FLASH: Nigerians Lose Billions To Another Ponzi Scheme, FF Tiffany

Operators of another Ponzi scheme, FF Tiffany, have pulled a fast one on unsuspecting Nigerian investors, fleecing them of hundreds of billions of naira.

The number of Nigerians who lost money to the scheme, as well as the total amount they lost, could, however, not be immediately ascertained as of the time of filing this report.

It was, however, discovered that the investors are spread across major towns and cities in Nigeria, even extending to a number of Nigerians in the diaspora.

THE WHISTLER‘s investigation uncovered 70 different accounts in Microfinance Banks and digital payment platforms through which the operators received payments from the investors.

A breakdown of the list showed that 59 of the suspected fraudulent accounts are domiciled in Goldman Microfinance Bank, with its head office in Asaba, Delta State.

Five of the accounts were traced to Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, while two digital payment platforms – GOMONEY and Paga had four and two respectively.

Further investigation revealed that the suspected fraudsters engaged the investors through an elaborate web page and multiple WhatsApp platforms.

The investors were deceived into believing that their funds were being invested on their behalf in multinational companies like Samsung, Wells Fargo, Nestlé, Rio Tinto, Microsoft, Coca Cola and several others.

The operators of the scheme baited the investors with mouth-watering returns on their investments, with maturity dates varying from three days to 365 days.

The promoters of FF Tiffany claimed to be an investment group based in France, from where they were purportedly operating a legitimate business.

Members of their marketing team, who were designated HR, displayed foreign telephone numbers, which were suspected to have been cloned.

Some of the telephone numbers of the HRs, exclusively obtained by THE WHISTLER, are: +33773473292, +33748557360, +33774010961, +33773134710, +33748548293, and +1(213)6592630.

Further checks revealed that the foreign phone numbers might have been cloned from the platform of a France based telecom firm, Syma Mobile.

Syma Mobile is the telecom arm of its parent company, Altice, which is also owned by Société Francaise du Radiotelephone (SFR).

Altice France acquired Syma Mobile in May 2022, following its full operation as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

The only local telephone number the FF Tiffany promoters displayed, was MTN number 07048622696. A search on Truecaller identified the subscriber as Ugo Biyi. Repeated calls to the line failed to connect.

The scheme, which was said to have been launched sometime in January, this year, operated unhindered until June 21, 2025 when the operators shut the investors out of all their web page and WhatsApp platforms.

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In what turned out to be a mop up strategy, the Ponzi operators had on June 19, requested the investors to pay what they termed “Social Security Fund,” failing which they would lose their investments.

The request was posted on their WhatsApp platforms by a certain “Kenneth”, who claimed to be the “Regional Director” of the scheme in Nigeria.

According to “Kenneth,” the request for the payment of the said social security fund, was a directive from the “French Social Security Administration and the International Social Security Association.”

After receiving the payments, the syndicate came up with another request the following day, June 20, asking the investors to pay what was termed “Liquidated Damages” or lose all their investments.

Investigation revealed that many of the investors were forced to pay the levies as directed, believing that doing so would enable them recover their trapped funds.

Others simply ignored the directive, apparently when it dawned on them that they were being scammed.

All their operation and transaction platforms were eventually shut down on June 21, leaving the distraught investors with nothing.

The “social security fund” levies imposed by the syndicate, ranged from N4, 500 to N10, 000, 000 depending on the categories of the investors.

The investors were stratified into 10 categories; from Level 1 to Level 10, and were ranked in ascending order, with those on Level 10 being the highest in rank and with the highest investment stakes.

The rates were as follows: Level 1- N4, 500; Level 2- N12, 600; Level 3- N37, 800; Level 4- N112, 000; Level 5- N290, 000; Level 6- N731, 250; Level 7- N1, 430, 000; Level 8- N2, 880, 000; Level 9- N5, 175, 000; Level 10- N10, 375, 000.

For “liquidated damages,” the investors were asked to pay 20 percent of their total investments already in the custody of the syndicate.

They were requested to make the payments through transfers from deposits in their individual bank accounts.

