The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has disclosed that a Nigerian internet fraudster, Ehiremen Aigbokhan, orchestrated a sophisticated cyber scam that siphoned off more than N460 million meant for the inauguration of United States President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025.
The FBI disclosed this via a civil forfeiture complaint filed before a U.S. District Court.
The bureau disclosed how Aigbokhan, operating from Lagos State masterminded a cryptocurrency-based fraud that exploited vulnerabilities in digital communication systems.
The operation was executed just weeks before Trump’s inauguration in January.
The FBI is now seeking a formal arrest warrant for Aigbokhan, who is also facing charges related to money laundering and wire fraud.
Authorities said the case revolves around a Business Email Compromise (BEC) scheme – a notorious cybercrime tactic used to impersonate high-level officials or trusted contacts in order to deceive victims into transferring large sums of money.
Court documents showed that the perpetrators created spoofed email addresses nearly identical to those of actual officials on the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
A fraudulent email address, @t47lnaugural.com, was used to impersonate the co-chair of the committee, Steve Witkoff, whose legitimate email ends with @t47inaugural.com.
On December 26, 2024, the victim, unaware of the deception, transferred 250,300 USDT.ETH (a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar and hosted on the Ethereum blockchain), valued at over N400 million at the time.
Following receipt of the funds, the fraudsters swiftly dispersed 215,000 USDT.ETH to multiple digital wallets in an attempt to conceal the money trail.
However, the FBI caught wind of the suspicious transactions in time, and, in coordination with cryptocurrency company Tether, froze the implicated accounts on December 31, 2024.
The FBI’s forensic analysis traced the origin of the fraudulent emails and wallet activity to Nigeria, with login IP addresses repeatedly pinpointing Lagos as the hub of operations.
A breakthrough came when investigators linked the fraudulent wallet to a Binance.com account created Aigbokhan in October 2024.
Records show that the same Binance wallet was used to route part of the laundered proceeds from the scam, further cementing Aigbokhan’s role as the key suspect.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already seized 20,017 USDT.ETH from Aigbokhan’s wallet, and an additional 20,336 USDT.ETH from another connected wallet (identified as 0xC7bdBA7ffB126F68E8454), amounting to over N60 million at the prevailing black market rate.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Blaylock Jr., representing the District of Columbia, is now asking the court to approve the forfeiture of the seized digital assets.
The FBI has also confirmed that active steps are being taken to apprehend Aigbokhan and any accomplices involved in what is now one of the most brazen cases of cybercrime linked to a U.S. presidential event.
Officials have not disclosed whether diplomatic channels have been activated to facilitate Aigbokhan’s extradition from Nigeria. [The Star]
