The Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission ,SEC, Emomotimi Agama has hinted that the federal government may go after celebrities and influencers who promoted CBEX, in a wider crackdown on ponzi schemes in the county.
CBEX, a digital assets trading platform that promises investors a hundred percent return in investment crashed on Monday and swept over N1.3 trillion from investors’ accounts.
Speaking during a virtual engagement with fintech stakeholders on Monday, Agama who cautioned the public against investing on unregistered digital trading platforms as CBEX, said by virtue of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 recently signed by President Bola Tinubu, any platform not registered with the commission is operating illegally.
The SEC DG emphasised that the new Act grants SEC enhanced powers to regulate digital asset platforms, including the authority to prosecute operators of unregistered platforms and ponzi schemes, as well as the promoters.
He said the Act stipulates that such operators face up to ten years in prison and fines of up to ₦40 million.
He noted that promoting or endorsing ponzi schemes could attract legal consequences, maintaining that the commission frowns upon promotion of meme coins or projects that harm the public.
