US traces $250k crypto fraud impersonating Trump-Vance team to ‘scammer in Nigeria’

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The United States attorney’s office has filed a complaint against 40,353 USDT.ETH cryptocurrency stolen through a business email compromise scheme.

The complaint, filed last Wednesday, said the perpetrator(s) impersonated the Trump-Vance inaugural committee, tricking a donor into transferring $250,300 worth of cryptocurrency and laundering the funds through other wallets.

According to the complaint, the victims received an email from someone purporting to be Steve Witkoff, then-co-chair of the committee and now US special envoy to the Middle East, on December 24, 2024.

Legitimate emails from the Trump-Vance inaugural committee are from @t47inaugural.com, the US attorney’s office noted in a statement.

“The email received by victim was from @t47lnaugural.com with the lowercase ‘I’ was replaced by a lowercase ‘L.’ Depending on the font, the lowercase “L” can look like the uppercase ‘I’,” the statement reads

“The imposter Steve Witkoff, a scammer located in Nigeria, instructed the victims to deposit funds into a cryptocurrency wallet ending in 58c52.”

The statement noted that the victim sent 250,300 USDT.ETH to the crypto wallet on December 26, believing the funds were going to the inaugural committee.

“Within two hours after receiving the funds from the victim, the funds moved from the 58c52 crypto wallet to other cryptocurrency addresses,” the statement added.

“Through blockchain analysis, the FBI identified and recovered 40,300 USDT.ETH, which is the property subject to forfeiture in this civil action.”

The complaint seeks recovery of the funds to compensate the victim. Thecable