CHY Mall has received a pyramid scheme warning from Rwanda’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM).

According to MINICOM, Century Heng Yue (dba CHY MALL) was initially registered ‘to do e-commerce business’ in Rwanda.

Following a joint investigation however, Rwandan authorities have concluded CHY Mall has “diverted to (a) pyramid scheme”.

As per MINICOM’s March 18th warning, pyramid schemes are

a prohibited business in Rwanda, therefore, the public is advised not to engage in a form of pyramid business with this company.

The language is a bit clunky but MINICOM has identified CHY Mall as a pyramid scheme and, owing to pyramid schemes being illegal in Rwanda, banned it.

MINICOM’s findings mirror that of BehindMLM. BehindMLM reviewed CHY Mall back in January and saw right through the scheme’s e-commerce front-end.

At the core of CHY Mall is a Ponzi scheme, which relies on constant recruitment of new investors to stay afloat.

Who exactly is running CHY Mall is unclear but, based on marketing material, it appears to be south-east Asians specifically targeting Africa.

Nigeria is the second African nation to issue a warning against CHY Mall. Ghana’s SEC issued a securities fraud warning against the scam on January 8th.

Despite Ghana’s regulatory warning, Alexa still ranks it as the second largest source of traffic to CHY Mall’s website (17%).

Nigeria is currently the top source of CHY Mall investors, making up 48% of website traffic.

Overall traffic to CHY Mall’s website went into decline from late January.

For Ponzi schemes like CHY Mall, unless new investors are found (in regional neighbors such as Rwanda for example), a decline in recruitment will inevitably lead to collapse.