By Kebba Ansu Manneh
The Voice Newspaper has uncovered the biggest and first-ever cryptocurrency saga that hits the country with the alleged squandering of more than D29 million (twenty-nine million dalasi) involving Qubid Investment Gambia.
The case is the first of its kind in the country and has surfaced barely two weeks after the end of the annual Congress of Governors of Africa Central Banks, where officials of Africa Central Banks raised the need for caution in accepting the digital currency in African Central Banks and the financial sector.
Reliably sources confirmed to The Voice Newspaper that more than four hundred (400) Gambians have invested their hard-earned money into this cyber business operated by Qubid Investment Gambia earlier this year. Noting that, various investors invested funds ranging from D20, 000 to D1.5million and $ 2 million that they failed to recover closing to a month now.
An anonymous source who spoke with this reporter described Qubid Investment Gambia as a cryptocurrency investment company that lures Gambians into investing online where they are paying a weekly profit of 20 percent of their investment. Source disclosed, too, that the business has been successfully operating with investors receiving both their monies invested plus their 20 percent profit until recently when communication breaks down between the investors and the operators of the cryptocurrency company.
He revealed that more than four hundred (400) Gambian investors, main youths who recently invested in the business, are left in serious dilemmas as the company’s website is no longer accessible while operators remain unreachable. The proprietor of Qubid Investment Gambia is known to one Mr. Marcus a Nigerian national living in the USA but no longer reachable while his representatives have not been coming forth with any convincing information relating to their investment capitals or profits.
The source continued this revelation that the investors have now organised themselves into a group and through the aid of google, a register has been created where more than 400 investors submitted their names. And a committee comprising ten members has been delegated to report the matter to the fraud squad to oversee their case.
According to this source, the ten-member committee has since launched their complaint to the police who have also invited BabucarrJallow, Chief Executive Officer of Qubid Investment Gambia, and his accomplices. Adding that, most members are not happy with the outcome of the Committee’s visit and engagement with the police fraud squad.
“BabucarrJallow failed to provide receipts of his financial transactions to the police that could have made the police investigation easy. The receipts could have ascertained that all the investors were sending money into his accounts at Guaranty Trust Bank and Ecobank, it could also shed light on when, how, where, and who received the monies he, Babucarr Jallow, has been sending outside the country,” Our source quibbled.
The Source added “I suspect the Fraud Squad, it seems they want to cover Babucarr Jallow because they failed to press him to produce all the receipts of these transactions. Babucarr told us he is sending all his collected monies to Marcus and has been shipping more than one million dalasi (D1million) daily that the banks he is dealing with allowed him without raising the red flag. This special treatment given to him is worrying us because we suspect that the Fraud Squad is not giving due diligence to our case against him.
One of the investors who spoke to this medium on condition of anonymity disclosed that he has invested eleven thousand dollars ($11, 000) with Qubid investment Gambia but is yet to receive any profit or neither his invested money received. He said he has tried every effort to get clear information from officials of the company as related to his profit or invested money but to no avail.
He described the silence of the officials of Qubid Investment Gambia as worrisome to The Gambian investors, noting that he has invested two hundred and sixty thousand dalasis (D260, 000) with the hope that in one week he would be able to receive his money plus his 20 percent profit.
“I can tell you that many youths are currently in trouble because the monies they invested were raised either through the support of their families or friends or even loans they took with the belief that within one-week money will come with profit. We are appealing to the government to help us to recover our monies even if we don’t get any profit because most of us took money from people to be part of the investment,” another Investor disclosed.
In his narration, he said “I invested D150,000 with the hope that in one week I will get my money and profit but this is three weeks I got nothing. The CEO of the Company Babucarr Jallow is not taking my calls and texts to shed light for me on what has happened, I’m really in a desperate situation as part of the money belongs to my wife who is continuously asking me questions that I cannot answer.”
The Voice Newspaper has contacted the alleged CEO of Qubid Investment Gambia, Babucarr Jallow to shed light on the recent developments that rocked his company but he declined to comment only referring this reporter to contact the Fraud Squad for any information even though the matter has not been taken to court.
However, this medium has also contacted the office of the Public Relations Officer (PRO) to shed light on the development but is yet to respond to our enquires.
However, Alagie Darboe, Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has disclosed that his institution has not received any complaint about the business dealings of Qubid Investment Gambia, adding that the institution can only act when it received a complaint against them which is yet to happen.
The Voice Newspaper investigation team also revealed that there is no existing registered Company in the country called Qubid Investment Gambia. This confirmed that the company was operating illegally in the country since its inception.
This medium will continue to dig deep into the story and hence will contact both the Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG), Guaranty Trust Bank, and Ecobank to shed light on the alleged shipping of more than one million dalasis (D1million) outside the country by Babucarr Jallow, without due interference by any of these Banks.
It is worth knowing that the current threshold allowed to be shipped outside the country stood at $10, 000 as sanctioned by the government of the Gambia.