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Nigerian celebs lose whooping N41m in gambling scheme

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Nigerian celebs lose whooping N41m in mmm scheme

The drama around the Ponzi scheme, which got suspended recently, seems to have revealed the hidden sides of some Nigerian celebs.

Reports say a few of them may have committed about N41 million in the money-doubling scheme pioneered by Russian ex-convict, Sergey Mavrodi.

The question agitating close watchers of the creative industry is why a handful of the country’s known celebs got sucked into a venture widely acknowledged for its serial scams. Was it the attendant hardship in the country? Or, could our class acts have been driven by sheer greed?

While analysts are busy hazarding guesses, what is clear is that panic pervades the air as many Nigerians, estimated to be about 3 million, stand the risk of losing investments worth about $700 million.

Read also: Nigeria’s creative industry to gross N16bn by 2017

‘Sekem’ exponent, MC Galaxy, stands out in the pack. He is about now cursing his stars after claiming he invested the sum of N25 million which has now been frozen. While expressing his frustrations on his Instagram page, the artist also blamed his manager for making him invest his hard earned cash in the Ponzi scheme.

Media personality and fashionista, Noble Igwe, also lamented his loss when he claimed on one of his posts on social media that he invested N16 million in the Ponzi scheme after he was convinced by his barber who told him he had gotten alerts from MMM.

‘Kukere’ crooner, Iyanya, according to reports also invested a huge sum in the scheme and was spotted at the one year anniversary of MMM staged in Port Harcourt last month, though he is yet to declare any loss.

The seeming desperation for money doubling avenues by some celebs makes one wonder what may have become of the N3 billion intervention fund former President, Goodluck Jonathan, injected into the nation’s entertainment sector.

Is anyone deserving of pity here? Indeed, the key poser is why would people invest in a scheme described as fraudulent even by the government?

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