‘Let’s Partner With You’ seems too corny a name to have for a bank and actually the activities of the so-called wonder bank were labelled by the EFCC as fraudulent. The drama that ensued in Enugu State on Friday when the EFCC arrested Chief Patrick Shanchi Nwokike, at his residence in Enugu State serves as notice to those who choose to invest their hard earned money in too-good-to-be-true schemes.
Let’s Partner With You’ claims to be a bank that collects money deposits from the public with the promise of paying huge interest rates on the deposits. And of course, to make the venture look genuine, few initial members were paid. However, as time went on and deposits increased to the tune of N4 billion, the wonder stopped working as depositors got no interest and worse still, could not withdraw their funds from the ‘bank’.
Fortunate for these ones though, the EFCC spurred ‘by petitions from many Nigerians cutting across religious, gender, ethnic, economic and social status’ arrested the Managing Director, who according to complaints lives large and lavish while depositors are left suffering.
From the legal standpoint, the main basis EFCC has for its actions are the breaches against extant laws which prohibit any company from soliciting and managing funds for the public without due registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC) or the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC).
What remains to be seen though is if the depositors would actually be able to receive their funds back. But on another note, does this whole drama not resemble that popular MMM scheme?