Ola Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has disclosed that some persons have been arrested in connection with the Bridge Exchange (CBEX) scam.
Olukoyede also revealed that some money has been recovered from the digital investment platform.
The anti-graft chief made the revelation in an interview with TVC on Sunday.
He noted that the EFCC has made substantial progress in its investigation of the crypto scheme that defrauded numerous Nigerians of over N1.3 trillion.
“We have gone far with CBEX. We have been able to recover a reasonable amount of money,” Olukoyede said.
He further explained that although the stolen funds were in cryptocurrency, the EFCC has successfully traced and recovered a portion of the money.
However, he pointed out that converting the recovered crypto assets back into cash in U.S. dollars has been challenging, as it involves navigating similar cryptocurrency processes.
“Even though the money is in the crypto wallet—the same way it was taken from the victims—you can’t retrieve it directly in dollars. There’s no way to get the cash without going through the same process it was originally moved through,” he stated.
The EFCC chairman also revealed that some suspects have already been apprehended, while efforts are ongoing to track down others still at large.
“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,” he said.
He, however, said the investigation has been challenging because the fraudsters used “non-custodial wallets,” which means there was no identity attached to the accounts, making it harder to trace the criminals.
“We are still investigating a lot of wallets and the wallets they created are called non-custodian wallets; in other words, no KYC. So, you can’t trace it to anybody.
“So, 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.
“That is to the extent that we have gone. I even learnt that there are still some of these perpetrators and Nigerians are still falling victim. I believe people should learn from this,” he said.
In April, the CBEX platform collapsed, resulting in reported Nigerian investors’ losses exceeding ₦1.3 trillion.
The platform became unreachable after users experienced persistent withdrawal problems, which were quickly followed by the abrupt disappearance of their account balances.
Widespread outrage followed the incident, particularly on social media, where users expressed their frustration, concern, and disappointment and called on the EFCC to assist them in recovering their funds.
