The Federal Bureau of Investigation has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize property belonging to Lagos-based fraudster Ehiremen Aigbokhan for stealing more than N460 million in funds meant for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.
The FBI is also actively pursuing an arrest warrant for Mr Aigbokhan in connection with a cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme that targeted a donor intending to contribute to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
According to legal filings seen by Peoples Gazette, Mr Aigbokhan and his co-conspirators orchestrated a sophisticated fraud using the notorious Business Email Compromise scheme to deceive victims into transferring funds to cryptocurrency accounts under their control.
In the weeks leading up to the inauguration on January 20, 2025, the FBI reported that the fraudsters created multiple fake email addresses resembling legitimate ones used for the event. These were sent to dozens of individuals, soliciting donations for Mr Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.
On December 26, 2024, one such fake email, with the address @t47lnaugural.com, was sent to a victim to impersonate @t47inaugural.com—the official email of Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee co-chair Steve Wiktoff.
The victim subsequently transferred 250,300 USDT.ETH to the fraudsters. The amount, valued at over ₦400 million at the current black market rate, was promptly moved.
Within days of receiving the funds, the perpetrators disbursed 215,000 USDT.ETH across multiple crypto wallets before the FBI became aware of the scam and requested that crypto operator Tether freeze the associated accounts. The company complied voluntarily on December 31, according to court documents.
Following the fraud, the FBI swiftly launched an investigation, tracing the scam wallet to Mr Aigbokhan in Lagos.
FBI investigations revealed that part of the stolen funds was transferred to a Binance crypto account registered under Mr Aigbokhan’s name. He had opened the account in October 2024, with no prior deposits before receiving money from the fraudulent wallet.
Further digital forensics tied the fake email addresses and crypto transactions to Nigeria. IP data consistently placed the login and email activity in Lagos, strengthening the link to Mr Aigbokhan.
The agency reported that 20,017 USDT.ETH was seized from Mr Aigbokhan’s wallet, along with another 20,336 USDT.ETH from address 0xC7bdBA7ffB126F68E8454C. These total over N60 million at the black market rate, which Rick Blaylock Jr, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has asked the court to declare forfeited.
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