6 hours ago
A Nigeria-based scammer posing arsenic Steve Witkoff, a long-time state of U.S. President Donald Trump and co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, stole astir $250,000 successful crypto from a would-be governmental donor, according to a caller property announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
According to tribunal documents, the scammer created a spoofed email code that intimately resembled Witkoff’s morganatic Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee email address, and was capable to instrumentality astatine slightest 1 donor into depositing $250,000 worthy of USDT.ETH into the scammer’s wallet. Though the scammer past took steps to launder their ill-gotten gains, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was capable to retrieve and frost 40,300 USDT.ETH, fractional of which was recovered successful a Binance relationship successful the sanction of Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a Lagos-based fraudster oregon “yahoo boy.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has moved to instrumentality the recovered funds to the victim. Over $210,000 successful crypto sent to the scammer has not yet been recovered.
“All donors should treble and triple cheque that they are sending cryptocurrency to their intended recipient,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said successful a statement. “It tin beryllium highly hard for instrumentality [enforcement] to recoup mislaid funds owed to the highly analyzable quality of the blockchain. Nevertheless, my bureau and our instrumentality enforcement partners basal acceptable to spell toe-to-toe with criminals and marque victims whole.”
According to aggregate local media outlets, U.S. officials are seeking a ceremonial apprehension warrant for Aigbokhan.
Witkoff and his lad Zach person adjacent ties to the Trump family’s main crypto project, World Liberty Financial.
Binance and Tether some cooperated with the government’s investigation, the DOJ said.
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