New revelations have surfaced about how the promoters of Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), a now-defunct Ponzi scheme, lured over 600,000 Nigerians into investing a staggering N1.3 trillion with promises of unrealistic returns.
Marketed as a revolutionary AI-powered trading platform, CBEX dangled a 100 per cent profit guarantee within 30 days—an offer too tempting for many to ignore amid Nigeria’s economic uncertainty. But what began as a seemingly legitimate digital investment opportunity has now unraveled into one of the country’s largest financial scams in recent memory.
Investigations by The Punch show that the platform operated under a registered company, ST Technologies International Limited, which was incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on September 25, 2024. It also secured registration with the EFCC’s Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) on January 16, 2025, a move that gave it an air of legitimacy.
Correspondents also obtained documents, including a Certificate of Increase in Issued Share Capital bearing registration number 7955973, bolstering suspicions that the operators carefully built a legal facade to gain trust.
Despite its professional front, CBEX collapsed abruptly on Monday, leaving hundreds of thousands of investors stranded and savings wiped out. The EFCC has since launched an investigation, but many victims fear their money may never be recovered.
