The Federal Bureau of Investigation has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize property belonging to Lagos-based fraudster, Ehiremen Aigbokhan for allegedly 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 an alleged 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 allegedly carried out a sophisticated fraudulent operation using the notorious Business Email Compromise scheme to trick their victims into sending money to cryptocurrency accounts belonging to them.

In the weeks leading up to the inauguration on January 20, 2025, the FBI reported that fraudsters created several fake email addresses to mimic the legitimate ones used for the ceremony, which they sent to dozens of people, requesting donations for Mr Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.

On December 26, 2024, one of these fake emails, with the address @t47lnaugural.com, was sent to a victim to mimic @t47inaugural.com, the official email of the co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, Steve Wiktoff.

The victim subsequently sent 250,300 USDT.ETH to the criminals. The 250,300 USDT.ETH is estimated to be worth over ₦400 million at the current black market rate.

Within days of receiving the money, the perpetrators immediately disbursed 215,000 USDT.ETH to several crypto wallets before the FBI caught wind of the scam and requested crypto operator Tether to freeze the accounts, which the company voluntarily adhered to on December 31, court documents showed.

Following the scam, the FBI immediately launched an investigation into the matter, and records of the crypto address associated with the scheme were traced back to Mr Aigbokhan in Lagos.

Investigations by the FBI revealed that part of the stolen funds were transferred to a Binance.com account registered to Mr Aigbokhan, who created the account in October 2024.

The Binance account had no prior deposits before receiving transfers from the scam wallet.

Further digital forensics linked the fraudulent email accounts and cryptocurrency transactions to Nigeria, with IP address data consistently tracing logins and email activity to Lagos, corroborating the connection to Mr Aigbokhan.

The agency said 20,017 USDT.ETH was seized from Mr Aigbokhan’s wallet, and another 20,336 USDT.ETH from 0xC7bdBA7ffB126F68E8454C, totalling over N60 million in black market rate, which Rick Blaylock Jr, the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, is asking the court to declare its forfeiture.

A judge has denied bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs after a jury convicted the hip-hop mogul of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted him of the most serious charges: racketeering and sex-trafficking.

Lawyers for the recording artist had argued he posed no flight risk, pointing out his jet is being chartered in Hawaii.

But Judge Arun Subramanian cited Combs’ history of violence as he ruled the rapper must remain behind bars until sentencing later this year when he faces up to 20 years in prison.

In the nearly two-month federal trial in New York City, prosecutors accused Combs of using his celebrity status and business empire to run a criminal enterprise to sex traffic women.

A panel of 12 jurors deliberated for 13 hours before acquitting Combs of three of the most serious five charges.

He will continue to be held at the same federal jail in Brooklyn where he has been detained since last September.

The sentencing was tentatively scheduled for 3 October.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, made an impassioned argument for the judge to release his client.

The defence lawyer said Combs had attended a programme for perpetrators of domestic violence to try to reform his conduct, even before he was arrested, and that he had not been violent since 2018.

“I just think we should trust him,” Agnifilo said.

But Combs’ ex-girlfriend, musician Casandra Ventura, had warned the court in a letter that the hip-hop mogul posed a danger if released.

The rapper had acknowledged domestic violence, but denied any non-consensual sexual encounters or a larger racketeering scheme.

Judge Subramanian said bail was being denied because “the defence conceded violence in his personal relationship”.

The mood in court was emotional after jurors announced they had acquitted Combs of the most serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking and racketeering both carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

As Combs learned the verdict, he got on his knees, put his face into his chair and appeared to be praying. He was shaking.

The verdict comes a day after jurors told the court they had reached a decision on the sex-trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges against Combs, but were unable to decide on the racketeering count.

The jurors said they had had “unpersuadable” opinions on both sides about the charge, which was the most complicated of any of the counts Combs faced.

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge.

To convict Combs on this charge, prosecutors had to prove he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice.

Defence lawyers argued the case could not be considered to be racketeering if members of Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

Prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses over the course of the seven-week trial, including Ms Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, several ex-employees and hotel security workers.

They alleged Combs had relied on employees to coerce his partners into so-called “freak-offs”, in which his girlfriends would have sex with a male escort while he watched and filmed.

The government relied on testimony from Ms Ventura, who took the witness stand while eight-months pregnant, telling the court that Combs had pressured her into sex acts and threatened to release tapes of the freak-offs if she disobeyed.

Ms Ventura warned on Wednesday that Combs would pose a danger if granted bail.

In a letter filed to the court, her attorney Douglas Wigdor wrote: “Ms Ventura believes that Mr Combs is likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community.”

At the centre of their case was a video of the rapper beating and dragging Ms Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016 – surveillance footage that security employees testified Combs tried to pay them to delete.

Combs’ attorneys conceded their client was violent towards women, but argued that his behaviour was motivated by drugs and jealousy, not evidence of a larger sex trafficking and racketeering scheme.

Combs is also facing dozens of civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault and violence.

The Harlem-born rapper founded Bad Boy Records in 1993, a label that represented some of the biggest names in hip hop – including Notorious B.I.G. and Usher.

He went on to establish a clothing line called Sean John and a variety of other businesses including fragrances, alcohol and even a media company.

• Mr Jerome Powell / Getty images

US President Donald Trump has called for the chair of the Federal Reserve to quit right away, in an escalation of his attacks on Jerome Powell.

“‘Too Late’ should resign immediately!!!”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He also included a link to a news article about a US federal housing regulator calling for Mr Powell to be investigated over his testimony about renovations to the central bank’s Washington headquarters.

Trump nominated Mr Powell to be the Fed chair during his first term.

Since then, he has repeatedly criticised him for not cutting interest rates but it is unclear whether the president has the authority to remove him from the post.

Despite the president’s continued criticism of Mr Powell, he said earlier this year that had “no intention of firing him”.

Trump wants the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates to help boost economic growth.

Mr Powell said on Tuesday that the Fed would have cut rates already had it not been for the impact of Trump’s tariff policies.

(From BBC News)