U.S. Judge Forfeits $40,353 in USDT Tied to Nigerian Romance Scam Impersonating Trump Inaugural Committee

USDC Seizes Nigerian Scam’s $40k in Trump-Inaugural Tether

A federal judge in Washington just ordered the forfeiture of roughly 40,353 USDT in the ethereum network after the Justice Department proved the coins were proceeds of a Nigerian romance-fraud scheme that posed as the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee. The ruling marks the first reported crypto-specific forfeiture tied to inaugural-committee impersonation and underscores that stablecoins are no longer off-limits to civil-asset seizure.

The complaint alleged that a Nigerian resident created fake Committee websites and social-media accounts, convinced victims to send USDT in exchange for nonexistent “VIP packages,” and routed the funds through a chain of ethereum wallets before parking them in the defendant 40,353-token wallet. The government sought forfeiture under 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C) as property traceable to wire fraud and under § 981(a)(1)(A) as property involved in money laundering. Because the wallet owner never appeared, the court entered a default judgment after finding the pleadings adequately traced the coins to the predicate crimes.

In a six-page opinion, Judge Cooper held that the government’s verified complaint, together with the blockchain analytics report, satisfied the probable-cause threshold for forfeiture. He rejected any suggestion that stablecoins are exempt from civil seizure simply because they purport to mirror the dollar, noting that “the fact that a token is pegged to a sovereign currency does not immunize it from the laws governing proceeds of crime.”

Plain-English translation: the coins are now U.S. government property and will be liquidated or held in the Treasury Forfeiture Fund. Exchanges and DeFi protocols that receive a subpoena or court order must freeze identical addresses or risk secondary liability for aiding and abetting money laundering. Because the opinion does not require a criminal conviction—only a civil showing of probable cause—similar seizures can be executed quickly whenever blockchain tracing points to fraud proceeds, even if the perpetrator hides overseas.

For traders and exchanges the message is blunt: USDT on any chain is fully visible to U.S. enforcement, and wallets that touch illicit funds can be zeroed out without warning. Stablecoin issuers may soon face compliance orders to blacklist specific tokens or addresses at the smart-contract level. The case also signals that inaugural-committee or political-fund scams will draw fast federal attention in an election year, raising the reputational and legal risk for any platform that becomes a conduit.

Bottom line: treat every USDT transfer as a monitored transaction; one tainted hop can turn a liquid dollar-pegged token into a permanently seized asset.