John Abraham (not real name), a Lagos resident who works in a local security outlet, has accused Hale Bird Poultry, an Agro-investment platform, of swindling him out of the N300,000 he invested in their business.

Abraham told FIJ that he came across the investment platform’s flyer while on Instagram.

“I was fooled into believing they were genuine because they were registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC),” he told FIJ.

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He said the money was his initial investment, which was to mature in one month, starting from January 7, 2023.

“On January 7, I invested N300,000 in Hale Bird Poultry. It was supposed to be a one-month investment period, but after the maturity, I wanted to withdraw from the investment, but I could not. So, I sent a message to a number I got from the flyer that introduced me to the company. I made inquiries and I was asked to make more payments, but I declined. Some days later, I was blocked. I have been trying to reach out to them ever since, but they have not been cooperative.”

According to the documents seen by FIJ, the Lagos resident made the payment in two tranches via Access Bank and First Bank. He made the first payment of N100,000 on January 9, and the second payment of N200,000 was made the following day.

On Thursday February 9, the day the investment reached maturity, Abraham reached out to Hale Bird Poultry, having tried to no avail to make a withdrawal from the platform. However, he was told that his “account details unfortunately happened to be one of such accounts which were inadvertently delisted from investors’ payroll…”

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The following day, after numerous attempts to convince him to further make more investment in the company, which he declined, Abraham was blocked from accessing the platform’s website.

FIJ learnt that Hale Bird Poultry was supposed to pay Abraham’s N300,000 with a N225,000 RoI on February 7, 2023.

Instead of paying, Hale Bird Poultry blocked Abraham from accessing the platform.

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Abraham said he sent messages to the police and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), but they said they wouldn’t take up the matter as only N300,000 was involved.

HALE BIRD POULTRY SPEAKS

When contacted on the phone, the investment ocompany stated that their website had a technical downtime and that was why Abraham lost access to the dashboard.

The organisation, however, maintained it did not deny any of its investors access to the website dashboard, alleging that Abraham lacked adequate computer knowledge, as he could have resolved the issue through a code the organisation sent to him.

“Our website had a downtime; we did not block anyone from accessing the dashboard. If he was to be a computer wizard, he would have been able to read the code that was sent to him while trying to have access to the dashboard, where we revealed to him that no one was trying to block him,” said the company.

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“Well, we are working on that and everybody who has been complaining regarding that has been told to reach out to us on WhatsApp for rectification. Probably, he hasn’t done that. If he had, we would have had a solution to it by now.”

When told Abraham reached out to the organisation and learned that he needed to invest more, the organisation said he would have to reach out again. “Let the person send us a message on WhatsApp. We would look into it in the space of a maximum of five working days,” the poultry said.

IS HALE BIRD POULTRY GENUINE?

An internet search for the investment company showed that it is a subsidiary of another organisation called Hale and Hearty Farms Ltd., a registered company.

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A further search revealed that it is not a secure investment platform. The search for ‘Hale Bird Poultry’ returned a plethora of scam-related contents. A further search on the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), a government regulatory body for financial institutions operating in Nigeria, showed that the company was not duly licensed by the relevant government agency, and as such, not safe for financial investment.

The NDIC, in a tweet on July 21, 2022, warned the general public against investing in the company.

True. NDIC does not insure Hale Bird Poultry as they are not duly licensed by the CBN as a deposit taking financial institution. Stay vigilant against Ponzi schemes which are fraudulent investment scams that promise high rates of return with little or no risk to investors. pic.twitter.com/nTSLLlk2Ik

— NDIC (@NDICNigeria) July 21, 2022

“True. NDIC does not insure Hale Bird Poultry as they are not duly licensed by the CBN as a deposit taking financial institution. Stay vigilant against Ponzi schemes which are fraudulent investment scams that promise high rates of return with little or no risk to investors,” the tweet read.