Kampala. More than 200 people who allegedly lost their monies after participating in a fraudulent Ponzi/pyramid scheme have sued its proprietor.

In July 2017, Bank of Uganda (BoU) released a statement cautioning the public against investing in Ponzi/pyramid scheme.

In the statement, BoU defined these schemes as fraudulent investing scams promising high rates of return with little risk to investors.

In a suit filed before the Commercial Division of the High Court against Mr Smart Protus Magara, the 213 plaintiffs claim that the D9 Club he operates in Uganda was inherently the fraudulent Ponzi/pyramid scheme which collected and pooled their money.

Demands

Through their attorneys of Arcadia Advocates the plaintiffs state that the defendant (Magara) was the proprietor and operator of D9 Investment Club wherein all the plaintiffs were duly registered members. The club was operated on the website www.d9clube.com.

“In order for the plaintiffs to participate in the activities of the defendant’s club of investment, they had to be duly registered as a member. To this end, the defendant designed various membership accounts/ packages with varying rights and privileges to wit; start + bronze $299(about Shs1.12m), start+silver for $549 (about Shs2.05m), start + gold $1,048(about Shs3.9m) and another start + gold $2046(about Shs7.6m),” the suit reads in part.


“…the defendant promised the plaintiffs that if they subscribed to the above packages, they would get weekly returns as follows Bronze gains $12.75(about Shs40,000) per week, silver gains $27.75(Shs100,000) per week for 52 weeks, gold gains $51(Shs190,000) per week for 52 weeks, gold gains $170(about Shs600,000) for 52 weeks,” the suit reads.

The suit also contends that the defendant adopted the concept of network marketing where members were encouraged to invite other people to join the Ponzi scheme and for this they would receive bonuses. They are now seeking for court to order the defendant to refund all their monies they invested in his quack scheme.

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