Federal prosecutors say two North Macedonian nationals sold worthless “Trump Bucks” to American seniors through Telegram and an online marketplace, and the FBI is now warning that the 2026 midterms are producing a fresh wave of political-themed fraud.
In May, federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed two indictments alleging that a network of overseas sellers turned political loyalty into a revenue stream, peddling a fictitious “legal tender” called “Trump Bucks” to victims across the United States. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the products had no connection to President Trump, his campaign or the Trump Organization, and the scheme collected “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” much of it from senior citizens.
Five months later, the case has taken on new relevance. On October 15, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a public service announcement warning that scammers are exploiting the 2026 midterm election with fake PACs, investment-pool schemes and political merchandise that never ships. Together, the indictments, the FBI alert and a decade of earlier prosecutions describe a durable pattern: fraud that sells itself through political affinity.
The charges are allegations. Both defendants are presumed innocent, and both remain at large, according to prosecutors.
What the Indictments Allege
The SDNY unsealed separate indictments against Goran Spiridonov, 25, and Kristina Janeva, 39, both citizens and residents of North Macedonia. Each is charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, offenses that carry a maximum of 20 years in prison, along with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive two-year term. The cases were assigned to U.S. District Judges P. Kevin Castel and Lewis J. Liman.
The Janeva indictment describes a scheme running “from at least in or about 2023 to in or about the present.” Key allegations in the charging documents and the government’s announcement include:
- A menu of fake products. Sellers allegedly marketed “Golden Checks,” “Membership Booklets,” “Golden Badges,” “Trump Dollars,” “Trump Checks,” “Golden Trump Checks” and “Diamond Bucks,” many under the banner of a so-called “Trump Rebate Banking System,” or TRB.
- Distribution through private channels. Prosecutors say participants relied on an unnamed online marketplace, identified in the indictment only as “Marketplace-1,” and encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram.
- Invented institutions. The Janeva indictment alleges she promoted a website for a fictitious “Bank of Trump Organization” that offered “Ruby Certificates” supposedly issued by the Trump Organization, and urged earlier buyers to pay additional fees to “cash out.”
- Promises of a payout. According to the government, Spiridonov sent emails claiming that buyers of a “Patriot Eagle” product could exchange it for $10,000 upon President Trump’s reelection.
- Repeat victimization. The indictment alleges that scheme participants told buyers who had already paid that their holdings were redeemable only if they bought more products or paid more fees.
- Continued sales despite complaints. Per the Janeva indictment, when victims complained to the marketplace and demanded refunds, she allegedly continued selling TRB products to buyers around the country.
“This fraud targets many senior citizens, taking advantage of their support for the President,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in the announcement, adding that the conduct “may be ongoing.” Prosecutors urged anyone solicited not to provide funds or financial information to any entity tied to “Trump Bucks.”
The indictments do not name the individual buyers, and the government has not publicly stated how many victims there are or the precise total. The only dollar figure in the public record is the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” cited by prosecutors, which suggests the filed cases represent a portion of a wider market.
A Scam With a Paper Trail Going Back to 2023
“Trump Bucks” did not begin with the indictments. In May 2023, NBC News reported that products sold under the same TRB branding were being pitched online as a golden ticket for “real patriots.” The outlet identified three Colorado-based sellers, Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots, and reviewed what it described as hundreds of misleading ads.
The 2023 reporting offers a window into how the pitch worked. A $99.99 “$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks” bill was advertised as redeemable at major banks and retailers. One buyer, John Amann, a 77-year-old Houston man, told NBC he spent $2,200 on the products before a bank told him they were worthless. A Wells Fargo spokesperson told NBC the bank had no affiliation with the product and could not accept it for deposit, and a Bank of America spokesman said employees had reported customers attempting to exchange the items for cash. The Better Business Bureau assigned the sellers an F rating, citing 33 complaints at the time. NBC also obtained, through a Freedom of Information Act request, confirmation that the Federal Trade Commission had received a single fraud complaint against Patriots Dynasty. Denver7 later confirmed the Aurora, Colorado address shared across the sellers’ websites.
Two caveats matter here. NBC noted that the fine print on many of the sites described the items as memorabilia, and the network reported no evidence connecting the sellers to Mr. Trump or his campaign. In addition, the SDNY indictments do not name the Colorado companies, and the public record does not establish that they are connected to the two defendants. What the filings do say is that multiple people, in the government’s words, “based abroad” have run versions of the scheme. The Colorado sellers are best understood as part of the same marketplace, not as defendants in this case.
The Playbook Is Older Than the Product
The “Trump Bucks” allegations are the latest entry in a long enforcement record in which fraudsters sell to conservative Americans through shared politics, shared faith or both. TIJ has documented several earlier examples.
In precious metals, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and 30 state securities regulators filed what law-firm analysts described as the largest joint filing in the agency’s history with state regulators in September 2020, targeting TMTE Inc., doing business as Metals.com. According to a law firm summary of the complaint, the defendants allegedly defrauded more than 1,600 people of $185 million, charged markups of 100 percent to 300 percent over spot prices, and built trust “through mutual political and religious affinity” before instilling fear that the government might seize retirement savings. The complaint alleged the defendants advertised on conservative media. TIJ’s earlier reporting on the Metals.com receivership traced how little victims have recovered.
In political fundraising, the so-called scam PAC model has produced criminal convictions. Maryland-based consultant Kelley Rogers, who operated committees including Conservative StrikeForce, Conservative Majority Fund and Tea Party Majority Fund, was sentenced to three years in federal prison in January 2020 for wire fraud, and ordered to pay $491,299 in restitution. Prosecutors said he billed his PACs for services never performed and made false statements to the Federal Election Commission. The Washington Post, as cited by Campaigns & Elections, reported that his firm raised some $20 million from more than 9,000 conservative donors between 2011 and 2018, with less than 2 percent reaching candidates. TIJ has examined why the FEC has struggled to police such committees.
More recently, TIJ reported on a Georgia lender that marketed itself to a “patriot economy” and a pastor accused of raising $13 million from his own congregation. In each case, regulators or prosecutors say the sales pitch ran through a trusted community.
What the FBI Says to Watch For
The FBI’s October 15 alert, Alert Number I-101526-3-PSA, lists four midterm-season schemes. Campaign investment pool schemes promise a guaranteed return on campaign contributions. “ScamPACs” solicit money for committees the scammers do not control. Online purchase schemes sell political merchandise that never ships. Voter registration schemes use fake state pages to harvest personal information. The bureau also warns that scammers are using artificial intelligence to generate realistic voices, images and messages that impersonate candidates and campaigns.
The bureau’s guidance is blunt: “Campaign donations are not an investment and will not increase in value nor be returned.” It also advises donors to check a committee’s registration and financial filings on the FEC website and notes that a PAC reporting “high expenses for fundraising, consulting, compliance, or other administrative costs” may be a scam, a test that matches the pattern prosecutors described in the Rogers case.
What Remains Unknown
Several questions are open. Neither defendant has been arrested, and prosecutors have not said whether the unnamed “others” referenced in the indictments will be charged. The government has not disclosed the number of victims, whether any money has been frozen or recovered, or how the unnamed marketplace handled refund complaints. The indictments say the conduct may be continuing.
The defendants are foreign nationals who could not be reached through public records, and no contact information for them was available for comment. TIJ will update this report if they respond or are taken into custody.
For readers, the practical takeaway comes from the government’s own language: a product that links a political figure to guaranteed cash, a bank deposit or a future payout is, by the prosecutors’ account, a red flag. The cases suggest that affinity is the most efficient tool in the fraudster’s kit, and that it works best when the target believes the seller is on their side.