EFCC recovers some funds from CBEX crypto scam, apprehends suspects — Olukoyede

Abdullateef Fowewe

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has revealed that the agency has retrieved a portion of the money associated with the fraudulent operations of the digital investment platform, Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX).

In an interview with TVC, Olukoyede also confirmed that suspects have been arrested in relation to the CBEX scam.

“We’ve made substantial progress with the CBEX case and recovered a reasonable sum of money,” he confirmed.

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.