Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed that funds linked to the collapsed CBEX crypto investment platform have been traced to at least four foreign countries
Gatekeepers News reports that EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, made the revelation on Wednesday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The EFCC boss noted that although several accounts linked to the fraud have been frozen, recovering the total amount lost by victims may not be possible.
He said most of the transactions were conducted in cryptocurrency and routed through wallets beyond Nigeria’s jurisdiction.
Olukoyede explained that the scam being largely conducted via cryptocurrency transactions and international digital wallets makes the process of tracing and recovering assets far more difficult.
He said, “We have been able to block some accounts. We have been able to freeze some funds, which I will not be able to give you a figure, but some reasonable amount of funds, we have been able to freeze.”
“I will not sit down and tell you that we are going to restitute every victim. It will become practically impossible because quite a certain number of money has been dissipated and not within our system.”
“We have traced to three, four countries now. In fact, the principal parties behind the entire scheme… most of them are foreigners, they are not within our jurisdiction, and you know what that entails.”
“In fact, it took our impunity, our proficiency, to be able to even freeze some assets that we have done now. So, yes, we’ve embarked on that journey. Whatever we can get back, we will get it back and let Nigerians know. But we will not be able to confirm that we will restitute every victim. That may be practically impossible.”
The EFCC boss added that the agency has arrested three suspects who have made useful statements.
He added, “We have been so committed to this investigation because we have promised
Nigerians. We have gone deep, we have gone far.”
“We have established contact with our foreign counterparts and we have been able to make some inroads.”
