The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr Ola Olukoyede, disclosed that the agency has recovered some money from the digital investment platform Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) trading platform.
The EFCC boss who made this known during an interview with TVC on Sunday also stated that the anti-graft agency arrests in connection with the CBEX fraud.
He added that the EFCC has made notable progress in its investigation into the crypto scheme that scammed many Nigerians.
Olukoyede clarified that although the stolen money was in cryptocurrency, the EFCC has managed to trace and recover part of it.
However, he noted that converting the funds back to dollars in cash was not easy because it required going through similar crypto processes.
READ ALSO
He, also said the investigation has been challenging because the fraudsters used “non-custodial wallets,” which means there was no identity attached to the accounts, making it harder to trace the criminals.
“We have gone far with CBEX. We have been able to recover a reasonable amount of money.
“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.
“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.
“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.
