Hi there,
This is a long read, but it will be worth your time.
This story is about one of the biggest frauds that has taken place in Africa
It involves one of the strongest voices championing feminism in Africa
It involves the biggest celebrities in entertainment and their involvement in this fraud.
Politicians were scammed,
Celebrities scammed.
Poor everyday people lost all their money.
This story is a scandalous one, one that has made many lose their life savings, broken homes, and left many in tears.
If you’ve ever invested in people or a company before and you were scammed, you would understand it.
If you are considering investing, you might just want to finish reading this.
But first, let me ask you this…
Did you know, one of the most brilliant minds ever, the great Isaac Newton, was scammed off his hard-earned money? He lost a whooping £20,000 (that would be £4m today) in the South Sea Bubble.
Someone as brilliant as Isaac Newton was ignorant of money?
Howbeit, poor creatures like you and I? So, before you jump on that billion-dollar investment they are selling to you using celebrities, you might want to read this story to the end.
Otherwise, farewell my friend till we break bread again.
Let us begin…
Our story began when a young, beautiful, and brilliant lady by the name of Glory began lifestyle marketing on Instagram with the handle @NigeriansAbroad.
As you already know my dearest reader, pictures they say speak louder than a billion words, however, Glory was not just perfect on camera, oozing brilliance, strength, money, beauty, luxury, and successful entrepreneurial vibes with her bald hair, (what my people call skodo) she was also a darling with words.
She blogged on traveling and fashion, leaving many a Nigerian longing and dreaming of a life like hers.
Born Gloria Osadebame Igberaseme in 1992, she was a graduate of Leads University where she studied Biochemistry.
Her love for fashion and lifestyle was so intense she would create two blogging sites, Shaapeyou.com.ng and wenoir.com; both sites are no longer active.
Stay with me and I’ll tell you why shortly…
A Picture of SUCCESS
Like a moth to fire, it is natural to gravitate towards what looks like success.
I mean, naturally, the average man wants a luxurious life, a life where they can eat whatever they want, wear whatever money can afford, be free to travel, spend the night in expensive hotels, drive the best cars, and live the best version of their lives.
This was what Glory projected to the world and soon people began gravitating towards her. Then came the icing on the cake…
She was a strong voice for feminism in Africa and would go on to create the brand, Femfunds.
A brand that focuses on helping African women access funds to start, stay and scale their businesses.
One time she did an event that had a bouquet of top experts and captains of industries as speakers. People like:
Peace Hyde – Head Digital Media and Partnership/Correspondent Forbes Africa
Chinny Ogunro – Managing Director African Health Holdings
Arese Ugwu – Founder SmartMoney Africa
Tosin Durotoye – Consultant Strategist.
Oh, at least I forgot, our beloved Johnny Drille was the star present to croon her audience made up of hundreds of young girls believing, trusting, following, and supporting this successful entrepreneur.
Yet, while she was a strong voice for feminism, she was happily married… A part of her life she kept a secret for long. And this is where it gets interesting.
Dearest reader, no one is saying you can’t be a feminist and still be married.
The question many of us were asking then is… Why keep it a secret? Why hush it to sell a perception different from reality?
Mind you, there’s a difference between being private and being secretive.
In the case of Glory, she kept it a secret to sell a lie and soon enough, the world would find out the many lies hidden behind the pictures of glam and luxury.
But…
Hey, who would have thought such a perfect life had so much web of lies, hence, many argued it was no big deal.
She was married, she was married. So what? And the good thing was, she was not just married to anyone. She was married to our second character…
Muyiwa Folorunsho
A young and successful entrepreneur with a knack for investing and business growth, or so we thought.
By culture, the average African sees marriage as an achievement. Glory was not only living her best life, a life of luxury, she was also happily married!
What a beacon of light she was for many young people! I mean, she was your ideal young and successful woman. And like the sucker that we are, we were lured in with the flashy pictures, decently lavished lifestyle, a perfect marriage, and a fight for an equal world.
Through her consulting firm, Osei Consult, with the website oseiconsult.com (site no longer active) she would go on to consult for many people and brands.
