A court in Nigerian capital city, Abuja, has convicted Official Gredo Limited, a local crypto dealing company, for illegally conducting USDT to Naira transactions without a banking license.
According to a local outlet, the crypto company entered a plea bargain with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) agreeing to surrender N140 million ($85,000) held in the company’s account to the EFCC recovery account.
During the arraignment in October 24 2024, the company was accused of failing to submit a written report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) regarding a transfer of N76.4 million ($46,541) made from Renderstack Technologies Ltd to a bank account managed by Official Gredo.
This omission violated section 10(1)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.
The EFFCC formally charged Official Gredo and its Director, Nnamdi Okereke, for trading United States Dollar Tether (USDT) against the Naira with the public, despite not being an authorized dealer in the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market.
The federal court judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, convicted the company and affirmed the plea bargain agreement.
The judge added that the plea bargain agreement between the complainant and the defendant shall not prevent further investigations from being carried out on other persons or companies with respect to the case.
“The Defendant shall forfeit the sum of N140,000,000 recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the course of the investigation to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“The sum of N140,000,000 being the amount restituted by the Defendant shall be deducted from the account of CZMUNCH FABRICATORS AND WIRING VENTURES – CHIMERA LOGISTICS AND HAULAGE SERVICES, with account number 5435830566 domiciled in Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, which will be transferred to the EFCC Recovery Account,” Ekwo said.
The judge then fined the company N1 million ($609), to be paid to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Ekwo ruled that if the defendants do not pay within fourteen days, the EFCC is to bring the director back for imprisonment.
Recall that Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission recently began issuing operating licenses to companies dealing in digital assets. The commission chief warned that they will be taking action on entities operating outside of its regulatory purview.
“We are certainly going to commence enforcement actions on anyone who wants to operate in this market without the intention of being regulated. For those that do not want to play by the books, we will not allow them to operate within our space,” said Dr. Emomotimi Agama Director-General of SEC Nigeria.
🇳🇬REGULATION | ‘We Will Not Allow Unlicensed Crypto Businesses to Operate Within Our Space,’ Warns SEC Nigeria
The announcement follows the recent move on August 29 2024 by the SEC to grant two digital asset exchanges ‘Approval-in-Principle’ to begin operations under the… pic.twitter.com/bUJQbfYqv2
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) September 12, 2024
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