Topic: Nigeria SEC proposes 10 Years Jail Terms For Crypto Ponzi Scheme Operators (Read 105 times)

Looking at the overall picture, it is important to point out that Nigeria has been plugging up cryptocurrency opening,In May 2023, the president of the country signed a bill into law that levies a 10 % tax rate on profits made from selling such assets as cryptocurrency, In December 2023, Central Bank of Nigeria also lifted the restrictions placed on the banking institutions in 2021 with respect to the provision of crypto services ‘to customers’ at supra-national level.
Although this Is very significant development for the country's cryptocurrency market,if the SEC regulate the bill and provides clear guidelines for cryptocurrency transactions and also reducing  uncertainty for investors and work hardly on fraudulent prevention  definitely it will help ellevate scams and protect investors if realy the proposed bill is a step towards creating a more secure and attractive cryptocurrency market in Nigeria,its indeed a great success depending on effective implementation and  collaboration.

https://www.mariblock.com/nigerian-legislators-considering-bill-to-recognize-bitcoin-and-other-cryptocurrencies

It seems we are in the same page here. 2024 became a year where celebrities' took advantage of their influence to scam their fans and other person of their money. Before then i usually though it was illegal in many countries especially to have an owned token or crypto. This will only mean that these celebrities' work with the legal teams often that is why they are not apprehend for all they do.

Twitter (X), TikTok and YouTube has been the means to which this celebrities operates.

The decision on the bill should stand quickly if not we wont see fast adoption in the crypto space if these scammers keep on soiling the mind of enthusiast.

After reading through i felt a warm relief in my mind. And this is because i am impressed for this development that is about to take place. In as much as people are eager to make quick bulk they are so vulnerable that they hardly can differentiate a real project or a fake one. This move will help eradicate those with bad intentions to stay clear from this part. At least if not completely, we will see less of it.

I know how many persons around me who are willing to invest into digital technologies especially cryptocurrency but are scared to start. And for developers in Nigeria who are willing to shape the country to a better place, they wont be hiding anymore to pitch their project to potential investors anymore. Transparency will be among citizens if this bill will be committed to.


Anyone can own a project in the crypto space now, even you too can own one. The projects owned by celebrities are literally memecoins that are hyped or influenced by the so called influencers and their associates. And the annoying part is that fans will still buy those coins knowing full well it has no usage or value to offer. They are blinded with the love and passion they have fans, its just like subscribing to an onlyfans account. People will keep buying the coins.

This is a welcomed development but the only problem with proposals like this is that it is hard to enact and even harder to enforce especially if the celeb caught has close relationships with law enforcements, they'll just get away with a slap on the wrist. This is why I'm not too excited about the bill. We would still see celebs supporting ponzi schemes and launching their own pump and dump tokens to their unsuspecting followers. Until I see one celeb arrested and put in jail, nah. Not buying it.

I would like to know, what are the necessities to owning a project. Many celebrities that has been called out for owning a pump and dump token so far does not even look eligible to own any because they barely have any useful or potential traits that omits a sense of having relevant outcomes. You just wake up in the morning and hear rumors of celebrities scamming their users with fake cryptos, no legitimate promotion and proper marketing that can bring long eligible investors, not even a whitepapers/roadmap for their project that should have reveal the potentials and proven worthy of our funds.

I may partially with due reasoning put the blame on people who chose to be folded by this called influencers and risk their money, anyone with a good knowledge won't even think about risking what they have into something like that.

When i think about how many innocent Nigerians have lost their hard earned money to these Ponzi schemes boys because of quick gains i feel that this bill is what the citizens needs now. The 10 year jail term and N20 million naira fine is the kind of punishment these scammers need and i am cool with it. This will help clear a sound message to others who still intend to go about crypto Ponzi schemes. If they want to hustle then they should do it the clean way like we do here or don't do it at all.

And to be honest, the bill will help protect the entire crypto ecosystem in Nigeria. So that if any foreign investors hear about Nigeria they don't get to think about Ponzi shemes as the first thing to cross their mind. At least the mindset of Nigerians being scammers would change. People will see crypto and Nigeria as its meant to be.