In all transactions, the operators provided the investors with links that led to multiple accounts in Goldman and Moniepoint microfinance banks.

Some of the links also directed the investors to a few accounts in GOMONEY and Paga, two digital payment platforms operating in Nigeria.

While the scheme was ongoing, the operators had discouraged the investors from sharing information about their operations anywhere outside the WhatsApp platforms they created for the purpose.

They cited “laws” in “our home country” governing the operations of companies in their line of business and the huge penalty that non-compliance attracts.

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“That was when I started smelling a rat, but it was too late,” one of the victim-investors, who did not want his name in print, told THE WHISTLER during investigation.

Weighed down by a burden of shame and guilt, majority of the victims have resigned to fate, choosing to quietly lick their wounds and move on.

One of the investors had put the number of victims of the scheme at close to three million, spread across the country.

The number includes some diaspora Nigerians who were persuaded to invest in the scheme by friends and relatives in Nigeria.

Members of the syndicate are believed to have fleeced their victims of hundreds of billions of naira, with nobody in sight to be held accountable.

Details of the 70 individual account holders in the listed microfinance banks and payment platforms, obtained by THE WHISTLER, are published in this report. (see above table).

Checks revealed that Goldman Microfinance Bank has its head office address listed as: Traffic Light Junction, 3B, Ezenei Avenue, Umuezei, Asaba 320242, Delta State.

Calls to a telephone contact listed in the address – 07035553441, indicated that the line had been deactivated. The subscriber is listed in Truecaller as Shola Fantastic.

Worried by the rising cases of Ponzi schemes in Nigeria, the Senate had last Wednesday, came down hard on financial regulatory and security agencies in the country for failing to stem the tide.

The lawmakers, during a debate on the issue, specifically knocked the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) among others, for being remiss in their responsibilities.

According to the senators, laxity on the part of these monitoring bodies and their counterparts in the anti financial crime enforcement agencies, has continued to embolden perpetrators of the schemes.

The legislative body rued the consequences of the trend on Nigerians who are continually falling victim to the fraudulent schemes.

Not a few of the senators cited instances where some victims of the schemes lost their entire life savings, forcing some of them into depression while some others committed suicide.

The lawmakers blamed the concerned government agencies for creating the enabling environment for such schemes to flourish through their inaction.

They regretted that the situation has continued to erode public trust in legitimate financial institutions among Nigerians, thereby posing systemic risks to the economy.

The senators also blamed the erosion of investor confidence in Nigeria on the unchecked activities of the Ponzi scheme fraudsters.

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They noted that the ugly development was part of the reasons foreign investors are exiting the country in droves in recent times.

Many of the lawmakers blamed the victims for their greed and their desperate lust after quick financial gain.

They, however, insisted that despite their flaws, the Nigerian government still owed its citizens the responsibility of protecting them from financial and economic predators.

To demonstrate its commitment to tackling the menace headlong, the Senate, through a resolution, has mandated its relevant standing committees to conduct a comprehensive investigative hearing on the matter.

The committees tasked with the investigation are the Committees on Capital Market; Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions; Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, and ICT & Cybercrime.

The investigation, with a four-week deadline, is being led by the chairman of the Senate committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Senator Tokunbo Abiru.

The debate was sparked by a motion moved by Senator Abiru who represents Lagos East senatorial district, with Senator Osita Izunaso (Imo West) as co-sponsor.

Ponzi scheme syndicates have continually preyed on the greed and gullibility of many Nigerians to steal hundreds of billions of naira and vanish into thin air afterwards.

The long list of the fraudulent schemes include thee Pyramid, MMM in 2016 and MBA Forex in 2020.

The recent one being Crypto Bullion Exchange (CBEX), a digital investment platform that robbed millions of Nigerians of an estimated N1.3tn ($847m).

The EFCC had made some arrests and recoveries in the CBEX case, as investigation into the scam was still ongoing.

However, there were no indications that the revelant security and regulatory agencies had made any move against the FF Tiffany syndicate as yet.

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