EFCC says terrorists target unsuspecting crypto traders to fund activities

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has issued a warning, on Thursday, about terrorists using unsuspecting cryptocurrency traders to launder money and fund their activities.

The EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede made this call amidst growing concerns about the potential misuse of cryptocurrency for illicit purposes.

Olukoyede spoke during an event organised by some civil society organisations in Abuja.

The programme, titled, “Multi-stakeholders’ national dialogue on preventing terrorism financing and violent extremism,” was held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotels, Abuja on Thursday.

Read Also: Reps vote to expand Appeal Court bench from 90 to 150

According to the EFCC, terrorists are exploiting the anonymity and ease of cross-border transactions associated with cryptocurrency to move funds undetected.

The agency fears unsuspecting cryptocurrency traders could be unwittingly facilitating terrorist activities by processing transactions for malicious actors.

Read Also:

The EFCC boss said some of the people who received money to trade in cryptocurrencies did not know that their financiers were sponsors of terrorism.

He added that some of the 1,146 bank accounts recently frozen by the anti-graft agency were conduits for terrorism funding.

Olukoyede said, “Some of you are aware of our activities in the area of investigating virtual currency trading and the like of cryptocurrencies.

“They are potential platforms to fund terrorism. A lot of us don’t understand that. Some of our discoveries during the investigation of some of these platforms were mind-boggling.

“We thought Binance was a major one. Yes, it was. We are prosecuting them. But there are other platforms we have discovered.

“They used some of these young men. Some of them don’t know that the people who gave them money to trade are people who fund terrorism.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now