Recent reports indicate that a Nigerian individual named Ehiremen Aigbokhan has been linked to a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded a donor to the 2025 Trump inaugural committee of over $250,000.
According to the FBI, the scam involved fraudsters sending out emails in late December 2024, “purporting to be Steve Witkoff,” who was then the co-chair of the committee. These emails solicited over $250,000 worth of USDT.ETH cryptocurrency.
The victim reportedly paid the funds, and the cryptocurrency was subsequently distributed across numerous other cryptocurrency addresses, including a Binance account based in Nigeria tied to the name Ehiremen Aigbokhan, as per court documents.
Washington U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro emphasized the difficulty of recouping lost funds due to the complex nature of blockchain technology and urged all donors to meticulously verify their cryptocurrency recipients.
Binance and Tether, the companies and digital currencies associated with the alleged scam, reportedly complied with FBI requests later that month to freeze accounts containing some of the stolen funds.
Federal prosecutors are now seeking to seize approximately $40,000 worth of cryptocurrency across two accounts that have not yet been withdrawn.
Authorities allege the money was obtained through wire fraud and money laundering. Federal officials described the operation as a “business email compromise scam,” where the fraudsters made subtle tweaks in email domain names, substituting a lowercase “L” for an uppercase “I” to mimic the official @t47lnaugural.com addresses.
This incident highlights the ongoing threat of sophisticated online scams and the importance of vigilance, particularly when dealing with financial transactions involving digital assets.
