In a seizure request filed by the DC Attorney General, the Justice Department outlined how a Nigerian scammer used the classic "lowercase Ls look like uppercase Is" trick to steal $250,000 — apparently from the MoonPay crypto exchange. Using the email address steve_witkoff@t47lnaugural.com, the scammer directed "Ivan & Mouna" to deposit $250,000 in Tether to a specified wallet address. Mouna then replies to confirm the transaction, providing a link to a blockchain explorer. The FBI was only able to recover around 16% of the stolen funds, issuing seizure requests to Tether and Binance that regained control of $40,353.As it happens, "Ivan & Mouna" match the names of MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright and CFO Mouna Siala. The crypto address used to send the transaction also appears to be one of MoonPay's company crypto wallets.
MoonPay had told Fox Business shortly before the transaction that they intended to contribute an undisclosed amount to the Trump inaugural fund.
Only weeks after the botched donation, MoonPay was selected as a payment processor for Trump's $TRUMP memecoin.
