Warren Grills OCC Comptroller Gould on WLFI UAE Ownership Disclosure at Senate Banking Hearing

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing on February 26, 2026, ranking member Elizabeth Warren pressed OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould on whether WLTC Holdings’ charter application disclosed that Aryam Investment 1 — the twin-shell vehicle controlled by UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s G42 lieutenants — holds 49% of World Liberty Financial. Warren referenced OCC regulations requiring charter applicants to disclose “all shareholders with at least a 10% direct or indirect stake in the proposed bank” and stated that failing to file the required biographical and financial reports would justify dismissing the application.

Warren requested that Gould share the unredacted charter application with her and Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott for in-camera review. Gould declined to commit, responding only that he would “be happy to entertain your request and discuss with my team” and would afford Warren “the same privileges that we have afforded past administrations.” When pressed further, Gould stated he would commit only to “following our established procedures, which are outlined in the regulations.”

The exchange established on the hearing record that: (1) WLFI’s 49% Aryam/G42/UAE ownership is at least prima facie within OCC’s disclosure thresholds; (2) the OCC had not, as of February 26, publicly confirmed whether the application discloses Aryam; and (3) the Comptroller would not voluntarily share the unredacted application with the Banking Committee minority. The hearing formalized the beneficial-ownership-disclosure question as an unresolved gap on which any subsequent conditional approval would be litigated.

See 2025-01-17–tahnoon-uae-buys-49-percent-wlfi-500m, 2026-01-07–world-liberty-financial-occ-bank-charter-application, 2026-01-23–occ-rebuffs-warren-wlfi-charter-delay, and world-liberty-financial.