Dear Reader, let it be known that no one can deny the fact that Glory was a smart Entrepreneur with a keen eye for growth. I mean, she was smart to see the loopholes in the African business space and capitalized on some of them in different industries.
Together with her husband they created and built many businesses like…
LandLagos… Real Estate Firm (think before you buy any property o)
True Rebel Fashion
PorkMoney,
Hyberfactory,
Paymonthlycars,
Medic Surplus,
Femfunds, and
Porkoyum, among other businesses. These brands we will soon find out were fronts for one of the most branded scams in Nigeria.
The Glory-Gory Weapon: The Power of Marketing
Glory understood lifestyle marketing so much, she’d sell a perception of the business to her audience, funneling them down an investment firm, Divergent Enterprise, created by her and her husband.
She was big on marketing her brand, her life, and her visions. By the way, one of the biggest investments you’d ever make on your path to success as a business or personal brand is investing in Marketing.
All successful people know and understand this, even the criminals and fraudsters like Glory. But everyday young people, like you and I, don’t see the importance of it.
This is why so many of us never get ahead in career or business. Learn and get Certification in Digital Marketing for Free here… Career.Growth
Back to our story, like a music star under the spotlight, people and companies troop to Glory to invest in her company.
Who could blame them?
She was an entrepreneurial rockstar and she was killing it.
Her music was so loud and the melody sang beyond the shores of Nigeria and soon she began hosting Femfund workshops to empower young ladies in business.
Her businesses like LandLagos, Porkmoney, and Porkoyum began signing ambassadors such as…
John Dumelo
Adesua Wellington
Ebuka Uchendu of Big Brother Naija
And many others.
The messages and voices of these brands were further amplified by these stars who believed so much in them that they sold it so hard and so much to their audience.
Though these were the early days of Influencer Marketing in Africa, trust us to buy whatever our stars and celebrities tell us is good for us.
It is funny thing that celebrities and stars who have zero understanding of investments are the ones selling investment packages.
They tell us it is good for us, we buy it because if it is good for our celebrities it is good for us. You see now why many lose their money?
Many marriages are broken today because some men didn’t listen to their smart wives but followed the advice and recommendations of influencers
Some families are torn because women didn’t believe the position of their husbands but followed the advice of friends who followed friends who followed celebrities who asked them to follow what they followed.
It All Came Crashing
And so it happened, one fateful day in October, the world of Glory Osei and her husband Muyiwa Folorunsho came crashing down with just a single tweet. Soon after many other tweets followed.
Allegations were made. Truths revealed. Glory and her husband were accused by their former employees of running scam business ventures, operating in a toxic work environment, and as well as poor staff treatment.
Those brands they created were used as fronts to get people’s money.
At first, Glory denied it vehemently. But soon, it all began to make sense. I mean, nobody likes to admit they’ve been scammed.
Nobody wants to deal with that. We trusted the celebrities and bought what they sold to us. But like actual humans, they too were ignorant like the rest of us and fell, victim.
LESSONS
1. Boundaries & Lines/Lies
I do not think Glory and Muyiwa set out to scam people. They were genuine business people. But there is a thin line between hope and desperation.
The thread of risk is a thin one, the sooner you realize this, the gentler you pull. Otherwise, you’d cut this thread and you’d be desperate to find a fix.
This can throw you into a state that will cause you to make decisions that can be good or very terrible. And, especially, when it involves money, they are often the wrong decisions.
Glory and Muyiwa pushed the line too far and ended up scamming Africans of their hard-earned money.
2. Psychology of Money
Investment is not a mathematical equation. It isn’t 2 + 2 equals 4. No.
No two people can invest the same way because they have different investment goals and deep understanding of long and short-term strategies.
Hence, it will be foolish to be compelled to invest in something because a celebrity is selling it to you to invest. But again, we are poor souls who follow the crowd everywhere, even when it has no destination.
As Morgan Housel rightly said, and I paraphrased, Money is a purely emotional subject, but our mistake is we often approach it from a mathematical position. I recommend you read Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.
