The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a manhunt for a Nigerian man based in Lagos, Ehiremen Aigbokhan, over his alleged involvement in a sophisticated cryptocurrency fraud scheme that siphoned over $250,000 (approximately ₦460 million) from a donor supporting former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration campaign.
The FBI, in a civil forfeiture complaint filed before a U.S. District Court, detailed how Aigbokhan and his accomplices orchestrated a Business Email Compromise (BEC) scam that successfully mimicked the official communication of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.
The perpetrators reportedly created a fake domain — @t47lnaugural.com — that closely resembled the official email address of the committee’s co-chair, Steve Witkoff, and deceived the victim into transferring 250,300 USDT.ETH, a cryptocurrency equivalent of the U.S. dollar.
According to court documents, the victim was targeted on December 26, 2024. The funds were quickly dispersed across multiple crypto wallets, with 215,000 USDT.ETH disbursed within days. Acting on intelligence, the FBI alerted Tether, the crypto operator, which froze the affected wallets by December 31.
Digital forensics and blockchain tracing linked the fraudulent activity to Aigbokhan, whose IP logs and wallet activity consistently originated from Lagos.
Further investigations revealed that part of the stolen funds was transferred into a Binance account registered to Aigbokhan in October 2024 — an account that had no transaction history prior to the fraudulent deposits.
U.S. authorities disclosed that 20,017 USDT.ETH was recovered from Aigbokhan’s wallet, while another 20,336 USDT.ETH was seized from a second associated wallet, totalling over ₦60 million at black market rates.
The Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Rick Blaylock Jr., is leading the forfeiture proceedings as part of efforts to recover the stolen digital assets.
The FBI has also initiated the process to obtain an arrest warrant for Aigbokhan on charges bordering on cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering.
This latest incident adds to a growing list of cybercrime cases linked to Nigerian nationals, raising concerns over the country’s reputation in global digital finance and the effectiveness of local enforcement collaboration in cross-border fraud investigations.
Efforts to reach Nigerian security agencies for comment were unsuccessful as of press time.
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