Victims of Cryptocurrency scam to drag company to court
Some victims of the alleged cryptocurrency scam have resolved to take legal action against management of Global Coin Community Help (GCCH), the company they reportedly invested hundreds of thousands of cedis with.
They said the decision to seek redress in court is based on the fact that efforts by the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Police CID to investigate and bring the company’s directors to justice have so far yielded no positive results.
One of the victims, Solomon Anderson who spoke to Citi News said they are under severe economic pressure because their funds have been locked up with the company, hence their decision to head to court in a bid to compel the company to pay them back their funds.
“We petitioned EOCO, we petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission, we also petitioned the CID and its unfortunate we’ve not heard anything from them so our money has been locked up. Just last night we came together and decided to take a legal action since all the security agencies we petitioned have not been able to get back to us, so we are pursuing a legal action.
The company is said to have swindled more than 110,000 customers of their deposits to the tune of GH¢135 million in a crypto-currency arrangement.
The investors were promised a monthly return of 27% on their investments for 12 months.
The principal investments of the depositors and interests payments by the company would then expire after a year with depositors expected to earn back their investments after just four months.
Many of the victims are already suffering public backlash with claims that they were driven to invested huge sums into the company by greed.
Over 110,000 depositors are reported to have been duped of their investments, said to be in the region of GH¢135 million.
The recent struggles of gold dealership company, Menzgold, and a number of microfinance institutions caused some worry among the investors, but the company dismissed these concerns assuring them that government had no jurisdiction over cryptocurrency.
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is currently investigating the matter, and has already invited the two directors of GCCH, Kwaku Damete Kumi and Mr. David Opatey, for questioning.
The Executive Director of EOCO, Mr. K.K. Amoah told the Daily Graphic that the two have been granted bail but will report back to the Office next week.
He added that despite reports suggesting that 110, 000 persons have been affected, the number is expected to rise as more depositors continue to come forward.
“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.”
“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.”
According to the report by the Daily Graphic, most of the investors were military personnel, medical doctors, police officers, Immigration officials, teachers and traders.
The GCCH offices at Nsawam in the Eastern Region and Haatso in Greater Accra have since been closed down.
source: citinewsroom