It is known that the executives of the cryptocurrency platform MoonPay, including CEO Ivan Soto-Wright and CFO Muna Ammari Siala, fell victim to a fraudulent scheme, losing $250,300 in USDT stablecoins. They mistakenly transferred funds to a wallet belonging to a scammer in Nigeria, believing they were supporting the inaugural committee of U.S. President Donald Trump.
This is reported by Finway
Details of the Fraudulent Scheme
According to court documents from the U.S. Department of Justice, an individual posing as Steve Witkoff, co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, received these funds through a fake email address — [email protected]. The domain intentionally altered the capital letter “I” to a lowercase “l,” which is a typical phishing method. All emails were sent from Nigeria, not the U.S.
“IP geolocation data showed that all emails were sent from Nigeria, not the U.S.,” the court filing states.
The investigation revealed that the actual recipient of the funds is Ehiremen Aigbokhan, a resident of Lagos, whose account is registered on Binance. The Tether platform has frozen part of these funds — approximately 40,000 USDT.
Response and Consequences for MoonPay
The names Ivan and Muna match those of the top executives at MoonPay, and one of the wallets, according to the investigation, was previously linked to Soto-Wright. The correspondence with the scammer included confirmation of the transfer:
“Hello, Steve. Our contribution of $250,000 has just been processed. Here is the confirmation,” the message stated regarding the transaction from a wallet that, according to the investigation, is associated with MoonPay.
MoonPay has yet to provide official comments regarding the incident. Meanwhile, some experts express concerns about the selectivity of the investigation and the recovery of funds, claiming that law enforcement responds more actively when it involves high-profile individuals or projects linked to political figures.
It is known that MoonPay has actively promoted cryptocurrency projects associated with the Trump family. In particular, MoonPay’s President of Corporate Development, Keith Grossman, stated that thanks to the TRUMP and MELANIA coins, the platform managed to attract 750,000 new users in just one week.
Ivan Soto-Wright has previously been involved in high-profile cases. In 2022, he was accused of covertly financing the Miami mayoral campaign, and he was also mentioned in a class-action lawsuit regarding the promotion of NFT projects that lost value after their launch.
In 2023, MoonPay formed partnerships with Binance.US and Mastercard, and in March 2025, it secured a $200 million loan from Galaxy.