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NewsDay

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Police probe pyramid scheme

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AS scores of disgruntled investors yesterday continued to throng Perfect Shot Investments demanding their cash, it emerged the CID has moved in to investigate the pyramid scheme.

AS scores of disgruntled investors yesterday continued to throng Perfect Shot Investments demanding their cash, it emerged the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has moved in to investigate the pyramid scheme.

Report by Blondie Ndebele

Bulawayo police spokesperson Mandlenkosi Ndlovu said yesterday the issue was being handled by the CID.

A company official identified only as Henry told disgruntled clients yesterday that Perfect Shot Investments director Henry Mazhandu was in South Africa to source money. He pleaded with the angry investors to be patient, promising them that by May 20 they would have all been paid.

Forty people who had put their monies in January and early February were given $200 each while others were promised to be given varying amounts tommorow.

Mazhandu has not set foot at Perfect Shot Investment offices situated at Pioneer House since it emerged the pyramid scheme faced collapse at the weekend. His mobile phones have been unreachable.

Clients who spoke to Newsday yesterday expressed fears that they might lose their hard earned cash if the company continued dilly-dallying in refunding their monies. They started besieging the offices on Saturday after speculation that the company had collapsed.

Henry told the investors that they were short-staffed and they needed more time to generate the money so as to repay clients.

“We would not be prudent enough to say we will continue operations because of a number of problems we are currently facing,” he said. “We have some money, but it is not enough for everybody. We are trying to generate extra cash so that it becomes enough for everyone.”

Angry clients yesterday were piling pressure on officials in attempts to get a clear figure of how much in total the company owed them. But Henry, who appeared to be the spokesperson of the troubled firm, could not disclose how much the investors were owed, saying such information was confidential.

“We are trying to process the information and to come up with the exact figure,” he said. “We should be able to pay you back your principals. That is why we are asking for a grace period of up to May 20 to work out something.”

Henry said they did not have a micro-finance registration.