The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has disclosed how public funds were moved from a local government account to a private company and later transferred into cryptocurrency wallets.
The EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this on Monday while addressing media executives and journalists in Abuja.
Olukoyede said the commission could not ignore the movement of the funds, which it considered suspicious. However, he did not disclose the local government, company or state involved.
He said the commission’s Fraud Risk Assessment and Control Department detected the transactions and froze the funds for 72 hours to determine where they were going and why.
Olukoyede expressed displeasure over calls for his removal following the action taken by the commission.
He said, “When we see money moving suspiciously, we move in and freeze it in the interim. I know some of you are calling for my head. The account was frozen for 72 hours. Okay, come and show where this money is going? Why are you moving money? We saw money being moved from the local government account to a company. Apart from that phase, we discovered that the money has gone into cryptocurrency wallets.
“Is that the road to build? Is that the power to generate cryptocurrency wallets for your people? Are you asking me to close my eyes and not do something like that? Then you don’t need me in this office.”
The EFCC chairman said the development showed the need for law enforcement agencies to act on suspicious transactions before public funds were stolen or moved.
“Why must we be waiting for money to be stolen? Why can’t we change the narrative? And that’s the main thing we need to bring to the office,” he said.
The disclosure came after the EFCC froze an account belonging to the Osun State Government earlier in the month, days before the August 15 governorship election.
However, Olukoyede did not link the transaction he cited to Osun State or any other state.
He also said cybercrime had moved beyond the traditional description of “Yahoo Yahoo”, saying some young people were being used by public officials to move allegedly stolen funds through cryptocurrency wallets.
He said, “We have gotten to a stage in Nigeria now that public officials steal money and they put it in cryptocurrency wallets.
“Most of the directors we are investigating now, you can’t trace tangible assets to them. They steal this money, give it to students, give it to young people. They open cryptocurrency wallets all over the world. They plunder the money there within 24 hours.
“The money moves abroad. They buy a house anywhere in the world, buy luxury items. Those are the recent trends.”
The EFCC boss said the commission could now trace cryptocurrency wallets, particularly those linked to virtual asset platforms registered in Nigeria.
According to him, about 40 virtual asset platforms had been licensed as part of measures to regulate the sector.
“Now we also have the capacity to trace cryptocurrency wallets now, at least with those that are registered in Nigeria, and we are doing that,” he said.
Speaking on the commission’s activities in the last three years, Olukoyede said the EFCC had recovered virtual assets linked to the CBEX fraud.
However, he said managing confiscated cryptocurrency had been a challenge because of concerns about accountability.
“When you recover virtual assets, where do you put them? No accountability. That’s why we can’t continue like this,” he said.
He said the Federal Government had approved the creation of a national confiscation wallet where virtual assets recovered by law enforcement agencies would be kept.
“Today, now we have a national confiscation wallet. So if I confiscate virtual assets now, it’s a national wallet that we put into those,” he said.
Olukoyede also called for stronger technology to tackle the use of cryptocurrency in moving illicit funds.
He said, “When we are talking about cybercrime, please cooperate with us, understand the scope. Not just Yahoo. Some of the people you are calling Yahoo, see your young children; they are stealing on behalf of London, on behalf of public servants.”
Olukoyede said the commission’s anti-corruption activities had also contributed to revenue mobilisation, with federal and state tax recoveries totalling about N288.1bn during the period under review.
He said the figure included about N173.2bn in federal tax recoveries and N114.9bn recovered through State Internal Revenue Services.
Olukoyede also said more than 40 EFCC personnel had been dismissed for alleged corruption and financial malpractice in the past two and a half to three years.
He added that some of the dismissed officials were already facing prosecution, while case files involving others were being prepared for prosecution.
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