Published 30th Dec, 2022

Sylvester Akande, an Abuja-based physician, has accused Solflex International Trading company of withholding his $1000.

Akande told FIJ that he came across the platform while surfing the internet for investment opportunities.

“They said one would get a daily return on investment for investing in dollars, and I was interested. When I saw they had an office in Abuja, I decided to walk into the office,” he said.

“Although I met a young lady, I noticed that the office was scanty. The lady then told me that I had nothing to worry about because the Abuja office was just picking up and they were very active in Lagos.”

In June 2018, Akande first committed $100 for forex trade to “test the waters”.

“I decided to make an additional $200 top-up investment on November 20, 2018, after I perceived things had gone well with my initial investment,” he disclosed.

According to the Abuja resident, the company had assured him that he could withdraw his investment capital once the investment period was over.

“Up until this time, I was getting daily alerts of my return on investment and could view the same on my personalised dashboard.”

Akande would later increase his investment capital to $1000 on May 22, 2019, following his conviction that the company was legit based on the success of the previous investments.

FIJ learnt that the company was supposed to pay Akande’s $1000 with the Return on Investment (ROI) valued at $400 on December 19 of the same year.

Solflex International Trading company, however, has failed to pay a dime out of Akande’s capital and ROI for three years.

“On December 10, 2019, I wrote to Solflex to remind the firm of my capital plus return on investment payment which I was supposed to get on December 19,” he said.

“But up till this moment, they haven’t fulfilled their obligations.”

AFTER ASKING FOR MORE TIME, SOLFLEX WENT MUTE

The Abuja resident said two months after his request to withdraw his capital and profit, the company reached out to him on February 18, 2020.

“They asked for more patience as all requests for payments were being processed,” said Akande.

“Between January 23 and March 10, 2020, I wrote to Solflex four times, requesting for the status of my payment. Solflex sent out general mails on what they termed updates between March and October 2020.

“In some of my emails to Solflex, I copied the EFCC and Public Complaints Commision, but there was no acknowledgement or reply from them.

“I went to their Abuja office in January 2020, but it was locked. I learnt that the office was no longer in use.”

He told FIJ that the company would later send several emails to urge the investors, including him, to exercise more patience.

“They kept asking for more time. That same 2020, they promised to clear all outstanding payments by December,” said Akande.

He said he contacted the company again via email to demand payment between September and December 2020 but got no positive feedback.

“All this while, the support line they claim was active never went through, so I could not speak directly to anyone throughout this ordeal.”

MIGRATED TO ANOTHER INVESTMENT PLATFORM

On January 11, 2021, Solflex sent an email with a claim that some payments had been made in the previous year.

For those who are yet to receive their capital and profit like Akande, the company decided to migrate them to another trading platform called Exness to fulfil its payout promise faster.

“This was followed by several emails requesting my information to set up an Exness forex account which I eventually activated,” said Akande.

“To better understand the Exness arrangement and know how much of my $1,404 was paid into the account, I wrote to Solflex on February 27 and March 10 to make inquiries but never got a reply. I could not reach them on the phone either.”

Following the migration, Exness sent monthly account statements to Akande from January 2021 to March 2022 via email, but the statements showed a zero balance.

This development left the investor even more perplexed. Since Exness sent his account statement for the month of March, Akande has not received any further communication from the duo of Exness and Solflex.

A QUEST TO IDENTIFY THE ‘SCAMMERS’

A check through Solflex’s now inactive Facebook page revealed that other aggrieved investors registered their displeasure with the company for reneging on its promises.

In a two-year-old message on Solflex’s Facebook page, Mirosław Turovsky accused one Okey Ochulo of defrauding him of $500.

Glory Morgan also invested N304, 000 in 2019, but her money has remained with the company since then.

While Akande could not pinpoint the names of those behind the investment scam since the primary mode of communication was via email, he believes Ochulo is one of the company’s leaders.

“I once spoke with a certain IK who claimed he was a consultant, but I do not have any further details on him. However, from my personal investigation, I came across the name Okey Ochulo, who I believe to be one of the arrowheads.”

FIJ could not reach Solflex International Trading Company for comments as the messages sent on Thursday had not been responded to at press time. Also, several calls were put across to the company’s phone numbers obtained on Facebook, but they were all switched off.

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