SCAM ALERT: UK COMPANY LURES EMASWATI TO INVEST

MBABANE – A company believed to be from the United Kingdom is inviting emaSwati to make investments of E50 000 for E500 000 profit in four months.

The company wrote a letter, which circulated on social media where it relayed its intentions, beliefs and what it seeks to achieve not just for emaSwati but the African continent as a whole. However, it turned out the company, whose name was not revealed in the letter, is not legit as Mdladla Attorneys and Associates distanced itself from it, after it had claimed that it was represented by them in the country.

Mdladla denied representing the company and emphasised that he did not know them and did not associate with them in any way. “We do not know this so-called investment company and we wish to warn emaSwati to be careful and not fall prey to what they are selling,” he said. The letter parades contact numbers of UK origin, making one to conclude that it is based in European Kingdom and the numbers are for whatsApp to get more details on the operations of it.

Purpose

“The purpose of this document is to offer opportunity to invest in our company and asset portfolio. We are offering the opportunity to 200 individuals picked randomly and are set to publish an advertisement on the local newspaper during the week of May 5 to 10,” reads the letter. It is detailed in the letter that the purpose of it is to attain seed funding for product launch in Eswatini. “We also want to create a very short-term stock market/exchange for our company to assess value and opportunity in Eswatini. For anyone who is not familiar with the term (stock market) it is basically the trading of company shares by the public.” They explained that this was done using a system called an IPO (initial public offering), which, in essence was what they wanted to accomplish with the letter.

“We are giving the public an opportunity to get behind our philosophy and beliefs rather than our products and services. We believe that Eswatini can develop in ways unimaginable to more than 90 per cent of the population and this is throughout Africa as well,” reads the letter. Through the letter, the company revealed that growth for the local and continental economy was not only possible, but it could happen rapidly. It was revealed in the letter that the problem was of people who were committed to sacrifice their time, effort, wisdom, energy, go through spiritual fatigue, literal fatigue and ultimately bleed and sweat for the Kingdom of Eswatini and the continent and that is what they represented.

“We are in the business of developing businesses; our data has identified ways of improving multiple markets/industries. Therefore, our purpose is to develop African businesses (big or small) for the overall development of the continent,” reads the letter in part. The company, through the letter, revealed that their asset portfolio ranges between electronic sports, music and entertainment, farming, student transit, property rentals, media, house cleaning and maintenance, sports, food and beverages business consultation, which would be franchised in multiple African cities.

Revealed

They revealed that their projected value of assets was somewhere between E100 million to E300 million per year. The company revealed that they felt the need to mention that this was not a scam, a pyramid scheme, not even a stokvel. “These are the things derailing our progress as Africans and for transparency we want to mention that our company is represented by SV Mdladla and Associates and we have a pending file opening with MLK Ndlangamandla Attorneys, therefore, anything mentioned in this letter will be vetted by them and any legal firm legal firm preferred by interested investors,” reads the letter.They mentioned that they wanted to have all the necessary security systems to prove that they did what they said they believed. It was mentioned in the letter that the offer was limited to less than one per cent of the people who had read the letter and those who would see their advert.

Sacrifice

“We seek an investor who aligns with our beliefs; we are selling integrity, sacrifice, endurance, wisdom, grit, innovation, sustainability, honesty, boldness and profit. All we are looking for is an investment of a minimum of E50 000 and we guarantee a tangible return of E500 000 in less than four months of investment,” depicts the letter.

A question was sent to Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) Head of Stakeholder and Consumer Affairs Mbuso Gamedze through WhatsApp to ascertain if they had knowledge of this company, but there were no responses at the time of going to print yesterday. It should be mentioned that previously, multiple companies and individuals invested at Ecsponent with the hope of making profit, but their investments; amounting to over E340 million were lost.  

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: