Criminal Justice Research Initiative

PROJECT

THEMIS

Mapping Cryptocurrency Crime.
Strengthening Nigerian Justice.

A comprehensive research initiative cataloguing cryptocurrency-related criminal cases prosecuted by Nigerian law enforcement agencies from 2023 to 2025.

Explore the Database About the Project

Database Fields

3 yrs

Coverage

Agencies

Scroll

02 — About

Named after the Greek goddess of justice, THEMIS pursues three core objectives.

⚖️

Advancing Jurisprudence

Strengthening Nigerian criminal law through systematic case analysis and doctrinal research across all relevant statutory frameworks.

🔍

Compliance Database

A 54-field master screening database providing regulatory intelligence to compliance officers, law firms, and financial institutions.

📖

Published Casebook

An authoritative peer-reviewed reference on crypto-related criminal prosecutions — the first of its kind in West Africa.

Database Fields

Per case entry

2023–25

Case Coverage

Three-year span

Agencies

Multi-agency collaboration

03 — Methodology

Research Phases

A five-stage pipeline from case discovery through publication. Click each phase to explore.

Case Identification

Completed

Discovery & Sourcing

Systematic identification of cryptocurrency-related criminal cases across Nigerian courts through court registries, published law reports, and regulatory agency records spanning all 36 states and the FCT.

Key Activities

Survey of Federal and State High Court registries for crypto-related charge sheets

Review of EFCC, NFIU, NPF, and NDLEA prosecution records and press releases

Monitoring of legal databases (LawPavilion, LegalPedia) for reported judgments

Cross-referencing with financial intelligence unit suspicious transaction reports

Stakeholder engagement with prosecution counsel for unreported ongoing matters

Tools & Sources

Court RegistriesLawPavilionAgency RecordsNFIU Reports

Data Collection

In Progress

Structured Extraction

Extraction and structured recording of case data across the 54-field research framework. Each case entry captures jurisdictional, procedural, substantive, and outcome data with forensic precision.

Key Activities

Population of all 54 database fields per identified case using primary court documents

Recording of charge particulars, statutory provisions cited, and plea information

Documentation of asset types (BTC, USDT, ETH) and transaction volumes involved

Mapping of investigative agencies, prosecution teams, and presiding judicial officers

Verification of data accuracy through independent review of certified true copies

Tools & Sources

54-Field FrameworkCase FormsVerification Protocol

Legal Analysis

In Progress

Jurisprudential Review

Rigorous doctrinal and comparative analysis of each case's legal reasoning, judicial interpretation of applicable statutes, evidentiary standards applied, and sentencing patterns.

Key Activities

Doctrinal analysis of judicial interpretation of the Cybercrimes Act 2015, MLPA 2011/2022

Assessment of evidentiary challenges — blockchain evidence admissibility, expert testimony

Comparative analysis with international jurisdictions (UK, US, Singapore, South Africa)

Identification of prosecutorial strategy patterns and common defence arguments

Evaluation of sentencing consistency and proportionality across similar offences

Tools & Sources

Doctrinal MethodComparative LawStatutory Analysis

Database Population

Upcoming

Structured Intelligence

Assembly of the master compliance screening database with normalised, searchable entries designed for compliance officers, legal practitioners, regulators, and academic researchers.

Key Activities

Normalisation and standardisation of all case entries for search optimisation

Tagging with taxonomic categories: offence type, asset class, agency, outcome

Implementation of relational linkages between connected cases and repeat offenders

Quality assurance review — peer verification against source documents

Export-ready formatting for AML/CFT compliance screening platform integration

Tools & Sources

SQL DatabaseTaxonomy EngineQA ProtocolAPI Layer

Publication

Upcoming

Casebook & Reports

Production of the published crypto crimes casebook and supporting jurisprudence analysis reports — peer-reviewed and designed for legal practitioners and regulatory policymakers.

Key Activities

Drafting of individual case commentaries with headnotes, ratio decidendi, and obiter dicta

Compilation into thematic chapters: fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion

Peer review by senior legal academics and practising criminal law barristers

Publication through academic press with ISBN and legal citation indexing

Launch of companion policy brief series targeting SEC, CBN, and NFIU reform