A federal cryptocurrency fraud case with surprising ties to Donald Trump’s circle and senior MoonPay executives has grow to be a authorized spectacle after it was briefly sealed in full, then swiftly unsealed, with appearing U.S. Legal professional Jeanine Pirro blaming courtroom clerks for the confusion.
The case, initially filed publicly by the Division of Justice (DOJ) on July 11, was accompanied by a press launch outlining fees in opposition to a Nigerian nationwide accused of impersonating Steve Witkoff, a outstanding actual property determine and co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, to persuade two victims to switch $250,000 price of Ethereum. However hours later, all the docket vanished from public view.
A Nigerian scammer posed as Steve Witkoff, co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, to steal $250,300 in Ethereum-based USDT.#CryptoScam #CryptoScheme #FBIhttps://t.co/vqGv6Awtq3
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) July 3, 2025
Authorized specialists flagged the complete sealing as extremely uncommon. Whereas redacting sufferer names is normal in DOJ filings, full case sealing is usually reserved for issues involving nationwide safety or ongoing covert investigations.
The truth that the DOJ had already publicized the criticism suggests the seal was by no means meant or licensed.
DOJ Error Raises Questions on Transparency, Privateness, and MoonPay’s Function
The unique criticism, briefly seen earlier than the sealing, recognized the victims by first names: “Ivan” and “Mouna.” The crypto neighborhood instantly acknowledged the significance: these are the identical first names as MoonPay’s CEO Ivan Soto-Wright and CFO Mouna Doumani.
As NOTUS first reported, blockchain pockets addresses tied to the rip-off have been beforehand linked to Soto-Wright in a 2023 lawsuit, additional deepening the intrigue.
Whereas the DOJ has maintained that the executives have been victims of identification fraud, the sealing chaos and MoonPay’s rising political affiliations have prompted contemporary scrutiny. The corporate has lately positioned itself as an unique companion within the rollout of Trump-themed meme cash.
Appearing U.S. Legal professional Jeanine Pirro confirmed to NOTUS that the complete case seal was by no means requested by prosecutors. As an alternative, she stated, a clerical mistake by courtroom employees triggered the non permanent blackout.
“The courtroom made a ministerial, clerical error that, as quickly as we realized it, inside hours, the entire docket was unsealed,” Pirro acknowledged. “They admitted we by no means requested for the docket to be sealed.”
In accordance with Pirro, the DOJ solely requested that the unique criticism be sealed to redact an organization’s title. An amended, public model was then submitted, although observers famous no clear distinction in company naming between variations.
“That is the kind of case the place victims—together with people, staff of an organization, in addition to a sufferer firm—have a proper to not have their names included in a criticism,” Pirro added.
As of now, MoonPay has not issued a public assertion on the submitting. In the meantime, critics are pointing to the DOJ’s dealing with of the criticism as a troubling instance of selective transparency, particularly in a case involving influential crypto executives and political operatives.
MoonPay Donates $1M to Professional-Crypto PAC Through the 2024 Election
In Might 2024, MoonPay donated $1 million to Stand With Crypto, a political group backing pro-crypto laws. The corporate cited rising regulatory stress as its motive for supporting the PAC, which was launched to fund crypto-aligned candidates.
MoonPay stated the 2024 election will form the business’s future and known as for help of lawmakers pushing for clear crypto guidelines. The transfer follows a broader development of crypto corporations donating to candidates, together with Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign.
Federal Election Fee filings from April confirmed that a number of crypto corporations and executives made massive donations to President Donald Trump’s 2024 inauguration fund.
These included $1 million from Solana Labs, over $245,000 from Uniswap founder Hayden Adams, and $100,000 from Consensys. Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple Labs, Robinhood, and Ondo Finance have been additionally listed amongst donors.
Following Trump’s re-election, the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), now led by appearing chair Mark Uyeda, has closed quite a lot of enforcement circumstances involving donors, together with these in opposition to Uniswap and Consensys.
The put up MoonPay Execs Caught in Trump-Linked $250K Crypto Rip-off – Why Did DOJ Seal the Case? appeared first on Cryptonews.