In a new development, Ola Olukoyede, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has forwarded a notice to the aggrieved victims of the CBEX ponzi scheme, stating that the commission will not be able to restitute every victim; hence, their expectations should be reduced to the barest degree.
Ola Olukoyede has also lashed out at the gullible investors, noting that no noise was made when the CBEX platform was yielding huge dividends, but now they have resorted to dragging the commission into their careless investment decisions after the crash.
Speaking on Channels TV on Wednesday night, the EFCC boss stated that the CBEX case is a twisted one, especially as the platform is an international racket that has been traced by the commission to three or four countries.
Olukoyede noted that investors should have caught wind of the platform’s fraudulent intent since the principal parties of the platform were foreigners.
When questioned about how the EFCC was unable to stop CBEX’s operation, Olukoyede provided a detailed explanation. Excerpt:
“The case of crypto bridge exchange, also known as CBEX itโs a peculiar case. You will recall that shortly before then, but probably two, three weeks before then, EFCC came up, or came out with a report and publication of about 58 names of companies, I think that we have investigated, we have compiled records, we have filed charges against so quite a number of them.”
‘As a matter of fact, before we released that publication, we have secured convictions against several of them, and so many cases are nearly being completed.”
โSo we published their names, 58 companies, Nigerians beware. Unfortunately, CBEX was not captured in that report.”
โAnd you know what, when the going is good. Nobody makes noise, nobody talks. But it is when the bubble burst that EFCC is dragged into it.”
โThere is no way. We donโt have any magic wand to start looking for cases where people have invested, whether it is it is right or wrong, whether this will lead to fraud or not, we donโt have, we do not have such a one.”
“So we wait, most times until the bubble burst that the ones we are able to get intelligence on, thatโs part of the 58 that we have released.”
โSo this one, some people got into it. They never told anybody when they were getting 100% on their deposit. when the going was good, nobody reported to EFCC but when the bubble burst, EFCC was dragged into it.”
โYes, we have eagle eye, but our eagle eye will only capture what is within the range of our intelligence, what is outside that and what people donโt report to us, we donโt have any means of knowing.”
“So like I said, itโs a very pathetic case for Nigerians who have lost their money, lost their investment, and thatโs why my spokesperson, if you listen to one of the interviews, did make big promise on behalf of EFCC that we are going to do everything possible, and we are really doing everything possible right now.”
โWe have about three people in our custody that have made very useful statements. Unfortunately, the transactions were mainly in crypto.”
“So, we have been so committed to this investigation because we have promised Nigerians, we have gone deep, we have gone far. We have established contact with our foreign counterparts, and weโve been able to make some inroads.”
“For example, I tell you, Iโve been able to block some accounts, we have been able to freeze some funds.โ
“The intent of my spokesperson was that, look, we will do everything possible to rescue the situation. And Iโve just told you now we are going to do everything possible, but I will not sit down and tell you and promise that we are going to restitute every victim.”
โIt took our proficiency, to be able to even freeze some assets that weโve done now. And so yes, we are, weโve embarked on that journey. Whatever we can get back, we will get it back, and weโll let Nigerians know, but we will not be able to confirm that we will restitute every victim. That may be practically impossible.โ
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