A scammer based in Nigeria, posing as Steve Witkoff, a long-time ally of former US President Donald Trump, has been found to have stolen approximately $250,000 in cryptocurrency from a potential political donor. According to a recent announcement from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the scammer created a fake email address resembling Witkoff's official email, deceiving at least one donor into depositing $250,000 worth of USDT.ETH into the scammer's wallet. The FBI was able to recover and freeze 40,300 USDT.ETH, with half of the recovered funds linked to a Binance account belonging to Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a suspected fraudster from Lagos. The US Attorney's Office is now seeking to return the recovered funds to the victim, while over $210,000 in cryptocurrency remains unrecovered.
US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro warned donors to exercise caution when sending cryptocurrency, emphasizing the complexity of recovering lost funds due to the nature of blockchain technology. The US government is reportedly seeking a formal arrest warrant for Aigbokhan, and both Binance and Tether cooperated with the investigation.