Two Nigerian men, who are believed to be involved in a Ponzi scheme in which thousands of people, from domestic workers to police officers, were conned out of millions of rands, have been arrested.
Operating under the company name Wealth Investment in the northern KwaZulu-Natal towns of Ladysmith and Dundee, Ronald Kiggundu, 26, and Abdu Settuba, 35, were nabbed in their newly opened office in Newcastle.
This was after angry investors demanded the 30% return they were promised after they forked out between R1000 and R250000 to "invest" in the scheme.
The two men appeared in the Ladysmith Magistrate's Court yesterday on 145 counts of fraud.
The investors, most of whom are police officers, alleged that they were approached by agents distributing pamphlets, which promised large returns.
Newcastle police spokesman Shooz Magudulela said the company set up shop there only two weeks ago.
"We are currently looking for the bosses of this Ponzi scheme," he said.
Investigations showed that the investors were "happy" until their returns stopped a week ago.
A policeman, who asked not to be named, said he reaped handsome rewards until the payments stopped.
"A number of police officers participated in the scheme, investing our money with the hope of getting huge returns. There was nothing suspicious. The scheme was paying well every week," he said.
He said other officers did not want to talk about the scheme because they were too embarrassed about being conned out of their money.
Domestic worker Nokwanda Ndlovu invested R2000 and received R1200 in return in two weeks.
She said she bought into the scheme after being told that it was "so legitimate that even police officers had invested in it".
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