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Crypto scam: $250,000 for Trump – Nigerians behind scam!
US justice system investigates crypto fraud: 250,000 USDT stolen in fake Trump email. Scammers from Nigeria in focus.
Crypto scam: $250,000 for Trump – Nigerians behind scam!
The US justice system recently dealt with a remarkable case of crypto fraud in which a Nigerian fraudster set up a network that obtained donations for Donald Trump's inauguration. Affected people transferred cryptocurrency Tether assuming their funds would go to Trump officials, according to a report from heise.de.
The scams occurred during the 2024 holiday season. The scammers posed as representatives of the Trump-Vance Inauguration Committee. The email purported to be from “Steve Witkoff,” who is co-chair of the committee, and was deceptively authentic, with only minor changes in the address. This ended in “@t47lnaugural.com,” a clear indication of the scammer’s identity.
The fraud and its background
The victims transferred $250,300 worth of Tether to the wallet with address 58c52 on December 26, 2024. In the hours after the transfer, the perpetrator began moving the funds to other wallets. The fraudster is suspected to be behind a network that was active from October 2024. The US Department of Justice suspects several people of being involved in the fraud.
On July 3, 2025, the fraudulent email campaign became known, in which the fraudster posed as Witkoff. Loud coinotag.com, the US Department of Justice found that the fake email was almost identical to the real one, highlighting the fraudster's sophisticated modus operandi.
The FBI is investigating and used blockchain analytics to trace approximately $40,000 of the stolen funds. Further investigation led to Tether being asked to freeze the balance of wallet 58c52 on December 30, 2024, which eventually happened. These measures demonstrate the important collaboration between authorities and crypto companies to combat digital financial crime.
Compensation and further steps
The US Department of Justice has filed a motion to confiscate the frozen crypto assets in a district court. This is done as part of efforts to compensate victims. Speculation suggests that the victims could be Ivan Soto-Wright and Mouna Ammari Siala, the bosses of cryptocurrency payment service provider MoonPay. However, there is no official confirmation of this and MoonPay has not yet commented on the case.
The investigation and legal action are ongoing as the US justice system seeks to bring to justice those behind this complex fraud.