DOJ Recovers $40,300 in Cryptocurrency from Scam Impersonating Trump-Vance Committee

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has successfully thwarted a scam operation that impersonated members of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, recovering $40,300 in cryptocurrency. The scam involved a Nigerian national who posed as Steve Witkoff, the co-chair of the committee, and used a lookalike email address to deceive a victim into transferring 250,300 USDT.ETH, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued on the Ethereum blockchain. The scammer sent an email from “@t47Inaugural.com,” replacing the lowercase “i” in the legitimate email “@t47inaugural.com,” to convince the victim of its authenticity. The victim transferred the funds on December 26, 2024, to an address controlled by the scammer, who then moved the funds to other addresses within two hours.

The DOJ has warned donors to be vigilant against cryptocurrency scams, emphasizing the difficulty in recovering losses due to the complex nature of blockchain technology. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro stated that her office is prepared to combat such criminal activities. The FBI Washington Field Office's Assistant Director in Charge, Steven Jensen, highlighted the significant financial losses Americans face annually due to impersonation scams. He advised the public to scrutinize email addresses, website URLs, and spelling in any received messages to avoid falling victim to such schemes. Jensen also cautioned against sending money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or other assets to unknown persons or through online interactions.

The DOJ outlined various cybercrimes, including business email compromise (BEC), investment scams, cryptocurrency scams, romance scams, and pig butchering fraud scams, urging victims to report them via the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The DOJ acknowledged the support of the Tether organization in revealing the transfer of assets. The recovered $40,300 USDT is subject to forfeiture in the civil action, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Blaylock, Jr., prosecuting the case.

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, emphasized the firm's commitment to setting compliance standards in digital assets and ensuring stablecoins are not misused. Tether assisted in freezing the proceeds of similar crypto scams, including a pig butchering fraud investigated by the DOJ last month. The DOJ filed to seize $225 million in USDT believed to have been laundered via the OKX exchange by scammers. The scam operators dispersed the proceeds across multiple cryptocurrency addresses and accounts to conceal the source of the illegally obtained funds. The scammers typically gain victims' trust through fake social accounts and sob stories, a tactic known as "fattening up a pig before it is slaughtered."

Sarvanan Pandian, CEO and founder of KoinBX, described the Steve Witkoff scam as a new tactic where scammers exploit political figures and events to deceive victims. He noted that this opportunism takes advantage of the crypto ecosystem’s public trust, political sentiment, and irreversible nature. Chengyi Ong, Head of APAC Policy at Chainanalysis, warned that AI and deepfake technology will escalate the scale and sophistication of scam activities. He advocated for a cross-sector approach involving law enforcement, regulators, tech companies, financial institutions, and the crypto industry to prevent such scams.