Cytonn Found A Legal Way To Con Helpless Kenyans, And Now It Has Found Another
Edwin Dande, founder of Cytonn Investments, has been exposed as a con artist by a recent ruling of the Kenyan High Court. Judge Alfred Mabeya ordered the liquidation of Cytonn High Yields Solutions LLP (CHYS) and Cytonn Real Estate Project Notes LLP (CPN), the main companies under the Cytonn Group.
The ruling followed an insolvency petition by four Cytonn High Yields Solutions investors.
Dande’s sophisticated scams have left many individuals and corporate investors empty-handed, with their billions of investments now lost.
He had convinced over 4,000 people and corporate investors to invest in his wide array of projects, promising high rewards with low risk.
Dande used his silver tongue and aggressive personal social media promotion to sell his products to professionals including lawyers, doctors, and accountants.
In a telephone interview with the Sunday Nation, however, Dande said that Cytonn Investments Management PLC will continue with its business despite the damning High Court ruling that has spelled the end for its sister companies.
“The investors already decided to terminate CHYS/CPN when they voted to take them into administration in 2021. The administration did not progress. The judge then chose to terminate CHYS/CPN through the official receiver. Our next course of action is as before – to offer the official receiver the same support we offered the administrator to end CHYS/CPN as per the investors’ resolution.
“Cytonn group will continue with its business of real estate development, real estate management, hospitality and regulated fund management,” Mr Dande said. He insists that Justice Mabeya did not allege any fraud on the part of the Cytonn Group.
Despite the complex structure of the companies and products under Cytonn Investments Management PLC, they bear a striking resemblance to pyramid schemes.
Most investors were not informed that CHYS and CPN were independent of the parent company, leading to confusion.
The company also spread disinformation about the regulation of CHYS and CPN by the Capital Markets Authority.
Justice Mabeya’s ruling confirmed that Dande and his group used separate registrations of products under different companies to confuse the public and can no longer do so.
The ruling also put an end to the confusion about regulation and exposed the two Cytonn products as one of the biggest fraud schemes in Kenya’s history.
Dande resigned from British American Asset Managers in 2014 and registered a number of companies under Cytonn Investments Group, even acquiring one of his former employer’s clients, the Acorn Group. Despite the liquidation of CHYS and CPN, Dande claims that Cytonn Investments Management PLC will continue with its business and denies any fraud on the part of the Cytonn Group.
