As Nigerian investors in the crashed Ponzi cryptocurrency platform, CryptoBridge Exchange – CBEX continue to gnash their teeth over their losses, Nigerian promoters of the pyramid scheme have been exposed.
Although subject to confirmation, an estimated N1.3 trillion was believed to have disappeared when the fraudsters crashed the platform on Monday, days after investors were denied the withdrawal access from their assets wallet.
The development has generated nationwide reactions, with the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), pledging to recover the victims’ funds.
This is as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publicly declared that the scheme was unlicensed and had no authority to participate in Nigeria’s capital market.
SEC said it’s preliminary investigations carried revealed that CBEX engaged in promotional activities to create a false perception of legitimacy to entice unsuspecting members of the public into investing monies.
It further noted that the scheme promised high guaranteed returns within a short timeframe.
“CBEX has failed to honour withdrawal requests from their subscribers and abruptly closed their physical offices, amid mounting complaints,” SEC noted.
According to a report by an investigative online newspaper, FIJ, it unveiled the identities of some of the promoters of the fraudulent scheme.
Prior to its crash, CBEX operated in Nigeria as an affiliate or subsidiary of ST Investment Co., Ltd owned by 55-year-old Briton, Harold David Charles.
ST Investment Co. Ltd reportedly partly launched itself into Nigeria and the people’s consciousness through media publications between January 27 and 28, promoting Charles as a thoroughbred investment expert and wealth manager.
The cross-published report stated, “It is worth mentioning that ST Investment Co. Ltd has also established an important strategic partnership with CryptoBridge Exchange. With his forward-looking strategic vision, Harold David Charles promotes cooperation between the two parties to provide investors with a safe, efficient and transparent digital asset trading environment.”
However, while CBEX was not registered as an entity, it was floated by ST Technologies International, which was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and issued an anti-money laundering certificate with registration number SC 251514550 by the EFCC’s Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) on January 26.
It has other affiliates which include Smart Treasure and Super Technology, all of which were consistent with ST as initials.
According to the report, individuals like Adefowora Abiodun and Oluwanisola Adefowora were both leaders and representatives of CBEX in Nigeria.
The newspaper could not establish the relationship between the two either as couple or siblings.
Another persons associated with CBEX included Seyi Oloyede and Emmanuel Uko, who were identified as members.
Abiodun had on February 10, 2025 led his team to open a CBEX office in Abuja, “I am introducing this platform to you again. It is called ST CBEX platform where we trade everyday, we make money and we live a good life. We encourage our people and we also bring people onboard so that you need to make money [alone], you don’t need to live a good life [alone]. Tell people about it. Let people know, let them come onboard and enjoy life.”
Over than two months earlier on November 30, 2024, a scantily-attended seminar was organised in Lagos where the attendees were encouraged to bring their “friends and enemies” to sign up, abandon salaried jobs and earn a month’s salary in a day.
One of the team lead at the event was one Victor Solomon, whose name was displayed in a video report.
Aside from organising seminars in expensive hotel halls and at roadshows, or dispatching agents to bring in new subscribers, CBEX’s promoters also sponsored other programmes including a school inter-house sports as a strategy to gain people’s confidence in the scheme.
One of such is sponsoring the inter-house sports competition of MAXFEM International Schools, Alagbado, Lagos on February 10.
Proprietor of the school, Mr Olufemi Stephen Oguntola, said he did not know about CBEX until a friend linked him with a key promoter, Temitayo Oklet (Temitayo Oke), from Ibadan, Oyo State.
Oguntola said who knew he was yet to get a sponsor for the sports competition connected him with Temitayo, and they agreed on N400,000 as a sponsorship fee for Yellow House. “He paid it through my friend,” Oguntola told the newspaper.
“He told me that ‘ST CBEX House’ was their preferred name, and that was why we wrote it on the children’s sportswear. I had never seen him until the competition day and after that day, I have not seen him again. When I heard of the problem, I called him several times but he ignored my calls.”
Oguntola admitted that due diligence on CBEX was not carried out before he acceptedd the sponsorship.
“I did not do any background checks. I accepted their offer because a friend of my mine was the link between us. He also invested in the scheme and lost about $10,000, with the exception of the subscribers affiliated with him,” Oguntola said.
