Kemi Lawson
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria, SEC is worried over the resurgence of Ponzi schemes in the country .Last week, SEC in a circular it sent to dealing members of the stock exchange and other stakeholders listed 12 ponzi schemes and others which it said were unregistered with SEC ,which indeed,investors should be very wary of.
The suspect investment schemes listed by SEC are :Loom Nigeria Money, Box Value Trading Co., Now Now Alert, Flip Cash Investment, Result Investment, Helping hand and Investment, No Failure Development Empowerment Nigeria, MBA Forex and Investment, Federate Investors and Trading Co.,Jamalife helpers Global ,Flexus Global Solutions and Investment, United Capital Investment Co.
SEC said that the disclaimer of these schemes was necessary because by virtue of the country’s Investment and Securities Act of 2007, ” only persons registered with the commission(SEC) can engage in capital market activities. Thus making the actions of these entities listed above illegal.”
Uduk said she was surprised about the growing number of new Ponzi schemes that are springing up in the country, despite the collapse of previous ones.
Last year,SEC clamped down on several such schemes among which were :MGB Global, X-World, Money-Rite, Failure Dev. Dantata Success &Profitable Co. SEC got their bank accounts blocked and seized traced real estate properties and sealed their premises.
Uduk had warned in November that Nigerians once again faced a threat of losing their money to such Ponzi schemes which are designed to defraud investors eventually .According to herl: ”We want to ensure that you do not fall victim to the antics of fraudsters who purport to be able to double any amount of money you make available to them.”
” These fraudsters or promoters of ponzi schemes are the false prophets of the investment world. They are the ill-wind that blows nobody any good and at whose sight you must flee,”she added.
By far the most popular of Ponzi schemes in the country has been MMM which sprung up around 2011 and quickly gained ground. It was the Nigerian version of the Russian MMM. Anyway, it collapsed around 2016 with its investors losing billions of naira to the Ponzi operators. Several copycat schemes has also been set up ,all looking to make money off unwary investors. SEC boss warned that these are illegal schemes and Nigerians are warned not to their money into such schemes.
SEC,according to its DG, would nonetheless not tolerate the operation of such schemes that are designed to defraud the average Nigerian.
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