. SEC Warns Nigerians Against Investing In Bitcoins, Other Digital Currencies
The hopes of millions of Nigerians participated in the controversial ponzi scheme known as Mavordi Mondial Movement, (MMM) have been rekindled with the coming back of scheme. MMM, in a statement posted on its official Twitter account, said, “This is to officially inform you that MMM Nigeria is open for business a day earlier than promised! Let’s go there Nigerians”.
Upon resumption, the scheme says its members will now be able to pay and receive money in bitcoins, citing the cryptocurrency’s steady growth in value as a reason for participants to adopt the currency.
MMM’s letter to its participants stated that “in a month, not only 30 percent will be added to your initial amount, but, it can increase itself due to Bitcoin price growth”.
Meanwhile, in a statement that announced its return at about 11am on Friday, the Russian Ponzi scheme said it is setting a limit on daily withdrawals, to control panic withdrawals.
MMM founder, Sergey Mavrodi, said in the statement, “The holidays are over, and we”re now open. Just as promised. (You might have already noticed that we always stick to our promises
“Actually, we promised to be open on January 14, but we”re open now, January 13, as you can see, which is a day earlier. (Well, I hope, the members of the System will forgive us for that.
“It’s related to the hysteria raised by the authorities and the mass media around MMM. By joining forces, they’ve managed to nearly give the members of the System a heart attack and have frightened them out of their wits.
“Poor souls don”t know what to expect. Will we open again or not? This is why we’ve decided, considering the situation, to reach out to the members, reassure and cheer them up by opening a little earlier.”
Citing panic withdrawals as a reason, MMM Nigeria explained that payments would take a few days, and called on the media to leave the scheme alone.
“As of this notice, MMM resumes its usual operation. You can now create your GH-requests. However, it’s obvious that panic will reign in the first few days after the re-opening of the System. We’re likely to be deluged by GH-requests.
“Therefore, we’re going to make gradual paybacks by setting internal output limits. In other words, we will only pay a certain amount per day. Please, be prepared to wait for a couple of days. We are certain things will then calm down, and the System operation will return to normal.
“We’re the ones setting the limits, so it’s completely under our control, and we are not expecting any emergencies in principle. Have no fear and go on about your business as usual.
“As the System is socially oriented, we will make paybacks to the poor and the economically disadvantaged in the first place: it means to the members with small PH amounts.
“The richer can wait. Moreover, we’ve warned you repeatedly to only provide help with amounts that are not critical for you. Therefore, if these large amounts are not critical for them (the richer), they can wait a few days. No need to be tragic about it.
“This is the way it’s going to be. I’d like again to call on the authorities and the mass media: Please, leave us alone! Have mercy on people,” the statement read.
Also Nigerians have been warned against investing in digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Swisscoin and OneCoin.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, disclosed this in a public notice on its website on Thursday, stating that none of the individuals or companies promoting the use of the currencies is recognised by it or any other regulatory agency in Nigeria.
The commission stressed the risks and possibilities of investors losing their money to such investments being promoted by these companies, including fraudulent pyramid schemes.
This comes in the wake of the return of Nigeria’s leading Ponzi scheme, MMM Nigeria, which had earlier placed a one-month ban on all withdrawals from December 13, 2016.
Upon resumption, the scheme introduced the use of bitcoins as part of its payment options, citing bitcoin’s steady growth in value as a reason for participants to adopt the currency.
However, SEC advised the public to exercise extreme caution with regard to digital currencies as a vehicle of investments.
“The public should also be aware that any investment opportunities promoted by these persons, companies or entities are likely to be of a risky nature with a high risk of loss of money, while others may be outright fraudulent pyramid schemes,” the regulatory body noted.
SEC added that, “Given that these instruments and the persons, companies or entities that promote them have neither been authorized, nor any guidelines/regulations developed for them by any of the regulatory authorities in Nigeria, there is no protection available to users or investors in these virtual currencies from financial losses if the virtual currencies fail or the companies promoting them go out of business.
“The public and consumers of financial services are further advised that before making any investment or entering into any financial services transaction they should ascertain that the entity with whom the investment or transaction is being made is authorized by the commission or other financial services regulatory authority as applicable to provide such services.”
The Nigerian Insurance Commission, NDIC, in conjunction with Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had earlier set up a committee to study the trending digital currency, ‘Bitcoin’.
According to the NDIC managing director, Umaru Ibrahim, the commission would look at the advantages and disadvantages of the currency and what it means for the payment systems in Nigeria as well as safety and security of customers.
Mr. Ibrahim said this at the 2016 Workshop for Financial Correspondents in Kaduna.
Such digital currencies, otherwise known as Cryptocurrency, is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency.
Bitcoin became the first decentralized cryptocurrency in 2009.