The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has begun an investigation into the alleged N1.3tn fraud perpetrated through a digital investment platform, CryptoBridge Exchange, known as CBEX.
CBEX collapsed on Monday, April 14, leaving thousands of investors heartbroken as they were unable to access their funds, with many of them besieging the Lagos and Ibadan offices of the platform.
Reacting to this development, EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, stated that the anti-graft agency would join forces with the International Criminal Police Organisation to probe the incident. According to Oyewale, an investigation into CBEX had already been launched before its collapse.
He added that the commission is working to ensure that both the local and international operators behind the fraudulent scheme are apprehended.
“We had our intelligence before the incident. We were already working on it, but now that the scheme has collapsed, the major actors and their collaborators will be brought in.
We will ensure that we save Nigerians from all these troubles associated with Ponzi schemes. Don’t forget that we already issued an advisory — the 58 companies we alerted the public about. There are many more we are currently investigating.
We are actively working to handle the CBEX situation. We will collaborate with other regulatory agencies to ensure that Nigerians are protected from this kind of scheme.
We will do our job—where recovery is possible, we will recover; where prosecution is possible, we will prosecute. Overall, we will do our best. Additionally, there are similar frauds across the country that people are unaware of, and we are working to uncover them.
We are on the local collaborators while we are partnering INTERPOL to trace the foreign operators” Oyewale said
