Nigerians in Dubai lose life savings as Ponzi scheme disappears overnight with multimillion-dollar investors’ funds
No fewer than three Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates have been scammed of their life savings after a UAE-based Ponzi scheme Gulf First Commercial Brokers ran away with multimillion-dollar funds belonging to scores of investors, Peoples Gazette can report.
The Dubai-based Nigerians— Usman Jimeta, Kelvin Nnadozie and Ronke Oladiran— were among the victims who were left in limbo after operators of the scheme disappeared without any notice.
“We went there four times since they suddenly shut down last month, but we didn’t meet anyone,” Ms Oladiran told The Gazette on Friday. “They just vanished overnight.”
While Mr Jimeta said he was robbed of his savings to the tune of $17,000, Mr Nnadozie and Ms Oladiran did not reveal the specific amounts lost to the scheme.
Khaleej Times, a popular newspaper based in UAE, reported the Ponzi scheme— with a physical office at suite 302 Capital Golden Tower in Business Bay—had a total of 40 workers until its unexplained disappearance last month.
The report further noted many of the people scammed by the scheme were Indians who were assured of safe returns after the scheme aggressively pushed them towards Sigma-One Capital, an unregulated online platform.
The Nigerian said that many investors were convinced to invest in the scheme through several means, including phone conversations and meetings with some staff members, expressing shock over operators’ unannounced disappearance.
This development came weeks after thousands of Nigerians also lost their money worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a cryptocurrency trading platform Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) scheme, resulting in widespread hysteria on social media.
The Ponzi scheme, disguised as a digital trading investment platform with an office in Ibadan, claimed to double the deposit balance of investors within 40 days as investors were asked to refer new people to increase their trading signals by 12 per cent.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) later confirmed the funds related to the scheme were traced to at least three to four countries and some perpetrators arrested, identifying foreigners as principal operators.
However, the anti-graft agency said it would not be able to restore every Nigerian scammed by the scheme.
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