FBI Recovers $40K in $250K Nigerian Crypto Scam Targeting Trump Donor

A Nigerian scammer impersonated Steve Witkoff, co-chair of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance's Inaugural Committee, to fraudulently obtain over $250,000 in cryptocurrency from a political donor using a spoofed email address. The scam involved Business Email Compromise tactics, substituting a letter in the official domain to deceive the victim into transferring 250,300 USDT.ETH, a stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, to the scammer's wallet. The FBI, with cooperation from Tether and Binance, successfully traced and recovered approximately $40,300 of the stolen funds, half of which was found in a Binance account linked to Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a Lagos-based fraudster. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and federal agencies have initiated civil forfeiture and criminal investigations, seeking to return recovered assets to victims and arrest Aigbokhan for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. This case underscores the increasing sophistication of crypto-related cybercrimes and the urgent need for international cooperation to combat such frauds.