NGX Regulation Limited has given a 10 working-day ultimatum to Global Assets Management Limited, a securities company, to resolve the allegations of alleged forgery, theft, diversion of proceeds, and possibly money laundering leveled against it by Mr Kolawole Oladapo Adesina, a complainant.

Adesina had alleged that shares belonging to him and Emmanuel Olanipekun Adesina, his late father, from different companies were stolen and proceeds diverted to unknown persons.

In the same vein, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also launched investigations into the same complaints against the same securities company.

NGX Regulation, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX group) committed to promoting just and equitable principles of trade and sound business practices in the Nigerian capital market by strictly enforcing clients’ listing and trading rules in accordance with global best practices.

Its activities seek to promote the integrity, transparency and efficiency of our market, ensuring that the standards set are effective in maintaining a fair and orderly market where investors are adequately protected.

In a letter with reference number NGXRECO/MRIVG/7160/1/26, signed by Chinedu Akamaka, Head, Market Regulation, the regulatory body acknowledged the petition of the complainant and stated that “In line with rule 5(4) of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rules on Complaints Management Framework of the Nigerian Capital Market 2015, your firm is required to solve this complaint within ten(10) working days and forward a report on resolution or non resolution. Your report should reach NGX Regco not later than 30 January 2026”.

SEC, in its own letter dated January 7, 2026 and signed by Mr John Abel Briggs, the Head, Lagos Zonal Office stated that while acknowledging Adesina’s petition, it has commenced investigations into the matter.

“Please be informed that we have commenced investigations by seeking Global Assets Management Limited, CSCS, and NGX to investigate the allegations in line with the Complaint Management Framework of the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM).

The company in the eyes of the storm, Global Assets, has however denied any wrongdoing in its reply addressed to NGX Regulation and signed by Sir Babatunde Sobamowo, managing director,  saying the allegations were unfounded.

Adesina, still smarting from the shocking revelation that his father, Prince Emmanuel Olanipekun Adesina, a late Banker with the United Bank of Africa (UBA) who allegedly died intestate did not,  but has a will.

He’s currently battling to have the will read at the Probate Registry of the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja Judicial Division.

In the many shocking revelations while going through his parents’ documents, he discovered many shares his father had bought for him since the time of his youth.

Most of these shares, and that of his father, has disappeared without a trace, only relying on the father’s documentation to trace them.

In a 15 paragraph affidavit he deposed to and filed at the registry of the Ikeja High Court, which formed his petition before SEC, the complainant narrated his ordeal this:

“I am the beneficial owner of securities and investments held with Global Asset Management Limited under account number 23278460(old account number A0457245) and Clearing House No C4928105AN. I have held the investments registered in my name since my childhood, acquired and maintained by my late father for my benefit.

My late father, whose particulars I can provide on request, purchased shareholdings  in my name up to and including the date of his death on February 21, 2006.

I did not authorize any sale of the Securities held in my account and have never knowingly sold any holdings in that account;

“On or about August 25,2022 when I attended the offices of Global Assets Management to effect a sale of certain securities to raise funds, I was provided with documentation and account records indicating that a substantial (and in some cases total) portion of my securities had already been sold and the sale proceeds diverted.

“No such sale had been authorized by me and no proceeds of such alleged sale were paid to me or credited to the account records held by Global Assets in my name;

“Upon inspection of the physical file and documents in my possession and in the custody of Global Assets Management, I discovered numerous stock transfers, notes on sale and other documents bearing my signature which I did not sign. I verily believe that the said signatures are forged”.

With this discovery, Adesina directed his lawyers, Pich Solicitors, to write a letter of demand to the company requesting production of all documents and materials relating to his account from February 21, 2006 till date. The company however failed to comply. He therefore urges SEC to compel the company to produce the documents and other materials requested. He fears if it’s not compelled, the company may alter, delete, or otherwise fail to preserve records relevant to the matters that are subject of his complaint.

Adesina exhibited over 10 documents to support his complaint which include copies of his account statements, copies of stock transfers bearing alleged forged signatures, CSCS certificate/ deposit forms relating to his holdings, sales contract notes and transaction confirmations, CSCS printout on stocks held in his name, dividend statements and dividend warrants in his name, copies of his share certificates in Berger Paints Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, Grammac Industries Plc, and West African Portland Cement Plc. “I unequivocally and verily believe that the exhibits listed are materials relevant to the issues raised in this application and that they substantiate the allegations of unauthorized sales, forged signatures,and diversion of sales proceeds”, he averred.

Adesina’s petition was copied to the Chairman of Global Assets Management, Dr S.T.V Adegbite and all other directors of the company. It’s also copied to DG SEC, CEO, Nigerian Exchange Group, MD, Central Securities Clearing System Plc(CSCS), The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Director, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit(NFIU), and Commissioner of Police, Force CID(Financial Crimes Unit).

