Samuel Uko, a 26-year-old forex fraudster, has joined the Nigerian investment scam league after defrauding unsuspecting 6,000 investors to the tune of N3 billion, according to investors.
In what could be described as a smooth operation, Uko and his girlfriend, Amarachi defrauded Nigerians of billions in less than a year, got married, and vanished.
Masquerading as a forex enthusiast, Uko promised to improve the finances of many Nigerians through his company, SU Global, a supposed investment company with offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
He promised people appetizing profits on investments, and with the repeated mention of ‘integrity’, Uko carefully orchestrated one of the biggest investment frauds in 2021
SHATTERED INVESTORS
With 20, 150 and 300 percent return on investment (ROI) packages, SU Global has influenced a minimum of 6,000 people. While the exact time the company started operations is unknown, victim interviews indicate that it is less than one year old.
Olanrele Tunji first heard of SU Global from a lady he met at a gym centre in Lagos in 2020. He said she persuaded him from time to time to join the platform, but he was not convinced until they exchanged contacts.
“I later convinced myself that SU Global was a real company when she kept posting about how they paid her and others that subscribed to the platform through her,” Tunji said.
Believing in what he had seen, in February, Tunji invested N500,000 in SU Global’s silver package to get a whooping ROI of N750,000 by the end of July 2021.
In April, Tunji began to suspect that something might be wrong with the company as many people raised the alarm that SU Global was a fraud.
“When I heard that I might have been scammed, I called the lady who introduced me, but to no avail. It was later that I learnt Samuel Uko had run away with our money. She refused to answer my calls because she didn’t know what to do,” he said.
For Daniel Okunuga, he did not think he would be scammed by SU Global, not after the company paid his friend in full. SU Global promised Okunuga a three-month 30 percent ROI package. He was told that in the event the forex trade crashed, he would get his exact capital. With unwavering confidence, Okunuga invested N500,000 in December 2020.
“I believed the platform was good. In January, I got the first 30 percent and others who invested alongside me were credited. But subsequently, it’s been stories. The lady who registered me with the company said the EFCC was after the company out of jealousy,” he said.
“She even said that Samuel Uko, the CEO, had built many houses in Lekki and other areas but ran into a loss because no one wanted to buy them. She then assured me that I would get my money if I was patient.”
It is now nine months since he invested, but Okunuga has not received his money, while the representative that registered him has blocked him on WhatsApp.
UKO’S MONTHLY LIES TO CAJOL INVESTORS
Since SU Global stopped paying its investors, Uko has constantly told his investors through his Instagram page that he would pay.
Pecohub learned that the last time SU Global paid any of its investors was February 2021. And even then, only a few investors were credited.
Subsequently, some investors created a Facebook page where they vent their frustration. On Twitter, many investors have called out SU Global, but nothing significant has happened.
Pecohub placed several calls to Uko and Amarachi’s lines, but they were unreachable.
AMARCHI IS BACK AND APOLOGIZING
Amarachi — ‘Amacutiex’ has come out of her hiding place since a year after the whole online outburst, and she is apologizing and insisting she didn’t know about the inner deal with SU GLOBAL
According to Amarachi;
“EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT MY INVOLVEMENT WITH SU GLOBAL”
Amarachi ( Amacutiex )
“In the last one year, people have been drastically hurt because of my actions and
inactions. People looked up to me for answers but I had none to give and this was truly because I was terrified and acted out of fear.
I’m writing this piece to explain everything that happened in detail. This is a full disclosure article. I have decided not to hide anything at all.
Uko Samuel was my friend; we had known each other for a while. In May 2020, he started up an investment company and he wanted me to come on board as a Brand Ambassador for this company, as I was already an established Influencer as at then.
I didn’t really accept it because I had other things I was doing. The matter came
up a second time, and I considered it, but we couldn’t come to a neutral conclusion, so we let it go.. But I gave him all the support I could muster, and that’s because we were friends. At one point, I even introduced a friend of mine to him who was job-hunting at that time.
I put in a word for her, and he employed
her as a Marketer. It is important to note that all these had been going on even
before Samuel started asking me out.
SU Global became quite popular, people got to know I was friends with the
owner, that is Samuel, and they always reached out to me to show their interest in investing in the company. Whenever anyone came to me and I simply forwarded them to my friend, the marketer.
They had conversations and did their
investment directly with a representative of the company. I never had direct
involvement with the company just at that point. I was still just a friend of the
house.
There was a time Samuel met me and told me he wanted to put more structure
into the business and get more experienced staff. So, I suggested a professional acquaintance of mine that was into HR, and after a while, I saw she was hired as a staff.
