N3bn fraud: EFCC begins crackdown on Ponzi scheme

…Recovers N216.41m as firm defrauds 7,000 Nigerians
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that it has recovered N216, 402,565.05 from the Ponzi scheme operator, the Swiss Golden Investment, an online investment company.

A top source at the EFCC also stated that investigation showed that that the amphibious company “has defrauded over 7,000 Nigerians to the tune of over N3 billion”.

The source said the recovery was sequel to a petition the commission received from complainants who alleged they invested in the company “advertised as an online investment that deals with buying and selling of gold bars”.

The agency also quoted the petitioners as saying the company refused to pay them any dividend or their capital after “investing over a billion naira into the business”.

On receiving the petition, the EFCC invited the petitioners and through intelligence, arrested one Maxim Lobaty, a Russian, and two Nigerians: Austin Emenike and Dickson Nonso Onuchukwu in Lagos.

The EFCC said, “The trio were subsequently conveyed to the Kano operational zone of the EFCC for further investigation.

“Swiss Golden was discovered through investigation to be a Ponzi scheme that was designed to defraud innocent victims of their hard earned money.

“After being drilled at the commission’s Kano zonal office, Maxim and his co-suspects consented to the refund of the investment. Subsequently, a total sum of N216, 402,565.05 have now been recovered.

“Investigation into the alleged fraud is still ongoing and all efforts are being made to recover the money involved and the alleged suspects be brought to justice.

Many Nigerians are registered with Swiss Golden which has a networking angle, just like MMM now of late memory.

Information on its website shows that participants are meant to buy gold, partner with the company as advertising agents while encouraging other prospective partners to also register to get a bonus in return.

In a related development, Justice U.P. Kekemeke of an Abuja High Court in Apo has adjourned the trial of a businessman, Ighodaro Austin Osaretin, who is being prosecuted by the EFCC for a $328,974.37 fraud, to May 5, 2018.

Osaretin allegedly duped innocent Nigerians in a fake business deal that happened between March and November 2015. He placed an advertisement on www.unaedi.org.ng supposedly belonging to Universal Agricultural Empowerment and Development Initiative, using same to swindle prospective investors, into parting with over $328,974.37 under the pretence that his organisation specialised in marketing goods and services globally.

He was first arraigned on April 9, 2018 on a one-count charge of fraud.

The count reads: “That you Ighodaro Austin Osaretin sometime between March 13, 2015 to November 9, 2015 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of $328,974.37 from several customers across the globe through the advert you placed on www.unaedi.org.ng”.

But when the charge was read to the accused person, he pleaded “not guilty” to the offence.

Justice Kekemeke later granted bail to the businessman in the sum of N10 million and two sureties in like some.

The judge added that the surety must not be below the position of an assistant director in the Federal Civil Service, and who must possess landed properties.