In its response addressed to NGX Regulation, Global Assets Management Limited described all the allegations as unfounded. “In compliance with our regulatory obligations, we have carefully reviewed the allegations contained in the petition and hereby provide our response, addressing each issue raised by the petitioner sequentially and supported by relevant documentation”, the response stated.

The company explained that their real client was the petitioner’s mother, late Mrs Frances Omorolaun Adesina. “Our professional relationship with her spanned several years during which she conducted securities transactions through our firm until her demise. At no time prior to her death did the petitioner operate the relevant account independently or maintain a separate trading mandate with GAM”, it stated.

GAM maintained that its first formal interaction with the petitioner occured through his lawyer, Pich Solicitors, requesting information relating to the state of the petitioner’s father. Subsequently the petitioner personally visited and was availed with a CSCS statement relating to his account and a KYC update form which the petitioner never returned.

The company stated further: “According to records obtained directly from CSCS,  the only securities credited to the petitioner’s account were deposited on September 15, 2009, three years after the death of his father in 2006. We are unable, and not required to determine whether the shares were purchased by his late father or late mother. However the records show that no securities were deposited into the petitioner’s account in 2006 or earlier. Only three securities were deposited through GAM”.

The company also listed as exhibits documents which includes a duly executed sale order form dated April 4, 2014, Statement of account of the late mother, copy of cheque, letter of authority dated January 11, 2014 signed by the petitioner and his sister authorizing their late mother to transact on matters relating to their father’s estate, and GAM bank statement confirming payment of the proceeds to the named beneficiary.

However, there seems to be discrepancies in the signature tendered by both parties as they did not correspond. SEC will therefore determine which one is genuine and having regard to the power of a parent to trade on an adult child securities without proper consent.

Credit… The Nation

There’s something uniquely agonising about having your cryptocurrency stolen. All transactions are recorded in a digital ledger, known as a blockchain, so even if someone takes your money and puts it in their own crypto wallet, it remains visible online.

“You can see your money there on the public blockchain, but there’s nothing you can do to get it back,” says Helen, who lost around $315,000 (£250,000) to thieves.

She likens it to watching a burglar pile up your prized possessions on the other side of an impassable chasm.

For seven years, Helen and her husband Richard (not his real name), both UK residents, had been buying and stacking up crypto coins called Cardano.

They liked the idea of investing in a digital asset that had the potential to rise dramatically in value, unlike funds saved in more conventional ways. They knew it was riskier, but they were careful to keep their digital keys safe.

But somehow hackers got into their cloud storage account, where they kept information about their crypto wallets and how to access them.

In February 2024, after a small test transfer, the criminals swiftly and silently transferred all the couple’s coins to their own digital wallets.

The couple then watched for months as their money was moved from one wallet to another, powerless to do anything. (The inherent contradiction with cryptocurrency is that all transactions are publicly trackable, but users can be publicly untraceable if they choose.)

Helen and Richard are not wealthy. She is a personal assistant, he is a composer, and they had high hopes for their Cardano investments.

“We’d been buying these coins for so long… We used every scrap of money we could find to buy more,” says Richard. “Aside from my parents’ deaths, this theft is the worst thing to happen to me.”

Ever since, Helen has been on a mission to recover their money. She obtained detailed reports from various police forces and the Cardano developers. Now, even though she has the criminals’ wallet addresses, there is nothing anyone can do to unmask them.

Their plan is to save up enough to engage private investigators to try to trace the hackers.

“It leaves you with a feeling of helplessness,” she says, “but I am going to keep trying.

An explosion in crypto crime

A survey carried out for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in August 2024, suggested that approximately 12% of British adults owned crypto-assets – equivalent to about seven million people.

Globally, it has been estimated that 560 million people are now crypto owners. But as ownership rose, so did theft. The pandemic ushered in a surge in the value of crypto coins and, with it, an explosion in attacks on the industry.

And 2025 was another bumper year for crypto criminals, with total thefts standing at more than $3.4bn (£2.5bn), according to investigators at blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. The annual figure has remained in the same ballpark since 2020.

Most of the money is being stolen through massive cyberattacks on crypto companies. For example, North Korean hackers swiped $1.5bn (£1.1bn) from crypto exchange Bybit in February 2025.

The losses in this case and the vast majority of others are covered by the deep-pocketed crypto firms, with little impact on individuals. But 2025 also saw an increase in the number of attacks on individual crypto investors.

Chainalysis research says these individual attacks rose from 40,000 in 2022 to 80,000 last year.

Hacking, scamming or coercing of individuals accounted for an estimated 20% of all crypto value stolen – estimated at $713m (£532m).

But the company adds that the number could be far higher, as not all victims will choose to report thefts publicly. When this happens, you could be left on your own.

Many thefts or scams in traditional finance are covered by banks or card companies. In the UK, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service and may be compensated by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

“Crypto remains largely unregulated in the UK and high-risk,” says the FCA. “If something goes wrong, it is unlikely you will be protected so you should be prepared to lose all your money.”

