FBI moves to seize assets of Nigerian man accused of stealing Trump inauguration donation funds.
The fraud involved cryptocurrency and fake emails, with over ₦460 million traced to Lagos.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has filed a legal motion to seize assets linked to a Nigerian national, Ehiremen Aigbokhan, who is accused of orchestrating a multi-million-naira fraud scheme targeting funds meant for President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.
According to documents filed in a U.S. court, Aigbokhan is being sought for his alleged role in a cryptocurrency and money laundering operation that exploited a major donor to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
The FBI says the fraudsters carried out a Business Email Compromise (BEC) scheme where scammers spoof legitimate email addresses to deceive victims. In this case, the attackers created a fake email account that closely resembled that of Steve Witkoff, a co-chair of the committee overseeing the event.
On December 26, 2024, the scheme succeeded in tricking a donor into transferring 250,300 USDT.ETH (a digital cryptocurrency asset), valued at more than ₦460 million at the time, to the scammers’ account. The perpetrators swiftly dispersed 215,000 USDT.ETH into multiple crypto wallets in an attempt to cover their tracks.
However, the FBI intervened and requested that cryptocurrency company Tether freeze the involved accounts. Tether complied, locking the accounts on December 31.
Investigators later traced the transaction trail back to Aigbokhan, who is believed to be operating from Lagos. A full-scale investigation is now underway, with the FBI seeking to arrest him and reclaim the stolen digital assets.
