20:20 CET
Politics
Three ships struck by drones in Black Sea near Romanian shipping canal
Drones have struck three commercial...
Crypto scams: Trump to highlight crackdown as family’s crypto ventures draw scrutiny
President Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth at a round table, White House, Washington, D.C., U.S., 21 October 2026.
Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to highlight his administration’s efforts to combat foreign criminal networks targeting Americans with fraudulent cryptocurrency investments at a White House event on Wednesday, a White House official told Reuters.
The event will focus on cybercrime prevention, including the seizure of fraudulent cryptocurrency investment websites and efforts to tackle online impersonation scams, the official said.
FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Todd Blanche are among the senior officials expected to attend, along with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Americans filed more than one million complaints about internet scams with the FBI in 2025, a 17 per cent increase on 2024, according to an agency report.
President Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and Todd Blanche at a crypto fraud round table, White House, Washington, D.C., U.S., 21 October 2026.
Reuters
Family’s crypto ventures
The event comes as Trump’s family has expanded its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry.
A Reuters investigation found that Trump and his sons had added at least $2.3 billion to the family fortune through their main cryptocurrency ventures, while investors they had attracted had lost $2.3 billion.
Responding to the investigation, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters: “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people.”
In October 2025, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who had been convicted after the company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme.
In March this year, Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to prioritise identifying and prosecuting those responsible for online scams. He later directed the Department of Homeland Security to work with private companies to monitor foreign criminal hacking groups.
Read more:
- Trump's immigration crackdown: 300,000 visas revoked as U.S. migration drops
- U.S. negotiator Witkoff and Zelenskyy arrive in Oslo for Ukraine talks
- U.S. midterms: Trump approval rating hits record low as Democrats widen lead
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment