The CEO and CFO of the cryptocurrency platform MoonPay, Ivan Soto-Wright and Muna Ammari Siala, fell victim to a large-scale scam. They transferred over $250,000 in USDT stablecoins to a wallet associated with a Nigerian scammer. The victims were convinced they were making a donation to support the inauguration committee of U.S. President Donald Trump.
This is reported by Business • Media
Fraud Scheme and Investigation Details
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the perpetrator posed as Steve Witkoff — co-chair of Trump’s inauguration committee. A fake email address with a modified character in the domain was used for communication, and all emails were sent from Nigeria.
“IP geolocation data showed that all emails were sent from Nigeria, not the U.S.,” the court filing states.
The scammer created an illusion of authenticity by using details that could mislead even experienced users. One of the emails contained a confirmation of the transfer: “Hi, Steve. Our contribution of $250,000 has just been processed. Here’s the confirmation,” referring to a transaction from a wallet that, according to the investigation, is linked to MoonPay.
The investigation established that the funds were received by a citizen of Lagos named Ehiremen Aigbokhan, registered on the Binance platform. One of the wallets used for the transfer had previously been associated with Soto-Wright.
Expert Reactions, Previous Incidents, and MoonPay’s Activities
Some experts noted the selectivity of U.S. law enforcement actions regarding the protection of interests of high-profile individuals in the crypto industry.
“If you are friendly with Trump and involved in his crypto projects, the DOJ actively tries to recover your assets, even if the amount is not extraordinarily large. But if you are an average investor who lost savings due to a meme coin promoted by the same people, no one will help you,” said attorney Mark Hays from Americans for Financial Reform.
MoonPay has profited significantly from promoting cryptocurrency projects associated with the Trump family. In particular, MoonPay’s president of corporate development, Keith Grossman, reported that the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA coins attracted 750,000 new users in just one week.
Ivan Soto-Wright has found himself at the center of high-profile scandals before. In 2022, he was accused of covertly financing the Miami mayoral campaign — he transferred $500,000 through PassionForest LLC without disclosing his identity. Although there was no fine, the case was officially registered. That same year, Soto-Wright was mentioned in a class-action lawsuit regarding the artificial inflation of NFT project values for the enrichment of the organizers.
In 2023, MoonPay became a partner of Binance.US and Mastercard, and in March 2025, it secured a $200 million loan from Galaxy for further development in the Web3 and blockchain project sectors.