The Daily Beast reported Thursday that a pro-Trump political action committee has been shut down by federal authorities and is under investigation for fraud.
According to The Beast, two websites associated with the Keep America Great Committee have been taken down and replaced with a placeholder message from the FBI, which is asking possible fraud victims to contact investigators through the hashtag #kagc.
“This domain … has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to a federal seizure warrant,” the message reads. “If you donated to the Keep American [sic] Great Committee you may be a victim of fraud.”
Authorities said that the PAC used nearly identical language as official Trump campaign sites, and purchased ads on Facebook and Google soliciting donations by pretending to be the president’s re-election campaign.
KAGC filed only one financial disclosure with Federal Election Commission, in July, claiming to have raised $28,650 in the second quarter of this year, but ignored repeated warnings to file required financial reports.
The fraudulent organization turned its websites into news-style sites after The Daily Beast first reported on its suspicious operations.
Both Facebook and Google removed the “scam PAC’s” ads before the FBI got involved.