The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has announced that the agency has recovered part of the funds lost to the Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) investment scam. He also confirmed that arrests have been made in connection with the case.

Speaking in an interview with TVC on Sunday, Olukoyede said the EFCC has made significant progress in its investigation into the collapsed digital trading platform, which reportedly scammed Nigerians of over N1.3 trillion.

“We have gone far with CBEX. We have been able to recover a reasonable amount of money,” he stated, adding that although the stolen funds were in cryptocurrency, the EFCC has traced and retrieved some of it.

He, however, noted challenges in converting the recovered crypto assets into cash, citing the need to follow the same complex processes used by the fraudsters.

Olukoyede explained that the perpetrators used non-custodial wallets with no identity verification, which made tracing more difficult. Some of the funds were moved to wallets in Europe and Cambodia, but the EFCC has successfully blocked some of these wallets before the funds were dispersed.

He revealed that while some suspects have been arrested, others remain at large, and efforts are ongoing to apprehend them. “We are still after quite a number of people we have declared wanted,” he said.

Despite its collapse in April, CBEX has quietly resumed operations, allowing new registrations, trading, and withdrawals — a move seen as an attempt to regain public trust.