Nigeria prosecutes four people and several companies, accusing them of illegal participation in crypto transactions and money laundering

On September 14, the Nigerian government filed criminal charges against four individuals and several companies, accusing them of illegally conducting crypto transactions without holding a banking license, including exchanging USDT for naira.

The four defendants are Ejiogu A. Chinedu, Nnamdi F. Okereke, Oty Ugochukwu Stanley and Chukwuebuka F. Ogumba. They are accused of violating the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act and the Foreign Exchange Act. The case stems from the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)'s investigation into suspected manipulation of the naira exchange rate and money laundering through virtual cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Earlier, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had obtained court approval to freeze more than $330,000 (S$548.6 million) of suspicious funds deposited in the bank accounts of cryptocurrency users.