The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared four individuals wanted over the alleged investment fraud perpetrated on Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), a trading platform.
The four suspects are Adefowora Olanipekun, Adefowora Oluwanisola, Emmanuel Uko, and Seyi Oloyede.
The commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewole, made the announcement in a post on Friday.
The action is coming in the wake of the warrant of arrest and order granted the EFCC by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday for six suspects.
Justice Emeka Nwite gave the order following an ex parte application filed by the EFCC through Fadila Yusuf, its counsel.
The EFCC counsel told the court that the defendants had moved out of their last known address in Lagos and Ogun states during the investigation.
The six suspects are Adefowora Olanipekun, Adefowora Oluwanisola, Emmanuel Uko, Seyi Oloyede, Avwerosuo Otorudo and Chukwuebuka Ehirim.
The anti-graft commission prayed the court for an order remanding the defendants in custody pending the conclusion of investigation of the alleged offences and possible prosecution.
It said obtaining a warrant of arrest was necessary in order to place the defendants on a watch list, enabling authorities to trace and apprehend the suspects to face the charges brought against them.
The judge granted the request for a warrant of arrest and remand, adding that the order was necessary to enable the commission to apprehend the defendants and conclude its investigation.
In the affidavit in support of the motion, the EFCC said preliminary investigation into the intel revealed that the defendants “using their company ST Technologies International Limited, promoted another company Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) by making adverts and lured unsuspecting members of the public to invest crypto cryptocurrencies on the CBEX investment platform”.
The EFCC said the defendants promised an unrealistic return on investment of up to 100 percent.
Daily Trust had reported how Nigerians who invested in the platform counted their losses.
About 1.3 trillion was reportedly wiped out from the investors’ account after the digital trading platform boasted of giving investors 100 percent Return On Investment in 30 days.
Speaking on Arise Xchange, Director-General (DG) of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr Emomotimi Agama, had said the CBEX digital trading platform was not registered with the regulatory agency.
He also said the SEC had not received any formal complaint on the operations of the CBEX trading platform.
The DG said the commission had consistently warned that any investment scheme that is not registered is illegal.
“It’s important to state clearly that the SEC was not aware of the illegal operation of CBEX and what happened often with schemes like this is that most people will always try to keep it away from the regulator and even keep it away from their friends except a few group of persons whom they are interested in.
“For us at the SEC, as we speak today, at this hour, we have not received any formal complaint from anyone regarding CBEX because if we had received any formal complaint regarding CBEX, the team at the SEC would have actually swung into action, trying to get who and who is involved”, he added.
He sympathised with the victims and vowed that the regulator would immediately begin a probe with a view to hunting down the operators
