The EFCC Warns Nigerians About Bitcoin, Forex Trade, And Other Financial Instruments

Forum 2 years ago

The EFCC Warns Nigerians About Bitcoin, Forex Trade, And Other Financial Instruments

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has cautioned Nigerians against investing in what it describes as “too good to be real” investments.

Though some belief risk-taking to be the oxygen that drives investment decisions, the commission warns the public against taking an uncontrolled risk in the hope of making a fortune. Investment in Bitcoin, for example, is a high-risk practice, according to the anti-graft regulator, since the market is essentially uncontrolled and vulnerable to theft.

Wilson Uwujaren, a spokesman for the EFCC, issued the notice in Abuja, said the commission was concerned about the pace at which Nigerians are filing complaints with the anti-corruption body about dubious investments that offer high returns with little risk to investors.

Nigerians are losing billions to Ponzi scams, forex speculation, and, most recently, Bitcoin trading, according to the EFCC, compounding the country’s economic woes.

According to an EFCC spokesperson, the pattern shows that investment scams continue to prosper amid the commission’s and other stakeholders’ compliance and public education efforts. While the EFCC will continue to pursue and convict those involved in illegal investment schemes, the buying public must exercise caution in their decisions.

The number of groups or individuals generally, who are involved in the possible illegal actions might be high due to the characteristic of the process. It involves a lot of stakeholders and sometimes they are assisted with the proper help.

In this case, brokerage companies play a crucial role in the process and their number is growing from day to day. Due to the fact that we are offered a plethora of brokerage companies, it makes the decision-making process more difficult, to find authentic and verified companies, such as FBS, for example, that have a long experienced period on the market.

It is true that today’s technologies and the internet have made it easier to share information, experience, and opinion about any matter, and find the proper brokerage company from the list of the best online forex brokers, which is believed to be the best way as of today, with reading the proper reviews about them as well.

Meanwhile, the EFCC has reminded civil society and non-governmental organizations that any transaction across structured financial platforms exceeding $10,000, as well as any cash contributions exceeding $1,000, must be reported to the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML).

Ahmed Ghali, the Head of the EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Office, announced this in Ikeja, Lagos, at a seminar co-hosted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), and warned that failure to do so is illegal.

In a paper titled The Role of NGOs and CSOs in Countering Terrorism Financing in Nigeria, Ghali cautioned that any organization that allows itself to be used as a weapon for money laundering or terrorism financing in Nigeria would face severe consequences.

Because of their diverse funding streams and capacity to process vast sums of cash to beneficiaries whilst still routinely transferring funds between jurisdictions, NGOs and CSOs are vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing. Both CSOs and NGOs, according to authorities, play crucial roles in combating money laundering and terrorist funding in Nigeria