The Nigerian government has frozen more than $37 million worth of cryptocurrency held in wallets believed to be owned by some organisers of August riots.
The freezing followed an order by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The judge, Emeka Nwite, gave the order in a ruling delivered August, a copy of the decision seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday shows.
Mr Nwite issued the order based on an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In the ex parte application filed on 8 August and heard by the court on the following day, the EFCC described the assets as proceeds of money laundering and terrorism financing.
There was no objection to the application during the hearing, which was proceeded like an exchange of views between the judge and EFCC’s lawyer, O.S Ujam.
“That an order of this honourable court is hereby made freezing the wallet addresses/accounts stated in the schedule below, which wallets are owned by individuals currently being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing, pending the conclusion of the investigation,” Mr Nwite ruled shortly after listening to the EFCC’s lawyer.
The wallet with the lion’s share of the assets has USDT37 million (USDT37,061,867,869.3) cryptocurrency, which equals the exact value in American US dollars.
Each of the three other wallets has USDT967, USDT90, and USDT443,512.37, respectively.
An affidavit filed in support of the application for the court order to freeze the cryptocurrency wallets said the assets “are owned by individuals currently being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing.” The affidavit was sworn to by an EFCC official, Jimada Yusuf.
