Over 90% of resources laundered through real estate sector – EFCC

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that the real estate sector is one with grand scale corruption in the country.

This was revealed by the Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, during a current affairs programme on Channels TV.

Bawa said, “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 per cent of the resources are being laundered through real estate. Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit.

“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed the property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5m. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m from her house in the first instance.”

The EFCC Chairman had said the commission recovered about $20 million worth of cryptocurrency loot from cybercriminals, adding that the loot has been saved in the commission’s e-wallet.

The anti-graft agency has said that it sees cryptocurrency as an avenue where the fraudsters launder the proceeds of crime.

Bawa expressed his support for the Central Bank’s ban on cryptocurrency transactions, saying that it has helped to limit the avenues through which these criminals launder their proceeds of crimes in the country.

“As it is today, there is nowhere in the world where cryptocurrency is being regulated. The EFCC is looking at an avenue in which people are laundering and receiving proceeds of crime and that is our worry.

“We have seen time and time again where cybercriminals are using this avenue to get their proceeds of crime. Before it used to be through money transfer agencies like Money Gram and of cause Western Union. Now they have gone E. They will defraud somebody. They will get gift cards, exchange them on the dark web, and they will use the proceeds to buy crypto, and they can get it to their e-wallet, and then, of course, they can sell and get their money.”