In Greed We Trust - Until We Get Caught or We Lose Money

In Greed We Trust?

Bernie Madoff, was an American former stockbroker, investment advisor, financier and now a convicted fraudster who is serving a federal prison sentence for a massive Ponzi scheme that he ran. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies in which, he defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars – almost $65 billion that, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison. So what does Bernie have to do with today’s Sunday ramble so I hear you asking yourselves?

Bernie Madoff

Until Bernie’s Ponzi scheme collapsed, I had never heard of him (Bernie) just like I had never heard of Nasser Nduhukire until, pictures emerged on social media showing him being pulled out of a ceiling by the police. Don Nasser, as the baleebsi that followed his every move called him, literally popped out of nowhere as in, one day he wasn’t there and the next, he was.

Greed Got The Better Of Nasser Nduhukire

The swanky Speke Apartments in Kololo, was one of the places where he was a regular and when it came to rides, they were all personalised – Nasser, Nasser 1, Nasser 2  - right down to a Rolls Royce worth sh1.7bn. Like many mystery tycoons so a post on social media read “he took over the social scene and splashed wads of cash like he had a money printing press in his garage at home.”

So where did all the money come from? Does he really have a money printing press? Did he win the lottery? Did he inherit? Err not at all. Don Nasser was a just another Bernie Madoff except, he wasn’t operating a Ponzi scheme, but like Madoff, he had the gift of the gab to prey on peoples greed and John Hill, an American national, was just one of those people consumed by greed.

Is Greed Really Good?

Don Nasser preyed on Hills greed – telling him that he could supply him with 75kg of raw gold and just like Madoff convinced investors to invest with him, Hill did just that to the tune of $700,000 (sh2.62bn). Except there was no gold – but Hill didn’t know it just like Madoff’s investors didn’t know that he (Madoff) was simply running a Ponzi scheme. By the time the dust had settled, Hill had lost everything. He lost his job and had to sell his home.

Following on Don Nasser’s heels is Charles Nwabuikwu, a Nigerian national who landed here almost a year ago and ready to satisfy our greed. His scheme was too good an offer that with all our greed, you would stupid not to take him up on it. Simply buy a computer tablet at sh580,000 and every month the buyer would reap in sh370,000 in monthly earnings.

Charles Nwabuikwu's Greed Brought Him To Uganda

Better still, if a child bought an iPad at sh327,600, they would earn sh185,000 every Christmas until they were 21 years old. His Ponzi scheme was so successful that anybody who worked for him felt they had the dream job. He threw them monthly Request Night parties and lavished them with gifts. And when his employees went out do marketing, they didn’t use bodas or trudge the dust beaten streets of Kampala but, went by Land Cruiser Prado – 67 of them which he hired to drop his employees to cut business deals with unsuspecting clients. Then he targeted single mothers with soft loans except, they had to fork out sh1m of their own money to be eligible. And like all Ponzi schemes, Nwabuikwu’s scheme burst. The single mothers lost their sh1m, and the kids won’t be getting their sh185,000 this Christmas. 

Greed Is Good Until We Get Caught Or We Lose Money

Greed is good - until you get caught or lose money. But Madoff, Don Nasser and Nwabuikwu are not crooks. They didn’t steal our money. Rather, all they did was they rightfully took advantage of our unsatisfiable lust for greed. You see, we were too consumed by greed hat we didn’t even notice that the deals they flaunted before our eyes were the dodgiest of deals. 


Pictures: Spy Reports, Galaxy FM