This i cannot complete say for sure that the bill will be accepted because the current government has not shown any much difference from the recent. However, during the time of Buhari things were a bit new to some persons, especially crypto was still a new things, so people don't understand it much. But now, i believe crypto is not a new thing to anyone in the rural area anymore. One way or another they must have heard about it. So, lets back the bill and support the motion. Its a huge step forward.

You can't blame them for spending blindly; instead, blame celebrities for exploiting their fans' emotions and love to hype and promote a fake businesses. A celebrity that loves and respects his fans will never mishandle them or take their money.

This is why it is never a good idea for celebrities to own a crypto project. If you believe in anything, you will be willing to follow it to the death; there are those who would follow Elon Musk to the grave if given the opportunity.

For the fact that Nigeria does not follow by the rules initiated when the walls collapses around the wealthy, fines might be attached but for the sentencing it is not even among the punishment if they should be convicted. No body with their right senses should be opposing against this bill, we all love to keep the space free from scam and enable a safe room for new investors to partake in this digital space were assets like Bitcoin and others are worth putting our money inside.

Aside this bill being passed, it is enough that we also play our roles by being conscious of how we delve into stuffs that has higher possibility of not being real enough to give back what we put inside, for no reason should we enslave our funds all in the name of celebrities promoting and managing assets, the rich would go all measures just to keep their pocket filled because they have a counter back up for their crime and punishment and it won't be as that of a common individual.

Whether the proposed bill is implemented or not, only by mentioning it alone will send a warning signal to those influencers and celebrities who uses pump and dump coin to defraud and deceive their followers to invest in shit projects because one thing about Nigerians is that when one person does something bad and gets away with it, others follow in same directions. The rate at which some celebrities go about promoting crypto scam projects is on the rise, so if the bill is passed, it will help reduce the number of all these incessant scam projects that influencers promote just for their own selfish interests.

I'll love if this gets through but we know Nigeria and how they don't care much about things relating to crypto. The bail might fail to get its final reading but it would had been good for the crypto community as it protects us against this celebrities that aren't satisfied with the money that they have already but trying to steal the little ones that we have. Well, we get ourselves to blame because this celebrities, they no force us to buy their tokens. Na out of our greed na him make we dey invest and also invest more than our capacity to endure the loss.

We already know how this type of tokens dem they end yet we go still carry our money go put inside. At times I dey feel say we deserve wetin we dey get because assuming we stop to dey buy all this token, dem go stop to dey create am but na because we dey buy everything wey we see because we think say crypto na Ponzi, na wetin make we dey become victims.

This bill if successful would help save the Nigeria crypto community from being labeled scammers. Anyone who does set up such crypto ponzi scheme should go in for it. It is time the rich also dance to the tone of music they play for the masses and know how it feels to rip investors and do away with it that nobody  would question them. The era of such nonsense is abruptly coming to an end but the truth is that there should not be a compromise amongst ranks  to making sure justice is served to whomever commits such an offense.

The #20m fine is too small for the kind of scheme they pull with such event. They do that in dollar and fine for naira which we all know the exchange value. Maybe they should step up the game so that those pulling such scheme would not think of it or they stand to face a big risk that they would never be in a haste to forget so quickly for scamming the masses. If it were the US, the punishment would be far higher than this.

Of course this is a very good news for crypto enthusiasts, atleast the victims of those crypto ponzi would get their justice finally, but the I don't trust these so called law makers cause they favour the high class citizens and serve justice to poor citizens that go against laws, this is something that's been normalized to a while and I doubt if a senator or one of those ponzi celebrities would face the law if they go against it.
 Imagine arresting  Davido or any top celebrities that go against that law, atleast Davido is a culprit and if they're really serious with it they should start by persecuting him or refund his victims money. However do you think they'll jail him for 10years, I doubt and my though is that it would scale through but the rich would go scot-free only the poor and some middle class would suffer the consequences of going against that law.

