A Nigeria-based scammer posing as Steve Witkoff, a long-standing ally of US President Donald Trump and co-chair of Trump-Vance-Initial Committee, stole approx. $ 250,000 in Crypto from a political donor, according to a recent press release from the US Law Office for the District of Columbia.
According to court documents, the scammer created a counterfeit email address that closely resembled Witkoff’s legitimate Trump-Vance Input Committee’s email address and was able to fool at least one donor to deposit $ 250,000 to USDT.eth in the scammer’s wallet. Although the scammer then took steps to launder their poorly achieved winnings, 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 Lagos-based scammer or “Yahoo Boy.”
The US Law Office has been moved to return the recovered funds to the victim. Over $ 210,000 in crypto sent to the scammer has not yet been recovered.
“All donors must double and triple check that they are sending cryptocurrency to their intended recipient,” US lawyer Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement. “It can be extremely difficult for the law [enforcement] To recover lost funds because of the extremely complex nature of blockchain. Nevertheless, my office and our law enforcement partners are ready to go toe to toe with criminals and make victims whole. “
According to several local media, US officials are looking for a formal arrest warrant for Aigbokhan.
Witkoff and his son Zach have close ties to the Trump family’s most important crypto project, World Liberty Financial.
Binance and Tether both collaborated with the government’s investigation, DOJ said.
