A federal case of cryptocurrency fraud linked to the leaders of the Donald Trump digital currency circle and the leaders of Moonpay was temporarily sealed in its entirety due to an office error, according to the acting prosecutor Jeanine Pirro, who attributed the error to the legal staff rather than the prosecutors. The dispute occurred after a Nigerian crook would have defrauded the victims of $ 250,000 by usurping the identity of Steve Witkoff, co-chair of the Trump-Vance inaugural committee in December 2024. The victims were reportedly cheated on 250,300 USDT. ETH after receiving a dissected email.
Pirro stressed that prosecutors only sought to seal the initial complaint to protect the identity of an implicated “business”, not the whole file. “We have filed a modified complaint to delete the name of one of the companies,” she said, noting that victims – including individuals and a business – have the right to privacy in such cases. However, the court clerks wrongly sealed all the documents, which caused rapid action to provide them in a few hours (1). The error has been the subject of a meticulous examination of legal experts, with a former anonymous American deputy prosecutor suggesting that the DoJ may have tried to obscure the error. “It is as if they had panicked,” said the source (1).
The case highlights the vulnerabilities of transactions related to cryptocurrencies. Moonpay, which facilitates ramp services on digital assets and was the official platform of the official room of the same Trump (Trump), saw an increase of 1,023% of the transactions for the first time during the week of launching the room in January 2024 (1). The scam has victims of executives with the same first names as the CEO and CFO of Moonpay, with Blockchain Records connecting a portfolio to the founder of the company. The FBI has since recovered 40,300 USD from the stolen funds, helped by Tether, the Stablecoin issuer, who froze the illicit assets (1).
Critics have questioned the management by the Doj of the case. “If you are a friendly with Trump and you are a brother Crypto by Trump, you get the DoJ proactively trying to recover your assets,” said Mark Hays, an American defender for financial reform, stressing the perceived political favoritism (1). Moonpay and the Doj refused to comment on the issue.
The incident highlights the complexities of the prosecution of cryptographic crimes, where rapid anonymity and digital transfers pose challenges for the application of laws. Although the DOJ attributes the error of the file to administrative supervisors, the case has rekindled the debates on transparency in cases involving politically connected entities.
Source: (1) (Title: The Doj blames the tribunal’s error after the file of the cryptographic scam linked to Trump briefly sealed) (URL:
