The FBI has filed a legal complaint to seize property belonging to a Lagos-based fraudster, Ehiremen Aigbokhan, who is accused of stealing over ₦460 million meant for Donald Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration.
Mr. Aigbokhan is also wanted for his role in a cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme. According to U.S. court documents, he and his team tricked a donor who planned to give money to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
They used a scam called Business Email Compromise (BEC) — where criminals send fake emails that look like real ones. In this case, the scammers made an email that closely resembled the official one used by the event’s co-chair, Steve Witkoff.
On December 26, 2024, one of the fake emails convinced a victim to send 250,300 USDT.ETH (a type of cryptocurrency), which was worth over ₦400 million at the time. After receiving the money, the fraudsters quickly moved 215,000 USDT.ETH into different crypto wallets.
However, the FBI discovered the scam and asked the crypto company Tether to freeze the accounts. Tether agreed and froze them on December 31.
The FBI then traced the crypto transactions back to Mr. Aigbokhan in Lagos and launched a full investigation. They are now working to arrest him and recover the stolen funds.
