A Nigeria-based scammer posing as Steve Witkoff, a long-time ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, stole roughly $250,000 in crypto from a would-be political donor, in keeping with a current press announcement from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the District of Columbia.
In accordance with court docket paperwork, the scammer created a spoofed e mail tackle that carefully resembled Witkoff’s official Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee e mail tackle, and was in a position to trick a minimum of one donor into depositing $250,000 price of USDT.ETH into the scammer’s pockets. Although the scammer then took steps to launder their ill-gotten good points, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was in a position to get better and freeze 40,300 USDT.ETH, half of which was present in a Binance account within the identify of Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a Lagos-based fraudster or “yahoo boy.”
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace has moved to return the recovered funds to the sufferer. Over $210,000 in crypto despatched to the scammer has not but been recovered.
“All donors ought to double and triple verify that they’re sending cryptocurrency to their meant recipient,” U.S. Legal professional Jeanine Ferris Pirro mentioned in a press release. “It may be extraordinarily troublesome for legislation [enforcement] to recoup misplaced funds because of the extraordinarily advanced nature of the blockchain. Nonetheless, my workplace and our legislation enforcement companions stand able to go toe-to-toe with criminals and make victims complete.”
In accordance with a number of native media shops, U.S. officers are searching for a proper arrest warrant for Aigbokhan.
Witkoff and his son Zach have shut ties to the Trump household’s fundamental crypto undertaking, World Liberty Monetary.
Binance and Tether each cooperated with the federal government’s investigation, the DOJ mentioned.
