Recruits foot-soldiers from front-line churches, NGOs, cooperative societies, etc, across the country
• Deploys social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, whazapp as major channels of communication
• EFCC, other law enforcement agencies on the trail of alleged mastermind, Donald Olorunkeyede
• Members of the syndicates already in police custody
• Victims count losses, many dead from shock and debts

TheNation’s reporters, in this special investigative report, expose the intrigues and underbelly of a new ponzi scheme allegedly operating under the Social Exchange Market (SEM), a so-called nonprofit, nongovernmental organisation which has fleeced unsuspecting Nigerians of over N55 billion under the guise of securing over $500 billion interest-free credit from fictitious donor-agencies abroad with the sole objective of lifting over 36 million Nigerians out of poverty.



Stealin’ stealin’, stealin’ in the name of the Lord…

The above line from Paul Kelly’s popular lyrics ‘Stealing In The Name of The Lord’ becomes apposite in describing the intent and purpose of the syndicate which planned and perfected what may unarguably be the greatest scam ever perpetrated by a syndicate in Nigeria in recent times.

Specifically, the Social Exchange Market (SEM) which prides itself as a charitable organisation being managed by a certain Donald Olorunkeyede allegedly sold a dummy to unsuspecting members of the public about a purported $500billion interest-free grant to uplift over 36 million Nigerians out of the poverty trap. To achieve his utmost objective, he played up the religious card: by simply engaging the services of Bishops, Pastors, Venerables, Reverends, Elders in churches, who from investigation were oblivious of his ulterior motives. Shockingly, a lot of people who were gullible enough to fall for the bait are seriously gnashing their teeth.

How it all began

The story started around 2016 that the grant is coming from World Bank, being called Bottom-up project, which was later disclaimed by World Bank. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/09/06/fraud-alert-world-bank-warns-of-co-operative-scheme-scam (from World Bank official Website). This scheme promise to provide grants of up to N10m to each applicant, establish 10,000MFO (each MFO has 1,000 applicants), disburse the fund through the use of NGOs and Micro Finance Banks/Outlets. SEM owner, Bar Donald Olorunkeyede claimed that he sourced this fund, $500b from world donors.

Presently, about 10 million Nigerians have applied for this scheme which has been running for close to three years.


Continue here
http://thenationonlineng.net/syndicate-operating-sem-scammed-nigerians-n55b-1/