Ola Olukoyede, the Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, revealed that the commission arrested 792 suspects in a landmark raid operation for their alleged involvement in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scams.
Following verifiable intelligence, the suspects were arrested at their hideout—a magnificent seven-story building, Grand Leaf Mansion.
At a press conference held at the commission's Lagos division, Olukoyede stated that the operation led to the arrest of 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, 2 Hazarites, 1 Pakistani, and 1 Indonesian.
EFCC's boss, through EFCC Public Affairs Director and EFCC Commander CEWilson Uwujaren, further stated that these foreigners used the facility, which could be mistaken for a financial institution's headquarters, to train their Nigerian counterparts on how to initiate romance and investment scams, and also used their Nigerian counterparts' identities to commit crimes.
According to him, "All floors were equipped with high-end desktop computers. On just the 5th floor, investigators found 500 SIM cards from local telecom companies used for criminal purposes.
"Their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by foreign masterminds, who used phishing over the internet to find victims, mainly targeting Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several other European nationals.
"They typically equipped them with desktop and mobile devices and created fake profiles for them.
"The Nigerian accomplices also obtained logs that enabled them to access foreign communication lines and victims, with whom they chatted on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram."
Detailing further the group's modus operandi, the EFCC chairman stated that the Nigerian accomplices were assigned WhatsApp accounts linked to foreign phone numbers, particularly from Germany and Italy, with which they engaged victims in romantic conversations as well as fake business and investment discussions, luring them to shop on the so-called online investment shopping platform www.yooto.com.
He added, "For those who showed interest, the activation fee for the platform account started at $35.
"Investigations revealed that the criteria for recruiting these Nigerian youths were proficiency in using computers, especially typing skills. Those who passed the test were given desktop and mobile devices, then underwent a two-week induction training to learn how to impersonate foreign females in romance scam chats, persuading victims to invest in their employer's cryptocurrency investment scams.
"Once the Nigerians were able to gain the potential victims' trust, the foreigners would take over the actual task of deceiving the victims and start to shield their Nigerian accomplices from the network, making them unaware of the transactions."
However, he said, the Nigerian suspects "do not know the owners of the 'company' they work for, as they have not received appointment letters or payments from the company accounts."
According to him, the suspected Nigerian accomplices usually received compensation in cash or personal accounts.
Olukoyede stated that the commission is collaborating with previous partners to determine the scale of the scam and the conspirators, as well as the possibility of cooperation with organized international fraud gangs.
The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission also took this opportunity to debunk the notion that Nigerians are the masterminds behind the country's extensive fraudulent activities.
"Foreigners exploit our country's bad reputation as a haven for fraud, establishing a foothold here to cover up their brutal criminal activities. But as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding place in Nigeria, and criminals will have nowhere to hide," he said.
Michael Wetkas, the acting regional director of the commission's Lagos regional office, also spoke at the event, seeking to strengthen cooperation with the media to fight corruption and economic and financial crimes.
Items found on the suspects at the time of arrest included desktop computers, mobile phones, laptops, and cars.
Upon conclusion of the investigation, the suspects will be prosecuted.
