A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) an interim order to freeze four cryptocurrency wallets containing $37 million, citing suspected money laundering activities.
Gatekeepers News reports that the presiding Judge Emeka Nwite made the ruling on August 8, following an ex-parte motion filed by the EFCC.
The court order targets a total of 37,061,867,869.3 in cryptocurrency, primarily consisting of USDT (Tether) valued at $37 million. The EFCC alleges that these assets are proceeds of money laundering and terrorism financing.
In his ruling, Judge Nwite stated, “An order of this honourable court is hereby made freezing the wallet addresses/accounts… which wallets are owned by individuals currently being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing, pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
Notably, the EFCC did not disclose the identities of the wallet owners in their application.
This development follows a similar court order in April, where the EFCC was granted permission to freeze over 1,146 bank accounts linked to individuals and companies suspected of unauthorized foreign exchange transactions and money laundering.
