After Galamsey, Chinese Ponzi Scheme Hits Ghana – EOCO Warns

The Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) has warned that a Chinese company is receiving deposits online with the promise of tantalizing returns, alerting that the scheme is a Ponzi.

Chy Century Heng Yue Group Limited and Sairuir-Commerce Ghana Limited, EOCO emphasizes is also a pyramid scheme that could be a set up to defraud unsuspecting Ghanaians.

“The company which is registered as online trading and marketing services also solicits and takes/receives funds through investment packages from its customers with a promise of guaranteed returns/margins of various percentages over a fixed short period of time,” the EOCO alert warned.

“The company operates a Ponzi/Pyramid scheme and the general public is cautioned to desist from investing and patronizing Chy Mall. Therefore, anyone who transacts business with them does so at their own risk.” 

The statement comes two years after the EOCO had probed the company and confirmed it does not have the necessary licenses from the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

The SEC and BoG have already issued statements warning that the company “has not been licensed to carry out any Capital Market activity including investing or trading for returns.”

The products offered by the Chy Century Heng Yue Group Limited and Sairuir-Commerce Ghana Limited is e-Commence that should ordinarily fall under the Payment Systems and Service Act 2019 (Act 987) would have been regulated by BoG which if it was operated physically. 

However, Ghanaian regulators can only blow hot air and would not likely have the ability to stop such transactions since it is an online transaction that Ghanaian authorities have no jurisdiction over.