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Crypto alert: EFCC confirms trading activity may be funding terror

Olukoyede emphasised the importance of using technology to monitor the funds used for terrorism in the country.

Ola Olukoyede, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), disclosed that many young cryptocurrency traders in Nigeria unknowingly facilitate terrorism financing.

He explained that some individuals provided with funds to trade in cryptocurrencies were unaware that their backers were involved in terrorism.

Additionally, Olukoyede mentioned that a portion of the 1,146 bank accounts recently frozen by the EFCC were being used to funnel money for terrorist activities.

According to Punch, he made these remarks during an event held by civil society organisations in Abuja on Thursday, May 16.

He 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.”

Olukoyede emphasised the importance of using technology to monitor the funds used for terrorism in the country.

Olukoyede shared a story about how a friend at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) explained that technology can be used to trace dollar bills worldwide.

He said, “I was comparing notes with an assistant director in the FBI — a friend of mine. He said: ‘My brother, from our systems in the US, we can track every printed dollar anywhere in the world.”

The EFCC boss stated that Nigeria needs to reach a point where technology is used to monitor naira notes involved in funding terrorism.

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