General News of Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-01-16
Menzgold was asked by SEC to close its gold vault market on friday, september 15
Meet Kojo Benneh (Not his real name.) He runs a transportation business and has a herbal shop.
Legitimate businesses
But all his starting capital came from Ponzi schemes, he confessed on the Joy FM Super Morning Show Tuesday.
“It’s like a bet,” he told host Daniel Dadzie.
Kojo revealed he has put money in three previous ones, which have all collapsed.
But they did not collapse with his money. “Yes of course, I do get my money back,” the lover of risky ventures said.
Experts are pointing to Menzgold as a Ponzi scheme which lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors by using funds obtained from more recent investors.
At Menzgold, clients were promised 10% on returns, a venture which analysts say was unsustainable and risky.
The company faltered in its promise to honour obligations following an order from the Securities and Exchange Commission last September to shut its so-called gold trading business
Ghanaians are waking up to how Menzgold was able to go on for at least four years, amassing a reported 60,000 clients who are struggling to accept that their monies have gone down the drain.
Kojo Benneh while confessing his love for Ponzi schemes says he refrained from putting money into Menzgold. He explained he heard about it when the company was well into its fourth year of operation.
According to Kojo, he invests early risky schemes rather than later when the company had grown big and the bubble could burst at any time.
Kojo Benneh said he introduces people to Ponzi schemes but clearly tells them the risks involved.
“It is not for my father or mother. I don’t know where it is coming from,” he tells his targets and warns them “don’t come and complain to me,” if they lose their investments.
“If you do not have the heart please don’t come in,” he rounds of his risky advice to acquaintances and friends.
Despite the illegal existence of Ponzi schemes, Kojo Benneh said “I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Read more: Any scheme that pays 10% returns monthly is Ponzi – Expert
His Ponzi-funded herbal shop of ¢7,000 is making him ¢1,500 in monthly returns. Sometimes ¢1,200 a month.
He used Ponzi returns to buy a public bus – “trotro” – for ¢10,000. He used ¢2,000 to repair it. The functioning bus fetches him ¢100 a day. At least ¢2,000 in a working month.
Kojo Benneh revealed he is into two other Ponzi schemes. It pays him 3% daily on his investments. With 15% returns in a week, it makes Menzgold’s 10% per month look like chicken feed.
“They pay us in Bit Coin,” he revealed about the controversial space of cryptocurrencies.
“I know that they are Ponzi schemes” he indicated as his eyes were wide open in the valley of the shadow of dangerous investments.
The most recent one he invested in began only five months ago, he said.
“I know that this one will last for more than one year,” he calculated his exit strategy before the bubble eventually bursts.
“Out of these Ponzi schemes I have gotten so many things from it,” Kojo Benneh applauded a life a dangerous investments.
