The crisis facing Destiny Helpers International (DHI) is deeper than initially thought as MakanDay has found that last year, five members filed a lawsuit against the company for failing to pay them their earnings after investing over K260,000 into the company.

In a separate but related case, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) froze the DHI accounts holding over K1.4 million in September 2020 and launched an ongoing case in the High Court.

MakanDay has been sifting through a trove of court documents and found that in August last year, Chibozu Twaambo, Mirriam N. Mumba, Stephen Moonga, Mambo Vanessa and Sepiso Mbaimbai sued DHI demanding to to be paid their earnings after they had invested over K260,000 into the company at different times.

This single example is just one manifestation of an uphill battle that the membership faces as it pushes to be paid back their money.

According to court documents, the five were attracted by adverts, terms and conditions of the grants that DHI was offering.

Our analysis of the court documents show that:

- Chibozu Twaambo invested K116,200.00 and expected to earn K506, 00.00 as at 10 January 2021.
-  Mambo Vanessa Mbaimbai investedK10, 600.00 and was expected to earn K45,900.00 as at 31 January 2021.
- Mirriam N. Mumba invested K5,000.00and was expected to earn K21,800.00.
- Sepiso Mbaimbai invested K5,000.00and was expected to earn K22, 000.00 12 by February 2021 and
- Stephen Moonga invested K24,000.00and was expected to earn K109, 766.00 as at 8 February 2021.

All the payments were due in two months after investing, Makanday has established.

In April this year, MakanDay published an investigation revealing how fraudsters are now using DHI to steal from desperate Zambians who want to access their savings held in frozen bank accounts.

MakanDay has access to two WhatsApp groups used by the scammers where they are sharing messages demanding for money contributions.

They are persuading members to contribute, claiming the money is required for transport to Lusaka to deliver evidence to the DEC and the National Prosecution Authority(NPA) before the court hearing set for end of May.

DHI is non-operational after an action by DEC to freeze the accounts. The Commission took the company to court demanding for over K1million cash and other company properties to be forfeited to the state because they are tainted assets.

Among the assets the DEC wants forfeited are accounts holding over US$18,700 and close to K1.1 million along with laptops.

The company is accused of defrauding more than 74,000 Zambians who were lured into a savings group with the promise of receiving grants worth more than 100% of membership fees.

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