Parliament Passes Motion to Ban Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes

Legislators of the tenth Parliament have passed a resolution urging government to ban all ponzi and pyramid schemes that have over the years fleeced Ugandans of their hard earned money.

The motion to ban the pyramid and ponzi schemes was tabled on Thursday by the Western Youth MP, Mwine Mpaka.

Mpaka said that there has been a rise in fraudulent investment firms commonly known as “Ponzi or Pyrarmid Schemes” like Global Finance, D9, Adfast, One Coin, E-Coin, Inonfunds, Amozon Traders, Busy Coin, First Coin, Alliance Global, Prosperity Club, Development Channel among others, that promise high return with little or no risk to investors.

Mpaka said that despite several warnings from Bank of Uganda urging the public not to trust their investments with these schemes, many Ugandans continue to fall victims.

Several legislators as well confessed to having fallen victims of the fraudulent schemes as well as their constituents.

The State Minister for Planning, David Bahati said that government is indeed in support of the motion and would move on to have it implemented.

“I am in support of the motion because the schemes have duped many Ugandans deceiving them of how to make huge profits out of small savings which is impossible,” Bahati told the House.

The Minister added that there some cases of conned people that are being investigated by security agencies.

This prompted Parliament to pass a resolution urging government to ban Ponzi and Pyramid scheme in the country.

The resolution by Parliament comes just a week after Police in Kampala arrested for the second time Charles Lambert, who is said to be the Director of Development Channel, a ponzi scheme that has been operating in Uganda.

Lambert, 44, a British Nigerian was arrested  for failure to settle debts amounting to over Shs 200 million. He is accused of conning millions of cash from unsuspecting clients.

This is the second time Lambert is being arrested in a period of four months. In August this year, Police arrested him for engaging in fraud and money laundering.

His arrest had followed complaints by disgruntled workers of various transport companies who had been planning to set ablaze one of the Development Channel premises. The aggrieved parties told Police at the time that Lambert owed them Shs 127 million.