CITIZENS COMPASS– The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said that it has commenced investigation into the activities of a digital trading platform, CBEX which recently duped many investors of their hard earned money.
Citizens Compass reported that many Nigerians who invested United States Dollar into the digital platform have been duped as they could no longer access their wallet balances with CBEX.
To add salt to their injuries, the platform cajoled the investors yesterday, to make fresh deposits as verification charges before they could access their wallets.
Citizens Compass reported that thousands of the investors who paid for the so called verification were swindled again as the platform has shut down its withdrawal channels.
Though some investors who registered early with the platform were said to have cashed out many times as only few investors were on the trading platform.
Some years into the digital platform, some of its investors had enjoyed 100 per cent Return On Investment (ROI) within 45 days which was later reduced to 40 days.
This was said to have attracted thousands of Nigerians who invested their fortune into the platform without asking questions.
However, withdrawal activities were terminated on Friday and this brought about confusion from many quarters.
Some angry investors stormed CBEX office in Oyo State to vandalise it.
Citizens Compass also reported that 27 investors were hospitalised following the collapse of CBEX.
Responding to the yearnings of Nigerians, EFCC on Wednesday, promised to apprehend the operators of CBEX and refund the investors once the commission eventually apprehends those behind the scheme.
EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, gave the assurance during an interview on Channels Television. He explained that the commission had already started investigating CBEX before it crashed.
He said that EFCC was not taken unaware. “We were not waiting for Nigerians to call us before we started our work, of course, we have been working,” Oyewale said. “We were not beaten by what actually happened. Our dragnet is wide, our intelligence is very effective, and we were tracking that digital trading platform.
“You will recall that on March 11 this year, the executive chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, had called to instruct us to alert Nigerians.
“That shows that we are proactive and we have our hands on what is happening. So concerning this investigation, we were on it, it’s not that we didn’t know.
“We are already working with Interpol and our international development agencies to ensure that these people are brought to book.
“No, it will be very irresponsible and unprofessional if the EFCC says that you have lost your money; there is nothing the commission can do about it,” he stressed.
“Investors are going to get their money back, and we are already working on that. Everything I’m saying is that this kind of thing could have been averted. Be it as it may, it was not averted, we are not going to throw our hands out helplessly and say that there’s nothing EFCC can do about it,” he added.
