To me this is one of those “everybody was in on it but now nobody wants to take responsibility for getting scammed” type stories.

Increasingly Africa is a hotbed of recruitment for the MLM underbelly. Over these last twelve months I’ve seen Nigeria in particular popping up time and time again in marketing efforts for various dubious opportunities.

With a notorious reputation for internet fraud, I suppose the two go hand in hand but you’ve got to wonder exactly how many Nigerian princes there to keep falling for these scams.

Today we take a look at a case in Ghana, a country a few hundred kilometers west of Nigeria.

TelexFree, bank staff making off the books loans to investors and bank management in denial… yeah, you know this isn’t going to end well.

So the story goes, a bunch of employees from Ghana’s Opportunity International bank got together with TelexFree investors and wrote them loans.

Employees involved include a Credit Officers, Relationship Managers, a Transformation Officer,
Compliance Officer
and Branch Manager of Opportunity International’s Madina branch.

Madina is a town in the south-east of Ghana with a population of around 137,000.

Back in December 2013, when everybody involved with TelexFree was running around naively with huge dollar-signs in their eyes, the Transformation Officer involved brought in a bunch of TelexFree affiliates seeking loans to invest in the scam.

The Branch Manager herself put the Transformation Officer in touch with the investors, allegedly cc’ing the entire branch staff and senior management of her intentions to provide them with loans.

For reasons unknown, the mention of TelexFree failed to trigger any compliance alarms.

Says Prince Asamoah Welbeck, the Transformation Officer involved,

We had a meeting and the Telexfree agents made a presentation of their business they wanted us to finance. We were given forms that have already been filled to complete and distribute without complaints.

In our normal practice orientation and assessments are done before forms are filled but with the Telex Free loans, there was no orientation done” he stated.

Orientation and assessment would appear to be due diligence that 
should
have set off the bank’s compliance alarms.

But for some reason Branch Manager Yvone Nortey didn’t want these loans scrutinized. Instead she pre-prepared the loan forms before the loan request and sought to expedite the process.

Again, for reasons unknown, this plan worked and Opportunity Savings loaned Ghanaian’s 1.2 million GH₵ ($365,000 USD).

To put that figure into perspective, the average monthly salary in Ghana is about 3,746 GH₵ ($1,141 USD).

In March 2014, one month before TelexFree was shut down by the SEC, a bank employee went to a local TelexFree affiliate’s office to fill out their loan forms.

Once again, established regulatory procedure went out the window.

On Tuesday 4th March 2014, I visited the Telexfree business centre at Legon to fill the forms for the client

🤖 Quick Answer

What is TelexFree and its connection to banking fraud in Ghana?
TelexFree is a dubious investment opportunity that involved bank staff in Ghana extending unauthorized off-the-books loans to investors. The scheme resulted in significant financial losses of $365,000 and subsequent staff terminations, exemplifying fraudulent practices increasingly prevalent in African markets targeting vulnerable populations seeking investment returns.

Why is Africa becoming a recruitment hub for MLM schemes?
Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana, has become a target region for multilevel marketing (MLM) recruitment due to limited financial regulation, high unemployment rates, and internet accessibility growth. Fraudsters exploit these conditions to recruit participants in schemes disguised as legitimate investment opportunities.

How do off-the-books banking practices facilitate investment fraud?
Bank employees circumvent institutional controls by creating unauthorized loans outside official records, enabling fraudulent schemes to access capital without regulatory scrutiny. This practice allows sc

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