Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan 

The Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, Thursday raised the alarm that fraudulent politicians are already perfecting schemes and hiding their loot in cryptocurrencies to beat the investigative dragnets of anti-corruption agencies in the country.

This is just as he warned that virtual assets and investment scam have become another rising criminal engagement with the potential to outpace money laundering. 

Olukoyede said this in Ibadan at an event held to mark the 2025 African Union Anti-corruption Day, with the theme ‘Understanding Virtual Assets & Investment Scam,’ organised by the anti-corruption agency.

Represented by the Acting Zonal Director of the Ibadan Zonal Directorate, Hajiya Hauwa Garba Ringim, he said stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payments for services are being done through this window, adding that investment schemes are also being facilitated through it.

He defined virtual assets as digital representations of monetary values, which operate on blockchain and which can be traded, exchanged, transferred for payment or investment purpose, adding that they are cryptocurrencies, digital tokens operating on ledger technology.

He lamented that Africa continues to be assailed by the scourge of corruption in diverse ways, noting that the issue of illicit financial flows is now a monstrous challenge to African development, with annual losses running into billions of dollars. 

The flows, he said, are coming from diverse criminal activities with money laundering ranking as the highest.

He said: “It is important to clearly state that virtual assets are not fundamentally criminal. It is when they are wrongfully or fraudulently used that they become criminal. Technology is moving at a supersonic speed around the world. The advent of virtual assets is a response to one of the qualities of money as a store of value. However, as with every progressive innovation, fraudsters usually evolve ways of perverting their genuine purposes.

“Virtual assets fraud is on the rise. Our findings showed that fraudulent politicians are already perfecting schemes and hiding their loot in cryptocurrencies to beat the investigative dragnets of anti-corruption agencies. Stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payments for services are being done through this window. Investment schemes are also being facilitated through it.”

Olukoyede however added that for the EFCC, virtual assets fraud and investment scam are not hard nuts to crack, noting that proactive and broad-based training and intelligence are bringing fraudulent schemes to the fore.

“For us at the EFCC, virtual assets fraud and investment scam are not hard nuts to crack. Proactive and broad-based training and intelligence are bringing fraudulent schemes to the fore. We are ahead in every material sense and there are enormous proofs of operational successes in this regard, especially the breakthrough in investigation and prosecution of the infamous CBEX scam.

“Investment fraud, like virtual assets fraud, is spreading like wildfire across Africa. Fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities of desperate investors to defraud them through various dishonest schemes. Every exploitation of investors in any guise is considered a fraudulent act. Ponzi schemes rank as one of the most pervasive of such acts.

“Understanding virtual assets and investment fraud will not be complete without drawing serious attention to the role of investing public in breaking the opportunistic practices of fraudsters floating various schemes to defraud Nigerians. We are all aware of the hues and cries of many investors in CBEX that lost their funds to the shenanigans of the operators. This unfortunate situation is preventable,” he added.

He identified lack of due diligence on schemes as one of the lessons derivable from the recent CBEX situation. 

“The lessons derived from the CBEX situation are very clear: the investing public do inadvertently aid fraudulent practices through lack of due diligence on schemes advertised to them. Another lesson is that investors hardly send suspicious transaction reports to the EFCC until they are defrauded. We must understand that no investment scam can succeed without the negligence of investors.

“The EFCC is always at work to engage every stakeholder in its preventive and investigative activities. Virtual assets and investment fraud, like other fraudulent activities, are preventable. The escape route is adequate knowledge and understanding of issues involved,”  Olukoyede added. 

In his lecture, a Professor of Criminology, Victimology and Security at the University of Ibadan, Oludayo Tade, said although there is nothing bad in using digital platforms as investment platforms, what people need to do is to be cautious of unrealistic offers. 

He said: “We need to ensure that anything that is too good to be true is a red flag. It’s a red flag because you know that we are in Nigeria and you know the condition of things. You know that even if you invest in a bank, the returns cannot be 50 per cent, and somebody is offering you that to happen within a week.

“And another thing that they do is also to use the image, the reputation of individuals and organisations to launder their fraudulent tactics. In other words, they can use media platforms, they can use social media influencers that people have established relationships with. And that leaves little room for people to process whether that particular person would be a pawn to defraud them.”

He urged the government to increase awareness on the various red flags as well as improve funding to aid investigation, adding that prevention is always a good thing.

“Prevention has always been the better part. But to prevent virtual fraud, virtual assets, you need to increase and improve on awareness level. How many Nigerians are aware of it? I’m very sure that those who fell victim to CBEX would find another scheme that is coming and will still join, because people are looking for opportunities.

“So it is not for the government to sit down or have organisations that will regulate virtual asset providers. They should also continue. We have the National Orientation Agency to help in the areas of awareness. Those that have been arrested, how many of them have been punished? These are some of the things that can start. 

“The simple thing is that these people are using digital platforms. But we need to improve and train our personnel. Because they need so much money to prosecute this kind of fraud,” he stated.

Present at the event were the Special Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Security, CP Fatai Owoseni (rtd), security commanders, civil society organisations, students, youth corps members and youth groups, among other stakeholders.

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