3. The Long Game
3. Glory and Muyiwa would have still become a mega success if they had stayed within the parameter of safety risks.
The point is, in business, there will always be risks, rewards, and regrets. However, it is important you know that as much as doing business is competitive, it is not a race for a universal finish line.
Hence, go at your pace and in your lane. You’d eventually make success with consistent, diligent, and calculated steps.
Like Glory and Muyiwa and a thousand other young entrepreneurs who started on the right path, you too can miss it and become a fraud like them. Anyone can.
The only thing that can stop you from becoming that is that you stop doing these things…
1. Stop lying to yourself. If you can lie to yourself you can lie to others. And once you begin the web of lies, it is hard to get out of it.
2. Whatever crime you can justify, you can commit it. Hence, do not justify when you mess up, and you know messing up is inevitable in business. Take responsibility, don’t justify.
What Now?
The full story of Glory Osei and her husband Muyiwa Folorunsho cannot be fully told. The actual amount lost to this scam cannot be estimated yet.
Politicians who wanted to hide money would not come out and say they invested too, celebrities whose finances were shaken to their core by theiinvestmentng in the Divergent brands wouldn’t dim their lights in the eyes of their fans who can view them as less smart than they thought.
It is the voices of the ordinary man, woman, boy, girl, and couple whose money can never be recovered that are carrying the songs of this scam for many to listen to.
Have you been scammed before?
Tell me about it.
Dearest Reader, let those who have ears hear what this writer is saying to his audience.
There are so many fraudsters and scammers parading as entrepreneurs, many businesses used as money laundering channel. Before you invest, do your due diligence.
Protect your money. As we speak, these serial entrepreneurs have become one of the most wanted fugitives in Nigeria.
See you again next week.
Yours Billionairely,
Desh
This was a beautiful and enlightening read Desh! Thanks for putting it together. Many of us have lost our hard earned money to scam investments, sometimes greed is the leading factor.. but most people silently move on so they are not misconstrued as less-smart as you have pointed out.
However, I observe that the scam stunts these guys (Glory and her husband) actually pulled were not mentioned. Their businesses were just fronts for covering their scam.. but what scam was it? The story didn’t tell us (maybe there’s going to be a next part and this is to keep us readers in suspense).
They were called out after a tweet.. how did they eventually own up to their mistakes? What happened to their businesses afterwards? Where are these people now? Were they apprehended or still wanted fugitives? These are some of the questions still ringing in my mind even as I concluded the story.
By the way….. Am I one of the very few that have never heard of these guys or any of their companies until I read this story?? Lol
You see all that in the Part 2. Yes Rachael, you have read my works so much to know when there will be a next chapter 😂😂😂
Anyway, thanks for reading as always.
I also, discovered loads of people didn’t know them. You will also be shocked that many didn’t know about Racksterli (by the way, my team and I are working on the Racksterli, Davido and Mercy story)
This is crazyyy. Selling a world that never existed. This is why one must not entangle his or her hearts with cunningly devised fables perfectly crafted by the souls of greedy men and women out there. May God help us discern these kind of people!
It really takes a lot to discern and yes, God help us.
I still don’t know EXACTLY what they did.
What was the scam? What was the Ponzi scheme? The other businesses were fronts but what were they covering? They were taking people’s money and just spending it? What was the one tweet that spiralled into their downfall? This is a vague story.
Albeit a lesson to me.
Great work, Desh sir
Thank you for reading. The Part 2 is being worked on and will be posted on this blog soon. Please make sure you read it ☺️
Deep
Thanks for reading. I hope you will read the Part 2 ☺️🙏🏾
This brought back so many memories mehn, I used to follow glory on Twitter and really admired her business sense and style, but when things began to unfold, they had to come and help me pick my jaw from the ground 😂
The biggest lesson I learnt from the whole saga was never to compare myself to anybody, coz we might not really know what they are involved in!!!
Many of us followed her that way and were dragged after the revelation. I have learnt not to drool over any glory I don’t know the back story. Most times what people sell to us are lies they want us to believe.