The digital trading platform, CBEX, which has led to many Nigerians losing billions of naira in what is termed the biggest Ponzi Scheme in the country, is not registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC.
The Director General of the Security and Exchange Commission, Dr Emomotimi Agama, made the disclosure on Wednesday night in an interview monitored on Arise Television.
He also said that the Commission has not received any complaints from the victims of the CBEX fraudulent activities.
He said: “For us at the SEC, our primary responsibility is investor protection, and investor protection stems out of registration and regulation.
“When a scheme is not registered with the SEC, it becomes illegal; and it is important that whoever is interested in investing in such a scheme must ask the question, Are you registered with the SEC?
“If that is not the case, then it is automatically stated and known that such is an illegal activity and will not be condoned even by the SEC.”
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He said the SEC was unaware of CBEX’s operation, adding that “often times with schemes like this, most people will always try to keep it away from the regulator and even keep it away from their friends, except a few groups of people whom they are interested in.
“So for us, at the SEC as we speak today, at this hour, we have not received any complaints from anyone regarding CBEX.
“If we had received any formal complaint regarding CBEX, the team at the SEC would have actually swung into action trying to get who is involved.
“However, we sympathise very much with the people, the victims, because they are Nigerians, and of course, at SEC, we will commence investigation as to where these people are, and make sure we hunt them down, because the law actually has given us the power to take them down, find them, sanction them by fining, and also sending them to the prisons for 10 years, that is the provision of the law.”
Meanwhile, many Nigerians are still licking their wounds, as the hope of getting back their funds has further dimmed.
Known offices of the group in Ibadan and Lagos among other major cities have been deserted.
A couple, who preferred anonymity, said they lost over $7,000, about N10 million to the scheme.
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It is estimated that close to one trillion naira was lost by Nigerians who wanted to make quick money through the scheme.
By Alade Adisa
