A Nigeria-based crook pretending to be Steve Witkoff, long-standing ally of US President Donald Trump and co-president of the Trump-Vance inaugural committee, stole approximately $ 250,000 in crypto to a potential political donor, according to a recent announcement of the American prosecutor’s office for the Columbia district.
According to court documents, the crook created a usurped email address which looked closely at the legitimate email address of the Witkoff Trump-Vance inaugural committee, and was able to at least encourage a donor to deposit $ 250,000 for the crook portfolio. Although the crook then took measures to whiten its poorly acquired gains, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to recover and freeze 40,300 USDT.eth, half of which was found in a Binance account in the name of Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a fraudster based in Lagos or “Yahoo Boy”.
The American lawyer’s office moved to return the funds recovered from the victim. More than $ 210,000 in crypto sent to the crook have not yet been recovered.
“All donors should double and triple check that they send a cryptocurrency to their planned beneficiary,” American lawyer Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement. “It can be extremely difficult for the law [enforcement] To recover lost funds due to the extremely complex nature of blockchain. Nevertheless, my office and our partners responsible for the application of laws are ready to go aside with criminals and to make whole victims. »»
According to several local mediaUS officials are looking for an official arrest warrant for Aigbokhan.
Witkoff and his son Zach have close ties to the main crypto project of the Trump family, World Liberty Financial.
Binance and Tether both cooperated with the government’s investigation, the DoJ said.
