WITHIN the human condition, the dream of quick, easily-acquired money that can fulfill wishes goes beyond class, or any other divide; thus fraudsters throughout time have found easy prey in every community through every scamming stratagem mankind can devise. One such ruse is the Ponzi scheme.
A Ponzi scheme is defined as a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a non-existent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors.

It has been explained as a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. This is similar to a pyramid scheme in that both are based on using new investors’ funds to pay the earlier backers.

In Guyana a Cuban, Yuri Garcia Dominguez, teaming up with a Guyanese woman, was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme where hundreds of ordinary Guyanese, as well as some business persons are said to have been fleeced of millions of dollars. Authorities have issued dire warnings to citizens of the risks involved in falling for the plausible encouragement to invest their money in such schemes by Ponzi scammers.

Anti-money laundering laws have caused one local bank to close the bank accounts of the suspected fraudsters, which had minimal amounts of money.
Yuri Garcia Dominguez of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. is denying allegations that he and his Guyanese partner are defrauding people.
However, the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC) have advised citizens to be cautious of pyramid and Ponzi schemes.

The notifying statement from CCAC cautioned, inter alia: “The warning from CCAC is being issued in the wake of several enquiries made to the Commission about the investment “scams”. The commission has also been told of approaches made to persons with the “get rich quick” through investing in these groups that will earn them multiple times their investment. Part of the scheme is for them to also engage in continuous recruitment of persons to join this pyramid scheme.”
CCAC apprised citizens that Part V of the Guyana Consumer Affairs Act, No. 13 of 2011 speaks to the issue of “pyramid selling” as it clearly states a person shall not promote or operate a pyramid selling scheme and any person who contravenes the subsection of this act commits an offence.

“The Act spells out that the term “pyramid selling scheme means a scheme that (a) provides for the supply of goods or services or both for reward; (b) that, to many participants, constitutes primarily an opportunity to sell an investment opportunity rather than an opportunity to supply goods or services: and (c) that is unfair, or is likely to be unfair, to many of the participants… ”

According to CCAC “Just because a promoter of a plan makes a claim doesn’t mean that it is true! Ask the promoter of the plan to substantiate claims with hard evidence. Beware of “decoy” references paid by a plan’s promoter to describe their fictional success in earning money through the plan.”
An advisory issued in October 2019 by the Guyana Securities Council warned of fraudsters fleecing unsuspecting persons by asking them to invest in business in the securities market, even though they have not acquired the requisite licence for such ventures.
The name, Ponzi scheme derives from Charles Ponzi, who was arrested on Aug. 12, 1920 and eventually convicted and imprisoned for swindling thousands of persons in just such a scheme; years later scammer Bernie Madoff suffered the same fate.

However, these two infamous gentlemen were preceded by Sarah Howe in Boston in 1879, when she created the Ladies’ Deposit to help invest money for women. She was eventually charged and convicted of her crimes and served three years in prison. Upon being released, she managed to perpetrate an identical scam for two years before getting caught again.

Although the multi-stakeholder group established by the Government of Guyana to investigate the allegations of fraud and other criminal activities, allegedly perpetrated by Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. through its principals, Yuri Garcia Dominguez and partner, has confirmed that no company bearing the name “FK Choice” is registered with the local or the international Registry of Companies in that jurisdiction, as was alleged by Dominguez. Those at the top of the pyramid are convinced that Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. is a legitimate operation.

In spite of all these revelations and cautionary warnings, those at the top tier of the pyramid, who most likely received some returns from their investments, as well as some who are awaiting their promised gains, staged protest action for the release of the two principals of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall, the Head of the multi-sectoral Task Force established by the government to probe the suspected Pyramid Scheme, told ACFI’s Attorney, Glen Hanoman, by way of a letter that, inter alia: “… you are free to inform me of any other measures, excepting the release of your client from police custody during the investigations, which may assist in the return of the funds to the jurisdiction.”

Although the couple claims that they have funds ready to be disbursed to their investors, it seems unlikely that this is possible because the monies Dominguez had disclosed that was abroad in accounts in the United States, Switzerland, Belize, Germany and Greece, the Bank of Guyana, the Guyana Securities Council and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) – three of Guyana’s major financial regulators and investigative agencies – say they are unable to locate any money.
It is incumbent on Guyanese to take warning from the old adage: “All that glitters is not gold.”