According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an investigation has been opened to identify the perpetrators of the purported fraud committed by the online investment platform CryptoBank Exchange (CBEX).
According to a Daily Trust report, thousands of Nigerians lost an estimated N1.3 trillion after investing in the digital asset trading platform.
After the money in investors’ wallets disappeared, the digital trading platform that promised to give them a 100% return on investment in 30 days crashed on Monday.
Since the platform delayed investors’ withdrawals on Friday, there were indications that it had crashed.
With the promise that withdrawals will begin on Monday, April 14, 2025, CBEX operators later stepped in and offered investors a lifeline of $2,000 for $200 verification and $1,000 for $100 verification.
But when their funds were removed from the investors’ account, their dreams were crushed.
Nigerians have fallen for a number of scams in the past ten years, including this one. Despite repeated cautions from regulatory bodies not to participate in Ponzi schemes, consumers who wanted to double their funds lost billions of naira.
The foreign Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and other foreign partners are working together to clamp down on the scheme’s perpetrators, according to EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale, who appeared on Channels Television earlier on Wednesday.
“Concerning this CBEX thing, we’re on it; it’s not that we didn’t know, and you know we’ve been alerting Nigerians about ways and means to separate themselves from this type of shenanigans. So, before the calls came, we were working; while the calls were coming, we were working, and even after the calls, we’re still working.
“I can assure you that all of the profiling we need to do, contacts that we need to make, and some collaborative engagement that we need to make, we’re already doing that. We’re in contact with Interpol. We’re in contact with our development partners.”
“Expectedly, we’re receiving quite a number of calls from Nigerians from all walks of life, from the media, from some of the victims, and from those who are not yet victims and who would want to be properly educated about what can be done to avert this kind of thing.
“Of course, we have been working; we’re not beaten by what happened. Our dragnet is wide; our intelligence is very effective. We’re tracking that digital trading platform. We profiled quite a number of things concerning the platform.”
He explained further that the Investment and Security Act (ISA) 2025 was a very important, well-conceived and responsive Act of the government aimed at checking illegal investment schemes.
He said according to the Act, it is criminal to engage in any digital trading activity without being licensed and complying with all the extant laws, as any form of exchange or business engagement must conform to the provisions of the Act.
“And that has empowered us as a commission because we know that with the ISA 2025, it’s so easy for us if you’re involved in some kind of engagement and you’re not licensed and you’re not compliant with extant laws; I mean, it’s a straight thing. We will act accordingly, and we’ll bring such people to justice.
“Be it as it may, I think Nigerians also need to know that yes, we’re gaining strength with the ISA, but there is also a need for public vigilance because there are a lot of things that go with this Ponzi scheme thing, so Nigerians also need to be very vigilant.
“There is a need to critically look at some basic indices before going into any investment or any business engagement. For example, the returns on investment that all of these Ponzi schemes are parading are not only unrealistic, but they are also at variance with our laws, with the existing system in Nigeria,” he said.
