Emomotimi Agama, Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that the new Investment and Securities Act (ISA 2025) which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently signed has empowered the SEC to prosecute promoters of Ponzi schemes with a possible sentencing to at least 10 years imprisonment.

Agama said, “With the new law, they now face a 10-year jail term and beyond”. In addition, he said anyone caught operating a Ponzi scheme in Nigeria would also be made to pay a N40 million penalty according to the law.

The SEC DG stated this on Tuesday during an Arise TV interview, where he spoke extensively about the new ISA. He noted that before now, the SEC had no legal backing to prosecute Ponzi scheme operators, adding that this had made it difficult to bring them to justice.

While responding to the question of whether the N40 million penalty would be enough punishment for someone who had defrauded people of billions, the SEC DG noted: “So, N40 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.

“One of the basic things around sanctions is that there will be disgorgement, and disgorgement means that we are going to make sure that every profit and every gain that has been achieved in the process of defrauding Nigerians will be gotten back.

“It is not about the quantum of the fraud, it is about sanctions that would deter people from even getting into it”.

He said: “The new law provides the SEC the powers to be able to do that and even more to go after these people, bring them to book and make sure that we are able to restitute the citizens as long as much as possible.”

Also, Agama said the new ISA has also provided the SEC with the power to be able to obtain and request telephone conversations and all other conversations that are required to prosecute Ponzi scheme operators.

According to him, with the new law, the Commission now has all it needs to come against bad operators and bring succor to Nigerians.

He said this would also allow the SEC to get the “bad guys” out of the way and make sure that people are more confident and happier to invest in the Nigerian market, “knowing fully well that the investor protection responsibility of the SEC has now been enhanced.” (BusinessDay)