SEC shuts down phoney fund manager

The Citizen

The office of the alleged illegal fund manager, Avenues to Wealth ,   was Tuesday sealed off by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after several months of complaints by subscriber to the fund.
It took a combined team of both plain and uniformed police officers from both the commission and the Oduduwa Police Command Headquarters in Ikeja, stormed the premises on Tuesday and sealed off.
The office is  located within the serene Olufunmilola Okikolu Street, off Toyin Street Ikeja, Lagos.
The operation was led by the Assistant Director, Enforcement and Compliance, SEC, Mr. Benard Ebe.
The SEC’s move saw four top officials of the fund managers, including the Managing Director, Mr. Adeolu Akinyemi, being taken into custody at the Area ‘F’ Police Command.
Ebe added: “Three month ago details of the operations of the company came to the Commission. Section 153 of the Investment and Security Act (ISA) showed that operators of such fund must obtain license, to ensure close monitoring by the commission and more so, they are expected to file returns to the commission.”
He said that for any entity to engage in fund management, such organisation must register its operations with the commission while anything short of this would amount to illegality.
Other schemes engaged in by the fund managers include network signup vouchers, estate rentals, real estate, retail supermarket, electronics, IT gadgets,  fund cooperative, travels and telecom.
“They lure people to bring their money to them and in the process they pay dividend or interest as the case may be. From there they pay the initial investors in the scheme, but when the investors have brought a lot other investors on board of the scheme, they will short their premises their making several investors losing million of naira.
A pamphlet from the organization showed that showed thatthe fund projected  a yield on investment  at an average of 20 per cent per annum with a 5 year capital holding.
The commission moves which saw four top officials of the fund managers, including the Managing Director, Mr. Adeolu Akinyemi being taken into custody at the Area ‘F’ Police command, said “Three month ago details operation of the company came to the commission, Section 153 of the Investment and Security Act showed that operators of such fund must obtained license, to ensure close monitoring by the commission and moreso they are expected to file returns to the commission.
However, one of the officials who claimed to be advisor to Avenue to Wealth, but who did not disclose his name, said their operation was registered with the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture as a Corporative Society.