NAIROBI, KENYA — Nigerian law enforcement and anti-graft agency that investigates financial crimes and unknown transactions such as advance fee fraud and money laundering, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has identified four Kenyan citizens as key individuals suspected of orchestrating a large-scale online fraud operation linked to the now-defunct Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX).
According to an official statement from the EFCC, the suspects implicated in the elaborate scheme include three men and one woman, all Kenyan nationals. The four Kenyans being pursued are John Okiroh Otieno, Israel Mbaluka, Joseph Michiro Kabera, and Serah Michiro.
These individuals are believed to have acted as foreign collaborators in the fraudulent activities that defrauded investors across Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt of over $840 million, equivalent to approximately Ksh108 billion at current exchange rates.
The EFCC also listed four Nigerians — Seyi Oloyede, Emmanuel Uko, Adefowora Oluwanisola, and Adefowora Abiodun Olaonipekun — linked to the scam.
CBEX promised investors returns of 100% within 30 days using supposed AI-driven trading signals. When users could no longer withdraw funds, the platform attributed the issue to a hack, a common tactic used by failing pyramid schemes.
“The public is hereby notified that the persons whose photographs appear below are suspected foreign accomplices wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for fraud allegedly perpetrated on an online trading platform called Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX),” the EFCC notice stated.
CBEX, which attempted to legitimize itself by using the acronym of the China Beijing Equity Exchange (which has explicitly stated it has no connection to CBEX), operated by directing users to deposit funds into crypto wallets. These funds were then rapidly transferred through multiple wallets and exchanges, making them difficult to trace.
The CBEX platform, which presented itself as a cryptocurrency investment site, has been revealed to be a Ponzi scheme designed to deceive investors.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where returns to earlier investors are paid with the capital of new investors, rather than from legitimate profit generated by actual investments. These schemes are inherently unsustainable and typically collapse when the influx of new funds is insufficient to meet the promised payouts.
The EFCC is actively continuing its investigation and has urged anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the named suspects to come forward and share this information with the relevant authorities.
Also Read: Hopes fade for Kenyans, Nigerians seeking refunds from ‘hacked’ crypto trading platform
In recent months, Kenyan law enforcement agencies, in collaboration with international bodies, have apprehended several individuals connected to online scams.
Notably, on November 27th, the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) arrested 24 Kenyans for their involvement in a sophisticated online credit card fraud scheme. These suspects illicitly obtained over Ksh1.1 billion ($8.6 million) and transferred the funds via the SWIFT system to recipients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nigeria, and China.
“In Kenya, officers cracked a case of online credit card fraud linked to losses of $8.6 million. The funds, stolen through fraudulent scripts run after altering the banking system’s security protocol, were promptly redistributed by the group via SWIFT to companies in the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and China and subsequently to digital asset institutions offering trading and financial services regulated in multiple jurisdictions. Nearly two dozen arrests have been made so far,” the Interpol statement detailed.
