Alt5 Sigma hires auditor flagged for past regulatory penalties

A US‑listed crypto company backed by the Trump family appointed an audit company whose license to practice had already expired earlier this year, according to the Financial Times. The appointment puts Alt5 Sigma under sharper scrutiny as the company remains late on required financial filings and faces the risk of being removed from Nasdaq in 2025, the year Donald Trump is serving as president of the United States. Alt5 Sigma, which is based in Las Vegas, has moved through several business identities before landing in crypto. The company began as an appliance recycling operation, later shifted into biotech, and now describes itself as a fintech focused on crypto infrastructure. In August, it signed an agreement to buy crypto tokens issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial. Eric Trump joined the company at that time as a board observer. Alt5’s financial position grew unclear after the August deal when quarterly results were not filed on schedule, and management turnover followed. Then the auditor was replaced, and boom, Alt5 promoted a treasury strategy centered on holding World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token. Alt5’s audit company licensing lapse follows regulatory penalties On December 8, Alt5 Sigma appointed Victor Mokuolu CPA PLLC as its new auditor. State filings in Texas show the company’s license expired in August. Under Texas rules, an audit company without an active license cannot perform audit work. As of December 26, the firm’s license had not been renewed. Victor Mokuolu, the founder of the company, renewed his personal certified public accountant license on August 31. His license remained inactive at the end of December based on state board records. Alt5 Sigma addressed the situation in a statement to the Financial Times. The company said its auditor was “undergoing a peer review per Texas State Board of Accountancy regulations and will be completed by the end of January 2026, at which point the auditor expects the license to be active.” Alt5 added, “No reviews or audits of Alt5’s financial statements will be issued by our auditor until the firm’s licence is active.” Victor previously worked as an accountant in the oil and gas sector before launching his company in 2020. A recent regulatory filing lists about 30 small‑cap public companies as audit clients of the company. The company has been trying to fix deficiencies for more than two years after receiving a failing grade in the accounting profession’s peer review process in 2023. Regulators have already taken action against Alt5. In 2023, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board fined the company $30,000 for failing to notify the regulator about six public company audits within the required 35‑day period. The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy imposed an additional $15,000 penalty for the same violations after repeated late filings. Management exits and filing delays deepen company turmoil The auditor change came during a period of disruption inside Alt5 Sigma. The company now refers to itself as “a fintech with a pioneering $WLFI digital asset treasury strategy.” The August deal committed the company to buying and holding large amounts of World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token, while the Trump‑backed venture became an investor in the company. As of December 8, Alt5 Sigma held roughly 7.3 billion $WLFI tokens. The holdings were valued at about $1.1 billion at that time. Leadership changes followed quickly. Jonathan Hugh, who joined as chief financial officer when the Trump deal was announced, left after three months. The company also parted ways with chief executive Peter Tassiopoulos in October. Board member David Danziger resigned last month, leaving the company in violation of Nasdaq rules that require an audit committee with a minimum size and accounting expertise. The company is now at risk of being delisted from Nasdaq after failing to file quarterly results for the period ending in late September. Alt5 Sigma blamed the delay in part on the “timeliness and responsiveness” of its former auditor, which formally resigned in November. Alt5 Sigma was incorporated in July 2024 by JanOne Inc, a biotech company that previously focused on developing treatments related to the opioid epidemic. JanOne merged with Alt5 Sigma and adopted its name in the same month. JanOne had already rebranded once before. In September 2019, it changed its name from Appliance Recycling Centers of America. The company says it provides financial infrastructure that allows traditional financial institutions to connect with crypto markets. Since the August deal, the chair of Alt5 Sigma has been Zack Witkoff. Zack is a co‑founder of World Liberty Financial and the son of Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy for peace negotiations. In August, Alt5 Sigma disclosed to US regulators that its Canadian subsidiary and a former principal were found criminally liable by a Rwandan court in May for offences including illicit enrichment and money laundering. Alt5 Sigma Canada and Andre Beauchesne appealed the ruling to the High Court of Kigali in June. The case remains under judicial review. Both the company unit and Andre denied wrongdoing and said they were victims of fraud. Sign up to Bybit and start trading with $30,050 in welcome gifts