U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to recover $40,300 in a program that is allegedly targeting donors of the Trump Provincial Inauguration Commission. according to complainthe scam began when the victim received an email on Christmas Eve 2024, claiming to be Trump in case the first co-chair of the committee, Steve Witkoff.
The victim transferred 250,300 USDT.ETH, which is a fixed Ethereum blockchainto a cryptocurrency wallet controlled by a fraudster, whose operations can be traced back to Nigeria. Allegedly laundering money through a series of extra wallets within two hours, making recovery difficult.
Despite the complexity of blockchain transactions, the FBI’s Washington Field Office is able to trace and recover $40,300 of stolen cryptocurrencies through advanced blockchain analytics. Recycling of funds is now the subject of civil forfeiture lawsuits with the aim of returning them to victims.
Subtle email tips
The fraudulent information seems to come from a legitimate campaign address, but in reality, the sender replaced the lowercase “i” in the domain “@t47inaugural.com” with a lowercase “l”, which is almost indistinguishable in many fonts. This classic email spoofing technique is a hallmark of the Business Email Compromise (BEC) program, which costs Americans millions of dollars each year.
“All donors should double and triple check whether they are sending cryptocurrencies to their intended recipients. Law enforcement can be very difficult to compensate for lost funds due to the extremely complex nature of the blockchain,” U.S. Attorney Pirro warned.
The Justice Department acknowledged that USDT’s issuer Tether helped promote the recovery of stolen assets. The case is under Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Blaylock Jr..
The incident stressed Development strategies of cybercriminals And the importance of being vigilant when dealing with digital assets. As cryptocurrencies increasingly integrate into political fundraising and charitable donations, officials urged all donors to be cautious and verify the details of the recipient before making any transfers.
For this story, Fortune uses generated AI to aid in the first draft. The editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
