By Charles Ndushabandi
Batamuliza (not a her real name) a mother of three stood staring down through the fourth floor window of one of the office buildings in Kigali where she worked in an audit firm, She was contemplating committing suicide after Tom transfers pyramid scheme fleeced her 25 million francs her husband on foreign mission had sent her to commence construction of family home in Bugesera district about 30 kilometers from the capital where they owned a peace land.
Batamuliza ‘s case is not an isolated one, she is one of thousands of people who have been left in despair with little help from authorities after losing millions of Francs to mushrooming pyramid schemes around the country.
For every person in this world whether young or old the main aim is to get rich in one way or the other. For Batamuliza and hundreds of others saw Tom transfers as the easiest way to get rich. Little did they know it was a pyramid scheme and all they had earned and borrowed money would be lost.
Pryamid scheme is a fraudulent system of making money based on recruiting an ever increasing number of investors. The more one recruits, the more the initial investor is likely to earn through commissions.
Like Batamuliza explains she recruited several of her close friends into the scheme who now brand her a thug.
“The more people we recruited the bigger rank one would get through tokens hence increment in projected earnings,” she said adding “Not only did I lose money but I lost my marriage, friends basically everything has come crushing on me,” she said.
Tom Transfers Company- a dealer in apartments and car rentals registered in Rwanda in 2020 was owned by Thomas Munyaneza, who is said to have escaped to Belgium said to have been operating in the countries like Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal among others.
At the time of its closure in November 2022, the company had been sued by several people on charges of fraud, duping and swindling over Rwf3 billion people had paid the company to get them vehicles for business and day to day use.
Peter (asked his other name not be mentioned) says he paid Rwf 100 million for cars but received none from the company.
“The company left me depressed and broken as i couldn’t pay bank loan. Some of my properties have been attached, I can longer give our families a life they deserved basically I no longer have a life anymore,” he explains.
Among those who sought to recover their money is a group of investors who lost over Rwf 2 Billion to the company these investors paid to import cars for them but neither received the cars nor were reimbursed.
According to their representative who preferred anonymity most investors would order for cars and Tom Transfers Company remain with them noting that “the company would rent them out and give the owners profits. They had to sign rental contracts with the company.”
Sighting his own example per agreement he was supposed to receive Rwf1 million rental fee every month from Tom Transfer as it was renting out his vehicle valued at Rwf10 million.
“We signed the contract in May 2022 but I never received a single coin from the company and on top of that I never got my car which I bought,” he said.
“In August last year we were told to wait for another three months until January next this 2023. We have no hope and that is why as a team we are trying to recover our money though we have little or no hope. Also considering the number people who were fleeced it’s a lot of money which we cannot easily recover,” he added.
But one wonders how these pyramid schemes came into existence and managed to operate and flourish in Rwanda a country known to have strict leadership, intelligence and adhere to laid down laws.
According to our investigation the proprietors of pyramid schemes made a breakthrough in late 2019 after critically studying the situation and laying down plans that could easily be executed.
Afamefuna Emmanuel, a Nigerian national who ran a pyramid scheme in Kabuga a suburb in Kigali that involved rearing chicken on behalf of investors who would get a profit from their investment from 2019 to early 2020 during the first Covid lock down when he fled with over a billion francs of investors’ money says before the break through they had tried several times in vain as security agencies would nip them in the bud before commencing operation.
“ At first things weren’t easy but we developed plans including recruiting as our first members influential people in the country these included leaders who made make big profits and helped us to convince the population to invest,” he explains.
“After got some of the on board including paying a number of other looks the other way commenced with our operations and the rest is history.”
Asked how he managed to transfer the money and flee the country Afamefuna explains that the transfers were done gradually at different intervals over a very long period of time not to raise suspicion among the investors and the state authorities.
“Do you think I could be able to leave the country during lock down without help? Of course not I had got some help from people inside,” he explains.
Asked to name people who helped him Afamefuna says that would be breach of trust of people he worked with very well.
Afamefuna’s collaboration with people in offices to influence others to join these schemes are echoed by a former marketing manager at Tom Transfers (Name withheld on request) who explains that use of celebrities was vital in the success of scheme.
“Use of celebrities as brand ambassadors were vital in the company’s success as they made people have more trust in the company hence increases in the number investor. Investors were not just ordinary people but also members from some of the biggest institutions in the country including those from security services, banks among others mostly these would pool together money and invest in as a group,” he explained.
Among those recruited as ambassadors included actors, actresses, musicians and sports men and teams including the country’s biggest football club Rayon sports that saw them get a team bus and two vehicles for staff as part of their partnership.
He adds that the media played an important role in the company’s recruitment drive in form of advertisement and news stories.
When contacted to find how far the investigations in some of these schemes have reached Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) spokesperson didn’t reply to our calls and emails. However at the time of closing of Tom transfer told Dr. Thierry Murangira told local media that, RIB received cases of clients suing Thomas Munyaneza- who represented Tom Transfers Company” over swindling hundreds of millions from them.
“The company is being accused of four crimes. These include fraud, Forgery, falsification, and use of forged documents, Breach of trust as well as bouncing cheques,” he told local media at the time.
Murangira explained that the company used different tricks to dupe the clients.
“The company tells people that it imports cars for them and then rents them after they arrive in the country. While the client would be waiting for the imported car, they would be given a temporary car to use when they needed it,after realizing that he is being sued, Thomas Munyaneza escaped,” he said.
In Rwanda they have been a number of pyramid schemes with some becoming success full while others failed and some proprietors have been arrested charged but to only be released and re start the schemes. Amongst them was Telex free that closed as soon as it commenced operation this was after it had fleeced Ugandan over $10million.
In 2021 , RIB announced that six companies including Ujama United Family, Tuzamurane, Blessing, StakexChain Rwanda Ltd, CHY mall, 7th Generation Network and Economy Driver were fraudulent and six people involved had already been arrested.
Some of the proprietors at the time claimed that their intentions were to help people and that they never expected the project to go out of hand as it did.