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The EFCC has recovered part of the stolen funds from the controversial Crypto Bridge Exchange, which allegedly defrauded Nigerians of over N1.3 trillion.
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Chairman Ola Olukoyede confirmed the agency has arrested suspects and is hunting others still at large.
In a significant breakthrough against digital financial fraud, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered a portion of the stolen funds in the N1.3 trillion CBEX crypto fraud and arrested several suspects, with more still on the run.
EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede made the disclosure during an interview on Sunday with TVC, revealing that the agency has made “reasonable” recoveries and arrests in connection to the notorious Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) scam that left thousands of Nigerians in financial ruin.
“We have gone far with CBEX. We have been able to recover a reasonable amount of money,” Olukoyede stated.
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Progress Despite Digital Challenges
According to Olukoyede, recovering the stolen funds has proven difficult due to the nature of the fraud scheme which heavily relied on cryptocurrency.
Many of the transactions were routed through non-custodial wallets—digital wallets with no attached identities—making tracing nearly impossible.
“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,” he said.
He explained that after the money was collected from victims, it was routed through these anonymous wallets to destinations in Europe and Southeast Asia.
“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,” he added.
Arrests Made, More Suspects Wanted
The EFCC chairman confirmed that arrests have been made, though withheld specifics to protect the ongoing investigation. He assured the public that the agency is still pursuing other suspects who have been declared wanted.
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“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,” Olukoyede said.
Crypto Conversion Bottleneck
Olukoyede further highlighted a key hurdle in recovering the stolen assets: converting digital currency back into fiat cash. He explained that the process often requires using the same methods the criminals used.
“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,” he explained.
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