Simply put
- The head of the Dubai Digital Economic Court has maintained a global asset freeze and injunction against Alia DMCC, involving $456 million in assets.
- This company is the primary defendant in a lawsuit concerning the alleged misappropriation of stablecoin reserves associated with Tron founder Justin Sun.
- The freeze and injunction will persist until the court decides otherwise.
A judge at the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) has ruled to continue the global freeze of assets worth $456 million linked to Justin Sun’s involvement with the TrueUSD stablecoin reserve.
DIFC Judge Michael Black, overseeing the Dubai Digital Economic Court (DEC), announced the order in a statement.
“I direct that the following injunction continue until the court makes further orders: a worldwide freezing injunction prohibiting the activities of the first defendant, Aria DMCC. This prohibits the removal of assets located in Dubai, capped at $456 million,” Mr. Black stipulated.
The judge issued an additional injunction forbidding Aria DMCC from disposing of or diminishing the cash or assets up to that same amount.
This ruling stems from a July hearing involving plaintiff Techteryx Ltd and defendants Aria Commodities DMCC, Mashreq Bank PSC, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC.
Techteryx had acquired the TrueUSD dollar-backed stablecoin in 2020 but struggled to fully redeem it from reserves managed by First Digital Trust between 2022 and 2023.
It appears that some of these reserve funds were improperly redirected to Aria DMCC instead of the Cayman Islands-based fund intended for the redemption process.
According to Techteryx’s legal counsel, reserves held in Hong Kong reportedly involved around $468 million being invested in a Cayman Islands fund, the Aria Commodity Finance Fund, between May 2021 and March 2022.
“In actuality, $456 million of this amount was transferred directly to Aria Commodities DMCC in Dubai, rather than to the Cayman Fund, leading to claims of breach of trust and wrongful receipt,” the counsel stated.
The court filings denote that Justin Sun is allegedly the ultimate beneficiary of Techteryx regarding this reserve shortfall.
The global asset freeze and injunction against Aria DMCC will remain in effect until a further court order is issued.
Al Tamimi & Co. did not respond to a request for comment promptly.
