In the sworn statement supporting the request, Hamma Bello, an EFCC agent, mentioned that after the establishment of the Technical Committee on Currency Stability and Forex Manipulation by the ONSA, the special investigation team (SIT) was informed of suspicious transactions (related to money laundering and terrorism financing) on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform.
“That on receipt of the intelligence, the team began investigation by conducting surveillance of the activities of the platform,”
“The team uncovered users who have been using the platform for price discovery, confirmation and market manipulation which has caused tremendous distortions in the market, resulting in the Naira losing its value against other currencies.
“The damage the platform has caused was clearly explained to the operators of the platform and they were requested to delist the Naira and avail the ONSA on the activities of the Nigerians on their platform.
“The information afforded to the team by Binance shows that the total trading volume from Nigeria in 2023 alone stood at $21.6 (twenty-one billion, six hundred million dollars).
“Attached and marked as Exhibit EFCC 1 is a copy of the document from Binance to the ONSA stating this fact amongst others.
“That the commission will ensure that investigation is conducted within such reasonable time.”
