…27 hospitalised
CITIZENS COMPASS– Contrary to its promise to activate its withdrawal channel on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, CBEX, a digital trading platform has cajoled investors to pay “verification fees” in order to activate their wallet balances which had been wiped off by the company.
The platform threw investors into panic on Friday when it suddenly displayed some Red flags followed by an announcement that it was undergoing technical issues, a situation that threw investors into panic.
It was gathered that CBEX
also shutdown its withdrawal channels with a promise that it would be activated on Tuesday only to cajol the investors to start making fresh payments to activate their wallet balances.
The platform requested investors with less than 1,000 USD capital should pay $100 and those with 1,000 USD and above to pay $200.
Citizens Compass learnt that some investors with huge capitals rushed to make the fresh deposits in anticipation to make withdrawals only to be confronted with another hurdle.
Findings revealed that CBEX, which operates as a digital trading platform with a fake Canadian identity with a Nigerian, Yahaya Ibrahim as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
After pausing withdrawal, CBEX officially crashed as the promoters of the Ponzi scheme moved $822,852,811.66 (₦1,337,021,554,889.20 trillion) into a private ETH wallet (cryptocurrency wallet) as users funds disappeared from their wallets and turned to 0.00.
The promoters thereafter locked all their Telegram channels and denied access to their platforms.
Investors are requested to make additional payments to recover their wallet balances.
The ponzi scheme sent messages to the investors thus, “if you have up to $1000 in, you should pay another $200 for verification. If you have less than $1000, you will pay $100 for verification.”
Many CBEX investors on Tuesday, recounted their losses to the ponzi scheme.
The victims said they have been experiencing sleepless nights over the situation.
In a chat with Citizens Compass, it was discovered that some investors have registered with the company as far back as 2017 and have cashed out many times, some have ploughed back their profits while others have not cashed out at all.
A good percentage of the investors lamented that they have lost their fortune to the platform which has withheld their capitals and closed its withdrawal channels thereby preventing access to their funds.
An entrepreneur, Mrs Bolanle Akinola said she invested the sum of 350 USD into the platform and was yet to make withdrawals when it started showing some Red flags.
Another victim of the platform, Mr Sunny Alebiosu said as at the time of the Red flags,his investment had grown to over 50,000 USD unfortunately all were locked there in. He said,’’they sent a message that we should pay a certain amount of money to enable us access our funds. I have paid the required sum and my capital is showing on the screen but the withdrawal channel has been locked.”
A video circulating on social media has capturedone of the heartbroken investors who attempted suicide after allegedly losing ₦50 million to CBEX.
The video captured the lady climbing to the top of a high-rise building, visibly shaken and prepared to end it all following the crash of CBEX.
Bystanders who noticed the situation quickly intervened and managed to restrain her before the worst could happen. Their timely action likely saved a life.
According to the individual who shared the video online, the distraught woman had invested a whopping ₦50 million in CBEX—an online investment platform that promised users 100% return on investment within just 30 days. Like many others who were lured by the mouthwatering ROI and sleek marketing, she reportedly lost everything when the platform suddenly crashed.
CBEX had been trending for days after thousands of users reported that their wallet balances had been wiped off and withdrawals were suspended. It was also alleged that over $822 million (approximately ₦1.3 trillion) was moved to a private Ethereum wallet just before the crash. As panic spread, the platform locked its Telegram channels and introduced bizarre “verification fees” as a supposed condition for accessing locked funds.
Amid the confusion, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said unregistered digital platforms in Nigeria should not be patronised regardless of the juicy Return On Investment (ROI).
SEC said that any unregistered investment or trading platform is operating illegally.
The Director General of SEC, Emomotimi Agama, disclosed this during a recent online meeting with financial technology professionals.
Though the Commission did not mention CBEX directly, he said, “Very recently, there has been a post that has gone viral around a particular platform and the activities of such platforms. And of course, the aftermath of it is further news of their closure and all of that. In fact, I was tagged in one of those messages. I want to state it very clearly. If it is not registered, it is illegal.”
On Monday, thousands of investors besieged CBEX’s office in Oyo State to vandalise it.
At press time, it was gathered that no fewer than 27 victims were hospitalised following the crash of the digital platform.
