Ponzi scheme: Remembering Racksterli by Michael Chidiebere Oti who defrauded Nigerians



 Cases of investment scams have continued to rise over the past few years ever

since Mavrodi Mundial Movement (MMM), a Global Ponzi scheme launched in 2015 in Nigeria was out of the way. A lot of fraudulent Nigerians have since taken advantage of the situation – not providing  adequate knowledge about the investment schemes and defrauding people of their hard earn savings.

One of such investment scheme that would continue to be remembered for ripping people off their funds is Racksterli, an investment platform introduced by Michael Chidiebere Oti, also known as Black Gold.

The aftermath of the 2020 crises led so many people seeking for investment opportunities to cushion the loss which emanated from the ‘many days spent at home without working’. At this time, the song of Racksterli was sang by many who were lucky to have successfully tasted the get-rich-quick platform.

The platform offered mouth-watering deal which it called the Racsterli Package. The least on the package was the standard deal with an investment of N14,000 and a guarantee of N21,600 within one month while the highest was the Topaz,  which requires an investment of N20 million to get N29.3 million. Others are the Diamond, Ruby, Platinum, Emerald amongst others.

In addition to the eye catching ROI (46–58%) promised within the short span, a lot of people were particularly drawn to the scheme by major influencers who advocated for the scheme.

Quam Adebola a fashion designer who lost several hundreds of thousands said, “Naturally, I wouldn’t fall victim of such scam considering that historically, I have been out of luck with many investment scheme. However, I was particularly drawn to invest in this one because of the video of Davido endorsing the platform.”

“I even had to drag a lot of people with me to invest and because of me, they have lost a lot”, he said, regretting his actions. “I don’t know how to face those people. It feels like they put their trust in me and I broke that trust,” he added.

In the 30 seconds video seen by Nairametrics, Davido said, “What’s up everybody. I wanna introduce you guys to one of the biggest investment platforms in Nigeria, racksterli.com. Make sure you visit the website and invest. There are lots of opportunities over there. With Racksterli, you get paid between 12 to 24 hours, you get paid instant payment. It has been very reliable for the past six months.”

Michael definitely did his assignment well when he involved celebrities and influencers to endorse the platform as a lot of investors said their involvement in the scheme is because they so much believe in the celebrities involved. Rackterli also won people’s heart through acts like programme sponsorship such as the Nancy Isime show and others.

In terms of business operations, the platform claimed the accumulated funds were diversified into real estate, forex trading, and sales of gadgets with investments in real estate which were believed to generate significant ROI at the time.

But in March 2021, it appeared Michael could no longer keep up with his style of using Peter’s money to pay Paul as became obvious that the acclaimed investment platform was a Ponzi scheme.

In a video, confirming that there was an issue with the business, Michael noted that even though there are glitches, nothing must happen to investor’s capital. In order to return the money, with the available raw capital, he said that the platform might need to start selling out some of its properties, or start liquidating its properties to raise more funds to add to the funds on ground. He also added that the platform will commence with the available funds.

While many people had thought that was the end, it appeared that the platform wasn’t done extorting people at this point, it came back asking investors to invest the same amount they had lost in order to get a refund for what they were owed in a new platform.

Some people, who felt they would be able to quickly recover their lost fund, fell for it again.” Adebola told Nairametrics.

For me, I knew that was the end of our money and I didn’t bother adding any more money. I only hoped and prayed that God touches his mind so he can pay us our money.”

Unfortunately, until today, a lot of the platform investors still have their money stuck in Racksterli with no hope in sight on getting back the money.

While the total amount at stake is unclear, the website is currently inactive and the platform or its founder has since stopped communicating to investors. One of its Instagram post however reveals that dev.racksterli.com, the new platform celebrated 37,000 subscribers as of June 6th 2021.

After more than a year since the occurrence, a lot of people have seemed to have moved on with their lives though many still carry the pain deep within.  As a matter of fact, many keep wondering why nothing is being said or done about Michael.

A user identified as Akanoaaa on social media said, “It disturbs me how anything has not been said or done about this guy since. He scammed thousands of Nigerians and his platform (racksterli) was so popular then and everybody just acting as if nothing happened.

“The guy is always on IG flaunting his ill-gotten wealth and nobody has ever said anything or take any action.”

Olaboy3 wrote, “I wonder why BlackGold is always excluded in all these. He brought in Davido, Nancy Isime and even started a TV show to make the racksterli scam look real.

“I saw him some months back at Lekki with about 4 policemen in 2 GWagons. I just shaked my end in regret of how my hard-earned money just zipped.”

For Moses Patrick who also lost a significant amount with the platform, what seemed to be more painful is the fact that after everything, everyone has gradually forgotten about the whole thing and Michael is going scot-free after defrauding thousands of Nigerians.

While a direct message was sent to the Lagos state police PRO on any lead around the case, we couldn’t get a response from them as of press time.

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