Comfort Isaac
The Executive Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede has disclosed attempts by corrupt politicians to hide stolen funds in crypto-currencies to evade investigation by the anti-graft agency.
He said those stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payments for services done through that medium .
The chairman made the disclosure during a public lecture marking the African Union Anti-Corruption Day on June 11, 2025 themed: “understanding virtual assets and investment scam.”
.
Olukoyede who was represented by the Uyo Zonal Director of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of EFCC ACE I Johnson Oshodi also warned unsuspecting investors against virtual asset and investment scam which according to him are on the rise.
His words, “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.
“Another rising criminal engagement that has the potential to outpace, even money laundering, on the continent is virtual assets and investment scam. In a simplified language, virtual assets are digital representations of monetary values which operate on blockchain and which can be traded,
exchanged, transfered for payment or investment purposes. They are cryptocurrencies, digital tokens operating on ledger technology.
“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.
” 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 lessons derivable from the CBEX situation are very clear: the investing public do inadvertently aid fraudulent practices through lack 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 Chairman, however, assured of the commission’s readiness to engage every stakeholder in its preventive and investigative activities adding that virtual assets and investment fraud like other fraudulent activities remained preventable with the escape route being adequate knowledge and understanding of issues involved.
The keynote lecturer at the event, ACE II Emeka Ukpai
stated that the window of ignorance which fraudulent investment operators are opening to defraud innocent members of the public should be closed.
