Data from the Bank of Ghana has revealed that nearly 119, 300 people lost their investments to four Ponzi schemes in 2018.
The number according to the Bank of Ghana excludes victims of Menzgold.
The victims of the Ponzi Schemes lost a total of GHS59,568,000.
The companies that were used to dupe the unsuspecting customers include, Savannah Brokerage Investment Limited, Bitworld Investments Limited, FX Crypto Trading and Global Coin Community Help (GCCH)
Based on the data, Global Coin Community Help Scheme recorded the highest number of victims with 110, 000 people.
The victims lost GHS46,869, 043.49.
This is followed by Savanah Brokrage Investment Limited which saw 9, 172 victims losing GHS12,096,000.
A hundred people lost 500,000 through Bitworld Investments Limited, while 28 people lost Ghc103,200 through FX Crypto Traders.
The victims include, professors, students, market women, politicians, Teachers, police and Military officers and pastors, among others.
The regulators of the financial sector including the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission have come under intense pressure to help the victims retrieve their money.
However, without any provision in Ghana’s Criminal Act, which deals with Ponzi and pyramid schemes, analysts have expressed fear if the perpetrators could be made to face the law.
Although government has announced that steps are being taking to curb the situation, it has insisted victims must take responsibility for failing to do due diligence before investing their money.
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Ponzi scheme is an investment with various characteristics.
First, Operators promise high returns on investments.
Secondly, the perpetrators normally mount pressure on victims to invest in their packages.
The companies mostly do not save with banks or have bank accounts with registered names.
They rather use victims’ money for other assets including flushy cars and houses which are normally not registered in their names.
With the increase in such schemes across the world some countries including South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia have all enacted separate legislation to deal with Ponzi and Pyramid schemes.
