The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that 90 percent of money laundering is done through the real estate sector.
Bawa said this on Tuesday while on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme.
The EFCC boss said, “One of the problems we have now is the real estate. 90 to 100 percent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate.”
He gave an example of a minister who expressed interest in a $37.5 million property a bank manager put up for sale.
“The bank sent a vehicle to her house and in the first instance $20 million was evacuated from her house.
“They paid a developer and a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle, where the title documents were transferred into.
“And he (the lawyer) is posing as the owner of the property. You see the problem. This is just one of many; it is happening daily,” Bawa stated.
The antigraft agency chairman also said the commission has recovered over $20 million worth of cryptocurrency from cybercriminals.
According to him, the commission sees cryptocurrency as an “avenue where criminals launder proceeds of crime