A stark reminder of this comes if you search online for “Binance account hacked” – Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange with a reported 1.4m UK users – but the page on its website offering advice to victims of theft is blocked in the UK.

The company has not been accepting new UK clients since 2023 because it is not authorised by the FCA to operate. Yet criminals don’t care where victims are, and people are being targeted all over the world indiscriminately.

Chainalysis has described these attacks on individuals as the “under-documented frontier for crypto crime”.

They put the volume of crimes down to the number of people entering the crypto world as investors, as the value of coins has risen, and argue that improved security practices at major services could have pushed “attackers toward individuals perceived as easier targets”.

Then there is the fact that the more crypto you hold and the more public you are about it, the more likely you are to be targeted – small-time holders (or hodlers, as the community calls them) are far less likely to be affected.

Burglaries, muggings and ‘wrench attacks’

As for the thieves, they could be anywhere.

In October, blockchain researchers from Elliptic, a crypto analysis company, warned that North Korean state-sponsored hackers are increasingly targeting wealthy cryptocurrency owners. There are plenty of young scammers and hackers from other countries, too.

In December in the US, 22-year-old Evan Tangeman pleaded guilty to being part of a group of crypto thieves calling themselves the Social Engineering Enterprise, who are accused of stealing more than $260m (£194m) between October 2023 and May 2025.

Prosecutors allege they targeted the crypto-rich using hacked databases, tricking victims into thinking they were cryptocurrency exchanges, and persuading them to transfer coins.

Members of the gang, who were all young men mostly in the US, are said to have spent the stolen coins on private jets, expensive cars and luxury handbags that they would give away at nightclubs.

In some cases, prosecutors say, the gang organised home break-ins to steal hardware containing the keys to crypto stashes.

Burglaries and muggings have become so common that there is now a term for them in the crypto community – “wrench attacks” – so called because criminals have been known to threaten victims with spanners.

Last April, crypto criminals in Spain tried to force a man and woman to part with their cryptocurrency.

Spanish police said the man was shot in the leg and he, along with his partner, were held captive for several hours while the criminals tried to access their crypto wallets. Eventually, the woman was released, but her partner remained missing, with his body later found in woodland.

Five people were arrested in Spain in connection with the case, while four others in Denmark were charged.

There have been several similar cases in France, including one when an attempted kidnap was captured on video.

Source.. BBC

Despite lingering regulatory uncertainty, Nigeria processed an estimated $92.1 billion in cryptocurrency transactions between July 2024 and June 2025, reaffirming its position as Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest crypto market, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The figure, published in PwC’s Nigeria Economic Outlook 2026 titled “Turning Macroeconomic Stability into Sustainable Growth”, shows that Nigeria received nearly three times the crypto transaction value recorded in South Africa over the same period.

PwC attributed Nigeria’s dominance to its large population, youthful and digitally savvy users, persistent inflation, and continued foreign exchange (FX) access constraints, which have pushed many individuals and businesses toward crypto and stablecoins as alternative financial channels.

The report noted that crypto adoption in Nigeria reflects both economic necessity and structural transformation in financial behaviour.

PwC said Bitcoin continues to dominate fiat-to-crypto purchases in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 89 per cent of transactions in Nigeria and 74 per cent in South Africa, underscoring its role as a default hedge and entry asset in volatile or constrained financial environments.

It added that stablecoin usage is structurally higher in Nigeria, signalling reliance on crypto rails as an informal FX market and dollar-substitute channel.

However, PwC cautioned that the data reflects only centralised exchange activity and excludes peer-to-peer transactions and informal flows, suggesting that actual volumes may be significantly higher.

PwC projected that Nigeria is likely to retain its position as the region’s largest crypto market in 2026, driven by FX access challenges, inflation sensitivity, and sustained demand for stablecoins as a store of value and settlement mechanism.

The firm also noted that Nigeria had earlier processed about $59 billion in crypto transactions, largely driven by young, tech-savvy users, highlighting deepening adoption momentum.

“The rising usage of crypto, especially among Nigeria’s youth, underscores the urgent need to accelerate regulatory cohesion in the near term,” the report stated.

PwC identified several key issues that will shape Nigeria’s crypto landscape in 2026, including industry adoption and compliance challenges, licensing and regulatory frameworks, a structural shift in crypto taxation, capital flow management, and market surveillance.

On licensing and regulation, PwC observed that progress remains slow, with only two exchanges granted provisional approval so far.

This, it said, highlights capacity and sequencing challenges within the regulatory framework. The firm warned that the planned rollout of crypto-asset taxation could outpace supervisory readiness, raising concerns about effective enforcement without a fully operational licensing regime.

In terms of taxation, PwC disclosed that the new Tax and Tax Administration Acts, effective from 2026, will treat crypto profits as income taxed up to 25 per cent, replacing the previous 10 per cent capital gains tax.

This represents a significant increase in tax burden and complexity for crypto users. It also noted that Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) will face higher compliance and reporting obligations, raising operating costs for licensed platforms and potentially pushing more activity into informal or offshore channels