On September 14, the Nigerian government filed criminal charges against four individuals and multiple companies for engaging in illegal cryptocurrency transactions, including converting USDT to Naira, without holding a banking license.

The four defendants are Ejiogu A. Chinedu, Nnamdi F. Okereke, Oty Ugochukwu Stanley, and Chukwuebuka F. Ogumba. They are accused of violating the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act and the Foreign Exchange Act. This case stems from an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into alleged manipulation of the Naira exchange rate and money laundering through virtual cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Earlier, the EFCC obtained a court order to freeze over $330,000 (S$5.486 billion) in suspicious funds deposited in bank accounts belonging to cryptocurrency users.