By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Correspondent
MORE THAN N460 million earmarked for the inauguration of United States (US) President Donald Trump on 20 January 2025 vanished through a cryptocurrency scam traced to Lagos, as detailed in a civil forfeiture complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Investigators said they identified a Nigerian suspect Ehiremen Aigbokhan as the mastermind behind a Business Email Compromise (BEC) scheme that impersonated members of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
The operation exploited digital vulnerabilities and involved spoofed email addresses to defraud organisers into transferring digital currency meant for the presidential swearing-in.
Details from U.S. court documents reveal that a deceptive email domain, @t47lnaugural.com, was created to closely resemble the legitimate domain of the committee co-chair, Steve Witkoff.
On 26 December 2024, the fraudsters successfully misled a committee official into sending 250,300 USDT.ETH, a cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar and hosted on the Ethereum blockchain.
At the time of the transaction, the amount exceeded N400 million in value.
Once the funds were received, the network dispersed $215,000 (USDT.ETH) across multiple digital wallets, aiming to obscure the financial trail.
The FBI, tracking suspicious activity in coordination with crypto firm Tether, froze the implicated wallets by 31 December.
Forensic analysis of the operation traced key IP logins to Lagos, Nigeria.
A major lead emerged when the Bureau linked the fraudulent wallet to an account registered on Binance.com by Aigbokhan in October 2024.
That wallet received and routed portions of the embezzled funds, reinforcing the FBI’s conclusion that Aigbokhan directed the scam.
The U.S. Department of Justice has since seized a total of $40,353 (USDT.ETH) from two wallets tied to the scheme, translating to more than N60million by current parallel market exchange rates.
The forfeiture is being pursued in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Blaylock Jr. of the District of Columbia.
The FBI also confirmed ongoing efforts to apprehend Aigbokhan, who is now facing charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
It remains unclear whether extradition proceedings have begun through diplomatic channels between Washington and Abuja.
The scam has already been described by officials as one of the most brazen cyber intrusions linked to an American presidential event.
FBI investigations are continuing into whether others assisted Aigbokhan in executing the multi-layered deception.
