The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, says it will continue to work with law enforcement agencies to protect investors from fraudulent companies like PBAY Limited.
In a recent release, the Commission cautioned the general public against engaging PBAY Limited, an entity which claims it can facilitate the payment of locked-up funds of customers of defunct fund management companies at a fee or commission.
In an interview with Citi Business News, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Reverend Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, stated that its partnership with law enforcement agencies will continue as it seeks to ensure the securities market is cleared of unsavory characters and institutions.
“What I’ll say is that we have a working relationship with law enforcement agencies. So as and when we pick up signals of some entities engaging in activities that are inimical or illegal that threaten unsuspecting investors, what we do is to formally report to these other law enforcement agencies and then they take it from there.”
But speaking on the recent caution note from the SEC, the Secretary of the Coalition for the aggrieved customers of the 53 collapsed fund management companies, Joseph Aryeetey, admitted that members of the coalition were actually engaging PBAY limited and are hopeful the company which claims to have connections in government will help them retrieve their locked up funds at a fee of 2 percent.
“Actually, the management of PBAY approached us; some of the customers. And you know PBAY is supposed to be a debt collecting company so they actually gave us a proposal which indicated that they can assist the customers in general. What they want to do for us is that, they will charge us a fee to also defray their cost in terms of going through the process. According to them the fee is going to be 2% of your total money that you will retrieve at the end of the day. Our lawyers are currently engaging the lawyers of PBAY to really make sure that we tidy up all the loose ends at the end of the day.”
“Frankly speaking, we are also aware of the issue raised by the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that their checks with the Registrar General indicates that PBAY is not duly registered. We have actually informed our lawyers about this. As we speak, PBAY has given us their registration certificate from the Registrar General and from what we see on the papers, it means they are duly registered,” he added.
