Court convicts 21 companies over alleged unlicensed investment operations

The Federal High Court in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has convicted and sentenced 21 companies for allegedly operating financial investment businesses without valid licences from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies were arraigned by the Abuja Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on September 15 and 16, 2026, and charged with offences contrary to Section 57(1) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2020.

Following an application by prosecution counsel, the court entered not-guilty pleas on behalf of the companies and commenced trial. The prosecution presented intelligence reports, statements from investigating officers, letters on investigation activities, and responses from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the SEC. Each company was sentenced to a N30 million fine and ordered to pay N200,000 for each day it had committed the offence.

The EFCC said the companies were prosecuted after actionable intelligence linked them to investment fraud and operating without licences.

Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Post Nigeria's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.