Ponzi Scheme Director Arraigned For Alleged N13.8b Fraud In Port Harcourt

The Port Harcourt Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has arraigned the director of Glossalalia Nigeria Ltd and Pelenged Nigeria Ltd, Precious Williams before Justice S. I . Mark of the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Williams is being prosecuted on a 14-count charge, bordering on conspiracy, advance fee fraud, obtaining money under false pretence and money laundering to the tune of N13.8 billion.

One of the charges reads:

“That you, Precious Williams of Glossolalia Nigeria Limited; Pelegend Nigeria Limited, Phenom 413 Events Limited (company representative at large) and Doxasterz Oil and Gas Limited, sometime between the 24th day of August, 2019 and 15th day of February, 2020, at Port Harcourt, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, directly took possession of the sum of Ten Billion Naira (N10,000,000,000.00) only from Maxwell Chizi Odum (still at large) and MBA Trading and Capital Investment Limited (at large) through your Sterling Bank PLC Account No. 0064260799, when you reasonably ought to have known that the said funds formed part of the proceeds of the unlawful activities, of Maxwell Chizi Odum (still at large) and MBA Trading and Capital Investment Limited (at large) of obtaining money under false pretence from one Christian I. Agadaga and over three thousand (3000) other unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public, under the pretext that it was for investment purposes that will yield for them 10% to 15% interest per month, and you, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15 (2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”

Another reads:

“That you, Precious Williams, and Pelegend Nigeria Limited, sometime between the 17th day of December, 2019 and 13th November, 2020, at Port Harcourt, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, directly took possession of the sum of One Billion, Five Million, Nine Hundred and Four Thousand Naira (N1,005,904,000.00) only from MBA Trading and Capital Investment Limited (at large) through Pelegend Nigeria Limited’s Polaris Bank PLC Account No. 0139723989, when you reasonably ought to have known that the said funds formed part of the proceeds of the unlawful activities of Maxwell Chizi Odum (still at large), and MBA Trading and Capital Investment Limited (at large) of obtaining money under false pretence from one Christian I. Agadaga and over three thousand (3000) other unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public, under the pretext that it was for investment purposes that will yield for them 10% to 15% interest per month, and you, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15 (2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”

She pleaded “not guilty” to all the charges, prompting the prosecution counsel E. K. Bakam to ask for a trial date and to apply for the remand of the defendant in a correctional center, while counsel to the defendant, Tochukwu Maduka, SAN, informed the court of the defendant’s bail application and prayed the court to grant her bail to enable her to prepare for her trial.

The prosecution counsel, however, opposed the bail application on the ground that it was filed prematurely, having been filed before the amendment of the charge and also before arraignment of the defendant. He, therefore, posited that the defence should file a fresh bail application.

In his ruling, the judge held that the defendant be remanded in the Port Harcourt Correctional Center and adjourned the matter till June 17, 2025 for the hearing of the bail application.

The defendant was arrested when petitioners alleged that she received money from over 3000 victims by false pretence and laundering the money for personal use sometime in April 2021.

The petitioners alleged that sometime in 2019 and 2020, the defendant alongside MBA Trading and Capital Investments Limited (MBA TCIL) and its agents, advertised to the general public via its marketers and on social media platforms, assuring the public of a monthly 10 to 15 percent return on funds invested and that after a six month period ,they may withdraw their capital or reinvest it for another six months tenure or as agreed with the company.

Following this false pretence, the defendant alongside other suspects, now at large, allegedly lured members of the public to invest their hard-earned money which aggregated to billions of naira. They neither paid the advertised returns on investment nor paid the investors back.