Federal prosecutors have filed a civil forfeiture complaint and are actively pursuing an arrest warrant for Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a Nigerian national, in connection with a cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme that targeted a donor intending to contribute to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Aigbokhan orchestrated a sophisticated Business Email Compromise scam, impersonating officials from the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee to fraudulently solicit cryptocurrency donations.
The scheme resulted in the theft and laundering of over 40,000 USDT.ETH — a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar — through multiple cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges.
According to court documents, on December 24, 2024, the victim received an email from a fraudulent address closely mimicking the legitimate Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee domain. The scam email, sent from @t47lnaugural.com (with a lowercase ‘L’ replacing the letter ‘I’), purported to be from Steve Witkoff, Co-Chair of the committee.
The email instructed the victim to send a cryptocurrency donation to a wallet ending in 58c52.
Believing the request to be genuine, the victim transferred 250,300 USDT.ETH on December 26, 2024, to the scammer’s wallet. Within hours, the funds were moved to several other cryptocurrency addresses in an apparent attempt to conceal their origin.
Investigations by the FBI revealed that part of the stolen funds were transferred to a Binance.com account registered to Ehiremen Aigbokhan, who created the account in October 2024 and is based in Lagos, Nigeria. The Binance account had no prior deposits before receiving transfers from the scam wallet.
Further digital forensics linked the fraudulent email accounts and cryptocurrency transactions to Nigeria. IP address data consistently traced logins and email activity to Lagos, corroborating the connection to Aigbokhan.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has filed for forfeiture of the seized cryptocurrency, totalling approximately 40,353 USDT.ETH, citing violations of federal wire fraud statutes (18 U.S.C. § 1343) and money laundering laws (18 U.S.C. §§ 1956, 1957).
The complaint seeks to deprive Aigbokhan and any co-conspirators of their illicit proceeds and to recover assets for the compensation of victims.
In parallel with the forfeiture action, federal prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for Aigbokhan based on probable cause that he knowingly engaged in wire fraud and money laundering offences. The warrant would authorise law enforcement to arrest and bring Aigbokhan before a federal magistrate judge to face criminal charges.
This legal approach aligns with standard procedures in federal investigations, where an arrest warrant is issued once sufficient evidence establishes probable cause of criminal activity, as outlined in similar FBI affidavits and arrest warrant filings.
The complaint includes an extensive explanation of cryptocurrency technology, highlighting how virtual currencies like USDT.ETH operate on decentralised blockchains and are stored in digital wallets controlled by private keys.
While cryptocurrencies facilitate legitimate transactions, their pseudonymous nature makes them attractive for illicit activities such as fraud and money laundering.
The complaint also highlights the challenges law enforcement faces in tracking funds through multiple wallets and exchanges, particularly when perpetrators utilise unhosted wallets and international accounts. Cooperation from cryptocurrency companies like Tether and Binance was crucial in freezing the stolen assets.
The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Authorities await judicial approval to issue the arrest warrant and proceed with criminal charges against Aigbokhan. Meanwhile, the seized cryptocurrency remains in federal custody, pending forfeiture proceedings.