I think majority of the masses will support this bill but my issues here is that some of these celebs might be able to bribe their way out instead of actually serving the 10 years jail terms.  We saw the whole allegations when Very Darkman review the truth about Bobrisky not spending up to 6 months in prison, I wonder how they will handle big names like Davido in such aspects who will be able to pay amount that will make the prison sentence possibly slides or reduce to months and enjoy good prison.

Anyway corruption is inevitable but this bill after it has been accepted will reduce the chances of this happening and many big names will have to think if this scam really worth it, especially in comparison to how much they will spend to get out from the law.

I will say this is a nice initiative, because is getting too much, most  of these celebrities easily get away with their deed due to their money and fame. Alot of people have gotten themselves rekt because of all these Ponzi scheme especially the ones done by celebrities, due to the fact that most of them are well known celebrities, most folks easily trust them and invest in anything they are promoting and endup with disappointment.

Now and days Any coin own by any celebrities , I don't even think of investing my money in it because of the previous experience folks has experienced from their projects, I just hope that they will use fairness in this stuff , because most folks are literally kinda above the law they can easily have their way .

I'm not sure how fast the senate house are quick to pass bill when it doesn't involves were they will have their own share, they just approved Tinubu bills to borrow 2.2 billion to strengthen our reserves, you can see how quick those guys are in favour of things to their king but wouldn't fasten anything at the interests of Nigeria. I hope this doesn't get in the trash because I will like to see many of our celebraties call to order with their foolishness to promote brands for quick money.

There is this particular brand that has existed when MMM came to Nigeria, it's Ractsterli, the Ponzi scheme died together when Ponzi schemes were exposed that time but Davido advertised that company again to his fans and followers and they exited quickly yet nothing was done about it. Just because you are celebrity doesn't mean you have to be heartless to mislead people, it need to stop. If this bill is passed and approved, it will cripple the trend of Ponzi scheme in Nigeria completely including the once people do lowkey and banks doesn't help people recover their money.

If the new bills is passed, the SEC will be able to arrest and persecute anyone involved now, unlike the usual " do not invest" announcement they usually posts when Ponzi scheme is around cause they have no jurisdiction to persecute anyone, but with this new bill alot is going to change. A 10 years Jail term or option fine of 20m should be enough for Davido, Sabinus, Brainjotter and co from another pump and dump projects.

The rules have always been for the poor, but the rich are not always lucky. Sometimes they are persecuted.

Of course it's a good move but we usually have issues of comprise in this country and that is a very big challenge to the SEC.

This proposal if passed to bill successfully, the same issues of comprise that happens with the EFCC will definitely be the challenge of the bill because in this nation it seems that there are some people who are above the law and when caught with issues relatable because of their personality and family backgrounds cases are swept under the carpets but the ordinary man suffers the law.

The target in my opinion would not long be on the big names who steal huge amounts but on the ordinary citizens who carries out crypto related transactions and AFAIK the other instructions by CBN to investigate crypto related transactions has not been ruled out yet hence the poor masses might be the once to face this new rules that is about to be implemented.

For the bill to scale through it will have to be presented in the senate house and if one third of the senators agrees to the bill then it will stand but if the opposite happens then the bill will only remain a bill and not law/regulations yet and might die off as time goes on.

Earlier this year, some celebrities and prominent personalities launched pump and dump token, Ponzi schemes to defraud their followers and other innocent Nigerians, taking advantage of the country's current economic circumstances to steal millions of Naira from investors to fund their lavish lifestyle. The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a bill to the Senate that would require convicted Ponzi scheme operators to serve a 10-year jail sentence and pay N20 million. This is a courageous step to protect our crypto space and further stop tarnish the reputation of the crypto community in Nigeria.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nairametrics.com/2024/11/18/nigerian-crypto-industry-endorses-bill-proposal-to-jail-ponzi-operators/%3famp=1

What do you guys think about the new bill proposal? Will it scale through or abandoned just like the old proposed bill under Buhari Govemment.