The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has assured Nigerian investors affected by the collapse of the CBEX digital trading platform that they will recover their money, as efforts are already underway in collaboration with international agencies to track down the perpetrators.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale clarified that although CBEX falls outside the commission’s direct jurisdiction due to its foreign and digital structure, an aggressive investigation is ongoing in collaboration with international partners.
“We are tracking that digital trading platform. We have profiled quite a number of things concerning the platform,” he said.
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“I can assure you that all of the profiling that we need to do, contacts that we need to make, and some collaborative engagements we need to undertake, we are already doing. We are in contact with INTERPOL, we are in contact with many of our development partners, and Nigerians will know that the EFCC, as usual, is on top of the matter. We are going to come out with impressive reports.”
Oyewale dismissed any notion that the EFCC was helpless in the matter, stating, “It would be very irresponsible and unprofessional for the EFCC to say, ‘There’s nothing we can do.’”
He reiterated the commission’s commitment to working with global partners to bring the perpetrators to justice and ensure restitution for victims.
“We are already working with INTERPOL, and we are already working with our international development agencies to ensure that these people are brought to book. Investors are going to get their money back, and we are already working on that. What I’m saying is that this thing could have been averted. But be it as it may, we are not going to throw our hands up helplessly and say that there is nothing the EFCC can do about it.
“We are more responsible and professional than that. We are talking to all the necessary agencies around the world to be able to bring all the actors to book, and investors are going to have their money back. It might not be in the short term, but I can assure you that the Commission is not going to allow investors to just lose their money like that.”
CBEX, a Chinese-operated online investment platform, is at the centre of a multi-billion-naira fraud scandal after disappearing with funds belonging to thousands of Nigerians. The scheme had lured investors with promises of high returns on digital asset trades before going offline without warning.
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