The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has raised the alarm over a rising trend in how corrupt politicians stash stolen wealth.
He said digital assets like cryptocurrencies are now the new hiding place for illicit funds across Africa.
Olukoyede made this known in Abuja on Thursday while speaking during the Africa Anti-Corruption Day commemoration, themed, “Understanding Virtual Asset and Investment Fraud,” held at the EFCC’s Headquarters.
“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,” he said.
Illicit Wealth Moving Underground
According to him, illicit financial flows remain a major threat to Africa’s development.
“These flows are coming from diverse criminal activities, with money laundering ranking as the highest,” he noted.
But there’s something more dangerous emerging.
“Another rising criminal engagement that has the potential to outpace even money laundering on the continent is virtual assets and investment scams,” he warned.
He explained that while digital currencies and tokens are not criminal by nature, they’re being misused by criminals.
“Stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets, and payments for services are being done through this window,” he added.
Ponzi Schemes and Investment Scams On the Rise
Olukoyede also warned of the increasing spread of Ponzi schemes and fraudulent investment platforms across Nigeria and Africa.
He described these as “dishonest schemes” that exploit desperate and uninformed investors.
“Fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities of desperate investors to defraud them through various dishonest schemes,” he said.
He noted that the EFCC is making steady progress with training and intelligence gathering to confront such cyber fraud and asset laundering tactics.
He cited the CBEX scam case as proof of successful EFCC intervention.
“We are ahead in every material sense, and there are enormous proofs of operational successes in this regard,” Olukoyede said.
Public Ignorance and Investor Carelessness
But he lamented that investor negligence is worsening the problem.
“The investing public do inadvertently aid fraudulent practices through lack of due diligence on schemes advertised to them,” he stated.
He also said people fail to report suspicious dealings until it’s too late.
“Another lesson is that investors hardly send suspicious transaction reports to the EFCC until they are defrauded,” he said.
The EFCC chairman advised Nigerians to educate themselves about virtual assets and avoid rushing into unknown investment plans.
“Every exploitation of investors in any guise is considered a fraudulent act,” he stressed.
He called for “public awareness and due diligence” to be taken seriously by every Nigerian.
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The kettle calling the pot black. Let the government make the economy an enabling one so people have confidence to invest, feed the populace and stop strangling them.