A Bitcoin donor to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is being scrutinized under a class action lawsuit for allegedly engaging in fraud.
Chargebacks911 owner Gary Cardone gave $850,000 worth of Bitcoin to the GOP presidential campaign this month, but he is being sued alongside co-owner Monica Eaton for deceptive business practices. They have rejected accusations against them but have not been able to have the case dismissed.
Both Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, have boosted their fundraising efforts in the remaining two and a half months until the November election. Democrats apparently received far more donations to their campaign after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race at the end of July.
The current case against Cardone and his company—which helps businesses recover lost revenue and reputation—involves Brightree, a platform that provides software services to health and pharmacy organizations. According to Corey Rush, the attorney representing Cardone and Chargebacks911, Brightree was a client between 2019 and 2021.
However, the defendants’ team says that the software company failed to make its payments, resulting in a paused account and eventual termination of membership for Brightree. Allegedly, the company and its California-based payment processor were sued and uncovered that Brightree used Chargebacks911 services with the “hopes of finding a deep pocket.”
This is not the first time that Cardone has been legally scrutinized for his business. In April 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the state of Florida sued the company alleging “chargeback mitigation” had been conducted since 2016, undermining the effectiveness of clients winning charges back. The defendants reached a settlement the following November, which established that Cardone and his company will not be able to work with specified “high-risk clients.”
Similarly, this is also not the first time that Trump donors have found themselves at the center of legal investigation. In June 2022, the House committee probing into the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots claimed that Trump’s campaign unethically used $250 million from donations to fund legal bills related to challenging the 2020 election results instead of the disclosed reason of raising money to support an election defense fund.
