The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has announced that the commission has recovered part of the funds linked to the fraudulent activities of the digital investment platform, Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX).
Speaking during an interview with TVC on Sunday, Olukoyede confirmed that arrests have been made in connection with the CBEX scam.
“We’ve made substantial progress with the CBEX case and recovered a reasonable sum of money,” he said.
He explained that although the stolen funds were initially in cryptocurrency, the EFCC successfully traced and recovered a portion.
However, he noted that converting the recovered crypto assets back into cash, particularly U.S. dollars, has proven challenging due to the complex nature of crypto transactions.
He stated, “Even though in the crypto wallet, the same way the money was taken from them. There is no way you will get them in dollars. There is no way you get the dollars in cash without necessarily going through the same process.”
The EFCC Chairman also stated that several suspects have already been apprehended, while efforts are ongoing to track down others still at large.
“We have gone far. We have made a reasonable arrest.
“We are not going to give out much because we don’t want the process to be disrupted. We are still after quite a number of people we have declared wanted,” he said.
However, he noted that the investigation has been difficult, as the fraudsters used “non-custodial wallets,” which lack identifiable account information, making it more challenging to trace those involved.
“We are still investigating a lot of wallets and the wallets they created are called noncustodian wallets; in other words, no KYC. So, you can’t trace it to anybody.
“So, from the noncustodial wallet, they moved it to some wallets in Europe, Eastern Europe, particularly Cambodia and from there, they dispersed the money. We have been able to block some of these wallets where money has not been dispersed.
“That is to the extent that we have gone. I even learnt that there are still some of these perpetrators and Nigerians are still falling victim. I believe people should learn from this,” he said.
CBEX, a digital investment platform, offered investors 100 per cent profit after 30 days of purported AI trading. No fewer than 600,000 Nigerians reportedly invested in the scheme and lost N1.3tn after it collapsed on Monday.
Findings revealed that the promoters of the platform operated under a company registered as ST Technologies International Limited.
ST Technologies was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission on September 25, 2024, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering on January 16, 2025.
One of the documents obtained during search about the company was titled, ‘Certificate of Increase in Issued Share Capital of ST Technologies International Limited Company Registration No. 7955973.’
It read, “The Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission hereby certifies that pursuant to the resolution and notice of increase in share capital dated 4th December 2024, and presented for filing on 5th December 2024, in respect of the above-named company, the increase in share capital from N1,000,000 to N201,000,000—by the creation of 200,000,000 ordinary shares of N1 each and preference shares of N0 each—has been registered with the commission. Given under my hand at Abuja this 17th day of December 2024.”
Similarly, the EFCC’s certificate of January 16, 2025, stated, “ST Technologies International Limited has been duly registered in accordance with the provisions of Section 17(2)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, and any other applicable law or regulation.”
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