40 thousand victims of Darfur Ponzi scheme, US$35 million involved

The committee to assess the victims of the Mawasir market scam in El Fasher said that the number of affected has reached 40 thousand, while damages and losses amounted to 82 billion old Sudanese pounds (US$35 million). The committee affirmed that they continue to inventory and register those affected and to work for the restoration of their rights.The pyramid-style “Ponzi” scheme collapsed before the April elections this year. The scheme involved agents buying goods or taking investments but providing cheques rather than cash as payment. Several ruling party officials were later implicated in the scheme, causing defrauded investors to demand that the government act to compensate them. Hundreds of protesters who took to the streets of El Fasher on 2 May were fired upon by security forces. The number of those killed or fatally wounded on that day reached at least nine.