The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has fingered real estate developers as being complicit in the widespread occurrence of money laundering in the country, accusing them of being key facilitators due to inadequate customer vetting. This was contained in the antigraft press release on its social media accounts yesterday by its chairman, Ola Olukoyede, while tasking real estate developers with the need to do background checks on real estate investors to ascertain the legitimacy of their sources of income.
The anti-corruption boss gave the admonition while delivering a speech titled “Tackling Illegal Property Sales, Fake Developers, and Unlicensed Agents” at an event in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said, “By virtue of empirical things we have gathered and some of the things we have seen, statistics and reports, we discovered that the issue of money laundering is very rampant among real estate developers and stakeholders in the sector.”
He called on developers to ensure they apply the KYC checks, urging them, “As a developer, the first thing that must come to your mind is that you have to do KYC.
“Even if the law has not made it mandatory to do it, in the interest of your business and for the survival of your business, do it.”
He warned that failure by any developer to comply with such a directive could lead to severe consequences, adding, “If somebody steals money and uses it to buy property from you and we trace that money to you, we will recover it from you, because you can’t sit on the proceeds of crime.”
According to Olukoyede, the importance of regulatory compliance is crucial, noting that, “The difference between Nigeria and developed countries where things work is just compliance with rules. That’s what we are lacking here.”
He frowned at some developers who venture into the business without understanding the governing regulations while urging them to always play by the rules if they want their business to succeed.
While issuing stern warnings, the EFCC boss also expressed support for legitimate business owners.
He said, “Our job is to make you succeed. That’s my work, because when you succeed, you employ more people, and more Nigerians will get jobs to sustain themselves, and the propensity for them to commit financial crime will be reduced.”
He encouraged developers to collaborate with the EFCC and assured them of utmost support.
“You have access to the EFCC; our doors are open. Rest assured that we are not looking for your business to go under,” Olukoyede concluded.