The government of the United States of America has issued a warning to Ghana and five African countries, to be wary of two cryptocurrency fraudsters who are using investment mechanisms to defraud innocent people.
The Head of the United States’ Cyber Crime Unit, John P. Hooks, in a communiqué, warned thus: “I would like to inform the public, especially in the following African countries and their government: Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, DRC Congo that one Mr. Junior Capputti and Mr. Emerson Pires in the name of president and vice-president respectively, in one programme that they call a company that is known as Mining Capital Coin (MCC).
“The above-mentioned names are con artists running a non-existence company to lure the public into investing their hard-earned money in the cryptocurrency market, which they promise unrealistic ROI and other benefits.
“Our intelligence have information that the named persons in question have been, for a long time, working alongside a fugitive known as Mr. Danillo Santana, the owner of D9 clube one of the deadliest organised scam of all time.
“If you see them in your countries, report to your nearest police station or call our hotline Interpol number below. 33472447163.”
The warning comes just a few days after Ghana’s state-owned Daily Graphic reported that exactly 109, 259 Ghanaian investors have been scammed by Global Coin Community Help (GCCH), a cryptocurrency investment syndicate.
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has questioned the two directors of GCCH for allegedly swindling the investors of GHS135 million.
Mr Kwaku Damete Kumi and Mr David Opatey were released on bail by the state investigative body after several hours of interrogation last Tuesday.
The Executive Director of EOCO, Mr K. K. Amoah, confirmed their arrest in an interview with the Daily Graphic on Tuesday, 27 November.
“Yes, we have arrested them and released them after thorough interrogations and we have asked them to report again next week to continue with them,” the EOCO boss said.
“We get a fresh list of depositors who have been swindled one way or another every day and so the 110,000 figure is likely to go up by the end of the week and the amount of deposits would likely go up.
“There are several other syndicates of this type we have arrested and they are being questioned and very soon they will be arraigned,” he added.
Mr Amoah said the directors were accepting deposits from the public without a licence from the Bank of Ghana.
Background checks on the tall list of some depositors seen by the Daily Graphic showed that majority of them were military personnel, medical doctors, policemen, immigration officials, teachers and traders.
Some of the depositors have formed pressure groups to pile pressure on the government to assist them to retrieve their locked-up lifetime savings.
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