Ponzi operators risk 10-year jail term, N20m fine – SEC

Promoters and operators of entities engaged in a prohibited scheme are liable to a penalty of not less than N20 million or imprisonment to a term of 10 years or both.

The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr Emomotimi Agama, said it is one of the provisions of the newly signed Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025.

It was reported that President Bola Tinubu recently assented to the Act.

Agama said this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the new Act would strengthen the legal framework governing Nigeria’s capital market.

Agama said the commission previously lacked the legal power to prosecute Ponzi scheme operators, which had made it difficult to bring offenders to justice.

He said the Act would help the commission to better protect investors, and introduce reforms that would promote market integrity, transparency, and sustainable growth.

”So, N20 million is not the entire penalty or the entire money that will be charged or sanctioned to any suspecting or any accused capital market or non-capital market operator.

”It is just part of the penalties and or the sanctions that will be meted against such persons.

”Any profits or gains obtained from defrauding Nigerians will be recovered because it is not about the quantum of the fraud, it is about sanctions that will deter people from even getting into it.

”We recognise that a lot of Nigerians have fallen prey to these schemes and the reason why that is the case is because there were no sanctions.

”Protecting the investors in Nigeria is a cardinal responsibility of SEC and this law has provided the SEC with stronger powers to be able to do that,” he said.

The director-general said the Act had also introduced transformative provisions to further align Nigeria’s market operations with international best practice.

It was reported that the ISA, 2025, had repealed the Investments and Securities Act No. 29 of 2007.