KAMPALA, UGANDA: Police in Kampala have arrested Yinghe Chen, a Chinese National and owner of Acclaim BLQ Sports SMC, a Football Ponzi scheme that defrauded upto 4.5 billion shillings from 6000 Ugandans in last year’s cyber heist.
Mr Chen, 43, a resident of Bukoto in Kampala was arrested and detained after a team of detectives from the Criminal Investigation Directorate and the National Cyber Taskforce followed up to investigate the case last year in October when the heist was registered.
“A team from CID has today 23. 06. 2023 arrested Mr Yinghe Chen aged 43 years of Chinese Nationality and a resident of UCB Zone in Bukoto 1, Nakawa Division in Kampala,” Deputy Police Spokesperson, CP Polly Namaye on Friday confirmed in a Friday police statement.
According to CP Namaye, an interagency investigation was launched by the National Cyber TaskForce after allegations of fraud were pinned against the Acclaim BLQ Sports SMC which owns five (05) subsidiary companies in the country.
“The National Cyber Taskforce is comprised of CID, Crime Intelligence (CI), ISO, ESO, CMI, Bank of Uganda, NIRA, NITA Uganda, and Uganda Banker Association, among others,” said Namaye.
The arrest of Chen brings to five, the number of those arrested in relation to this fraud which left 6000 as victims counting losses of their scammed money.
Others detained include; Chen’s wife, Ms Awori Mary, who is the registered Director of Acclaim BLQ Sports SMC, Akoth Justine Oboth, Achola Mary, and Biira Shamim.
The four suspects according to Police were all produced in court, except for Chen who was smoked out of hiding today afternoon.
BLQ, which initially posed as an online betting platform last year scammed over 6000 Ugandans by luring them on how they can easily get rich by multiplying their deposits through bets throwing many unsuspecting individuals to fall victim to the online scam.
The “click a button” Ponzi scheme purposefully targeted Uganda a few months back with dubious links spreading like wildfire on WhatsApp, and other social messaging platforms.
The platform would users they would make quick money and become rich through reverse betting before it stole from them money amounting to 4.5 billion shillings according to police.
Ms Namaye said that the Directorate of CID is currently working with DPP to ensure that Mr Yinghe Chen is produced in court to answer the charges before urging the public with useful information relating to the heist to share with the police within their vicinity.
“The Police take these public interest cases very seriously and we encourage all members of the public who have useful information relating to this investigation to share it with the nearest Police,” urged Namaye.
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