Trump signs order to combat transnational cybercrime, proposes Victims' Restoration Fund
An executive order signed on March 6 directs the Justice Department and Treasury to prioritise prosecutions of transnational criminal organisations running cyber fraud operations and imposes new sanctions on foreign governments that harbour them.
US Politics — March 6, 2026
President Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2026, directing the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department, and the FBI to prioritise the prosecution of transnational criminal organisations involved in cybercrime and financial fraud schemes targeting American individuals and businesses — and proposing the creation of a Victims' Restoration Fund to compensate those defrauded by TCO-linked operations.
The order instructed the Treasury Department to impose sanctions on foreign governments assessed to be 'knowingly tolerating or facilitating' cybercriminal networks operating from their territory, a provision that officials indicated was directed in part at Russia, North Korea, and certain jurisdictions in Southeast Asia where fraud networks have operated with de facto impunity.
FBI Director Kash Patel, appearing alongside Trump at the signing ceremony, said that cybercrime had cost American citizens and businesses more than $12.5 billion in 2025 — a record figure — and that the scale and sophistication of transnational operations required a 'whole-of-government response.'
The Victims' Restoration Fund would be capitalised from cryptocurrency and asset seizures in criminal cases, a mechanism designed to route proceeds directly to victims rather than into general Treasury revenues. Legal experts said the fund would require congressional authorisation to fully implement.
Cyber policy analysts welcomed the sanctions component but noted that designating foreign governments carried diplomatic risks. 'Sanctioning a country for harbouring hackers is a significant diplomatic step that could provoke retaliatory escalation in the cyber domain,' said one former National Security Agency official.
The order built on a February 2025 executive order that had established DOGE-style cost-cutting as a principle across federal agencies, adding a specific focus on cyber fraud against government programmes. Officials said fraudulent claims against Medicare, Medicaid, and federal housing assistance — estimated at $100 billion annually — were a particular target.
Major US financial institutions, which are frequent targets of both cybercrime and regulatory scrutiny, broadly welcomed the order, though banks noted that effective enforcement required cooperation from foreign governments that was not always forthcoming.
