Eniola Ajose
More details have emerged on how promoters of the fraudulent Ponzi scheme, Crypto Bridge Exchange, aka CBEX, convinced hundreds of thousands of investors to put money into the trading platform
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| How CBEX Promoters Used EFCC, CAC Certificates To Deceive 600,000 Investors - |
CBEX, a digital investment platform, offered investors 100 per cent profit after 30 days of purported AI trading.
No fewer than 600,000 Nigerians reportedly invested in the scheme and lost N1.3tn after it collapsed on Monday.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the promoters of the platform operated under a company registered as ST Technologies International Limited.
ST Technologies was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission on September 25, 2024, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering on January 16, 2025.
Copies of the certificates were obtained by our correspondents.
One of the documents was titled, ‘Certificate of Increase in Issued Share Capital of ST Technologies International Limited Company Registration No. 7955973.’
It read, “The Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission hereby certifies that pursuant to the resolution and notice of increase in share capital dated 4th December 2024, and presented for filing on 5th December 2024, in respect of the above-named company, the increase in share capital from N1,000,000 to N201,000,000—by the creation of 200,000,000 ordinary shares of N1 each and preference shares of N0 each—has been registered with the commission. Given under my hand at Abuja this 17th day of December 2024.”
Similarly, the EFCC’s certificate of January 16, 2025, stated, “ST Technologies International Limited has been duly registered in accordance with the provisions of Section 17(2)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, and any other applicable law or regulation.”
Some of the victims, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, said the registration certificates gave them confidence that the scheme was authentic.
“They were also doing charity, hospital outreach, paying hospital bills… it was a coordinated approach,” an investor who asked not to be identified said.
A check on the CAC’s website confirmed that the company remained active, though Saturday PUNCH could not access the names of its board of directors.
Open-source intelligence platforms such as NgCheck, B2BHint, and Finelib did not display the company’s address, board members, and other critical information.
A video clip from a Nigerian television station, ITV, identified one Adefowora Abiodun as the leader of ST Technologies International Limited, while another official, Oluwanisola Adefowora, was introduced as the company’s representative in Nigeria.
In the footage, the duo encouraged Nigerians to invest in the scheme and invite others to join, claiming it would help improve their standard of living.
“With the help of ST, you will not lose money. All you need to do is just to follow the order. They give advice; go in that direction. They are a group of analysts based in the United Kingdom,” Adefowora said.
The video was recorded on February 10, 2025 during the inauguration of the firm’s Abuja office attended by a crowd.
The Telegram groups
Findings by Saturday PUNCH showed that promoters of the scheme maintained different Telegram groups for users.
Our correspondents had access to three.
The first group, ‘ST Customer Support,’ had 144,460 members.
The other group, ‘Newcomer Advance Group,’ had 58,186, while the third platform, ‘ST Signal Group IV,’ had 87,864 members as of the first day of the crash.
However, all the Telegram accounts were locked following the crash of the platform on Monday.
Saturday PUNCH observed that the administrators of the groups used mostly UK mobile numbers with animated pictures for their profiles. They did not use their real photos.
