Gasabo Primary Court has remanded Davis Manzi, the founder of Billion Traders FX, who is accused of defrauding over 500 people of $10 million. Manzi first appeared in court on Monday, August 26, where prosecutors laid out charges against him, including money laundering, fraud, and illicit foreign exchange trading. He allegedly committed the crimes through his online enterprise Billion Traders FX, convincing people to invest large sums of money into it, as he promised them significant returns from online forex trading. During the hearing of the case on Monday, August 26, the prosecutors argued that Manzi launched his operations without authorisation from relevant institutions. “He didn't get authorisation from BNR [National Bank of Rwanda] and CMA [Capital Market Authority], which are the authorities in charge of the type of business he was doing,” they said. They also said that he “promised clients very high and unrealistic promises of profit,” where for example, he told potential investors that if they invested $50,000 in his company, they would get a 10 percent profit in six months and get their capital back. However, the suspect told the court that at the time he opened the company, “there was no law governing forex exchange,” and thus when he approached BNR and CMA, they did not give him a license but still told him to work. He also told the court that his enterprise worked well with its clients from 2020 to 2022 when problems arose as a result of the Capital Markets Authority reporting him to RIB, leading to the closure of his bank accounts. He told the court that out of the $10 million that Rwandans invested in his enterprise, he has already refunded more than $7 million and can refund the rest if authorities unlock his accounts. The prosecutors asked the court to remand him as further investigations are done, as they argued that he is a flight risk due to the money he owes many Rwandans. Delivering the bail ruling, the presiding judge decided to remand him due to, among other reasons, the fact that crimes of which he is being accused are strong.
