a preliminary Commerce ruling that would push tariffs on its exports to 105.8%. Senators Warren, Blumenthal, and Kim opened an inquiry on August 6, asking whether the payment was meant to “influence Commerce Department proceedings or otherwise secure lucrative tariff exemptions.” They followed up with a second letter about an 18-karat ring set with 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds, six rubies, and two diamond letter T’s, presented to the president on June 28 by Antwerp’s diamond sector. Weeks later, on July 24, the administration exempted European natural diamonds from Section 301 tariffs.
Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Received $100 Million Investment From Money Laundering Suspect
Benzinga, August 10, 2026, reporting on the New York Times
Guren “Bobby” Zhou, a British national who once ran a hardwood flooring business, is under an uncharged UK money laundering investigation. He is also, per the Times, the source of an aggregate $100 million that reached World Liberty Financial through a UAE-registered foundation called Aqua 1.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve written about it before:
“The Aqua 1 Foundation story reads like amateur money laundering fiction, except the money is real and flowing directly into the Trump family’s pockets. Reuters was unable to locate the supposed UAE-based crypto fund in any corporate registry. The Abu Dhabi Global Market stated explicitly that “Aqua 1 is not registered, licensed, or affiliated in any capacity” with them. Dubai’s crypto regulator VARA confirmed it “has not engaged with Aqua 1 or Mr. Dave Lee.”
That previous $100 payment is what seemingly unlocked NVIDIA’s most advanced AI chips for an AI company in the UAE known to have ties to the Chinese government.
In one week, Trump made beneficial ownership unknowable by design, and the president’s family crypto venture demonstrated why someone might want that. You may remember the $500 million a UAE-linked fund put into WLF before the inauguration. The UAE official who owns that company chairs the China-friendly foundation and is the largest investor in Trump’s family crypto company.
The right to stay — Italy’s Albanian diaspora sails back to support the Flamingo Revolution
Middle East Eye, August 12, 2026
Day 68. The Flamingo Revolution — begun in May over a Kushner-backed development on the protected Vjosa-Narta lagoon and Sazan Island — has since broadened into a general anti-corruption movement demanding Edi Rama’s resignation. And now it has a flotilla. Albanian emigrants in Italy are sailing three boats from Brindisi across the Adriatic to join the protests, a deliberate reversal of the 1991 exodus that carried them the other way. Prosecutors at SPAK, Albania’s independent corruption agency, are investigating whether deeds to the coastline were forged, alleging cocaine proceeds were laundered into Albanian property using falsified titles, and have frozen roughly 110 million euros. Albanians are crossing the sea to determine who owns their coastline. The president’s daughter seems to think she could just delete the answer from an Albanian database
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