The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has raised concerns over the growing use of cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets by corrupt politicians to hide illicit wealth and avoid detection.
Speaking in Abuja during an event to commemorate Africa Anti-Corruption Day, Olukoyede highlighted illicit financial flows as a significant obstacle to Africa’s progress, largely fueled by money laundering and the increasing threat of virtual asset-related fraud.
“These flows are coming from diverse criminal activities, with money laundering ranking as the highest,” he said.
“Another rising criminal engagement that has the potential to outpace even money laundering on the continent is virtual assets and investment scams.”
Olukoyede explained that while cryptocurrencies and digital tokens are not criminal in themselves, they are being misused by fraudsters to move and store stolen funds beyond the reach of law enforcement.
“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.
“Stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets, and payments for services are being done through this window.”
He further warned that digital investment scams—especially Ponzi schemes—are rapidly spreading across Africa, targeting unsuspecting individuals.
“Fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities of desperate investors to defraud them through various dishonest schemes,” he said.
“Every exploitation of investors in any guise is considered a fraudulent act.”
Citing the EFCC’s investigation and prosecution of the CBEX scam, Olukoyede noted that the agency is making progress in combating such crimes through improved training and intelligence-led operations.
“We are ahead in every material sense, and there are enormous proofs of operational successes in this regard,” he said.
However, he pointed out that negligence among investors continues to enable fraudulent schemes.
“The investing public do inadvertently aid fraudulent practices through lack of due diligence on schemes advertised to them,” the EFCC chairman said.
“Another lesson is that investors hardly send suspicious transaction reports to the EFCC until they are defrauded.”
Olukoyede called on Nigerians to enhance their understanding of virtual assets, stressing that public awareness and careful scrutiny are vital tools in preventing financial fraud.