The management of Capital Chicken Limited has temporarily closed its operations after the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) froze their accounts but has, however, assured safety of the customer funds.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, 03 October 2023, Capital Chicken said this was after the Capital Markets Authority discredited their operations.
“We have been forced to temporarily close following a Capital Markets Authority news release discrediting us about two weeks ago and the subsequent freeze of our Accounts by the FIA that has made it impossible for us to run normal operations,” they said.
“We call upon our farming partners to be calm as we navigate the turbulence created by the various agencies who should have instead engaged us on Regulatory issues if indeed, the intention was to streamline our operations,” they added.
This comes after news started making rounds on social media about Capital Chicken closing and running away with people’s investments.
“Our attention has been drawn to various social media platform messages indicating that we have closed and disappeared with our farmers’ money,” they said.
“All our client contracts are protected, we ask all our farming partners to stay calm as we look forward to resume operations. Like a Phoenix, Capital Chicken shall rise, again,” they added.
In the Eagle Online story dated September 18, 2023, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) clarified that Capital Chicken Limited, the Mall Fund Limited and Veta Plan Chicken had not sought the approval of the Authority to offer investment contracts to the general public.
According to CMA, it had been receiving various inquiries seeking guidance on the widely publicized ‘investment opportunities’ by the three entities purporting to offer investment contracts to members of the general public.
The Capital Chicken investment scheme targeted mostly corporates who wanted to invest in chicken business but didn’t want to directly get involved in the business.
The company welcomed investments between Shs1 million to infinity for individuals whereas there was also an allowance of investing as a group by pooling resources where at the end of every month one would get profits amounting to 15% of their total investment.
But CMA warned that in the absence of regulatory oversight, investors in unregulated investment activities have limited recourse in the event of unfair treatment, loss or other challenges faced in their investment journey.
“Accordingly, members of the public are urged to participate in investment opportunities approved or regulated by CMA or any other relevant regulator and are further urged to seek investment advice from licensed investment advisors or other legitimate professional in order to make sound investment decisions and avoid being a victim of investment fraud,” the company said.