Managers jailed for massive Ponzi scheme

Two managers of an investment firm in Benin have been jailed for 10 years each for defrauding thousands of people in a Ponzi scheme. The case has been described as the biggest financial scandal in Benin's history and has been compared to the Bernie Madoff scam in the US. Business Recorder reports that the CEO of ICC Services, Guy Aplogan, and the company’s director-general, Ludovic Dohou, were at a special court hearing for economic crimes. They have already spent more than eight years in custody. They were charged with conspiracy, defrauding the public and practising illegal banking and micro-finance. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that more than 150 000 people were defrauded of more than $259m. One victim, Eric Justin Denakpo, told AFP that ‘the verdict gives us hope, even if we can't recover everything we have lost’.