Over the past two months, the outlook for people who invested in Creative Walker Promotion Company (CWPC), Yepbit Exchange, Fidelity Capital Investment Group, and other online investment schemes has changed sharply.
What began as an opportunity to make money has, for many investors, turned into uncertainty, with some still waiting for funds they expected to receive as the platforms came under scrutiny and their operations began to unravel.
The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) says its investigations into fraudulent online investment schemes are not limited to the websites or platforms through which the schemes operate. Investigators are also working to identify the wider networks of people involved.
Mr. Stephen Cudjoe-Seshie, Deputy Director-General in charge of Technical Operations at the CSA, told The High Street Journal that the authority works to establish the wider network behind a suspected scheme before handing its findings to law-enforcement agencies.
The approach could become particularly important in cases such as CWPC and Yepbit, where online investment platforms have attracted networks of agents and promoters who actively encouraged others to participate.
Mr. Cudjoe-Seshie said the CSA does not currently have the mandate to make arrests or conduct prosecutions. Its role is to investigate suspected operations, gather evidence, and hand the information to the police and other law-enforcement agencies.
That means the regulatory process does not necessarily end when a platform is identified as fraudulent or its digital infrastructure is taken down. Investigators must still establish who was involved, gather evidence, and build a case that can be acted upon by law enforcement.
The process can also depend heavily on victims who are willing to participate in investigations and subsequent court proceedings.
“What you find in some of the cases is that people are not willing to go through the process of being witnesses in court,” he said.
The reluctance of victims to remain involved can create an additional hurdle, particularly where schemes have attracted large numbers of participants and investigators need evidence from people who interacted directly with promoters or transferred funds.
The CSA’s comments come as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moves against a growing list of online investment schemes.
In July, the SEC formally placed Creative Walker Promotion Company (CWPC) and Yepbit Trading among 23 entities it said were operating online and on social media without the licences required to undertake capital-market activities in Ghana. The Commission said it was collaborating with law-enforcement agencies to clamp down on the people behind the entities and schemes.
The development followed the reported collapse of CWPC, which left users unable to withdraw funds and generated widespread complaints.
The SEC had earlier said it was engaging the CSA following reports that thousands of Ghanaians may have lost millions of cedis through CWPC. Mensah Thompson, Deputy Director-General of the SEC, said the Commission had received reports about CWPC after earlier complaints involving platforms including Yepbit and BonChat.
The SEC’s July 22 notice named 23 entities it said were operating without the necessary licence. Alongside CWPC and Yepbit Trading, the list included Afri Hub, BG Wealth, BP Investment, Dallmayr, Ghana Vest, Harvest Fund, Infarms/Secure Farm, Kukafor Platform, Mazzuma, Medisyne Trade, NIO Platform, Profit Rise Invest, Quant Vest Stock Exchange, QVES, QX Broker/Qumatix, Smart Gain, ZEC ZEC FX, Bonchat, and Ultima Cryptocurrency Group.
The SEC’s action followed a separate July 15 warning against YEPBIT Exchange and BonChat, which it described as suspected fraudulent investment schemes soliciting investments through digital and crypto-asset platforms.
The Commission said neither platform was licensed and advised investors to verify the regulatory status of investment providers before committing funds. It also warned against schemes promising unusually high or guaranteed returns and those where earnings depend primarily on recruiting other participants.
For the CSA, however, the enforcement work begins well before a public warning is issued.
Mr.Cudjoe-Seshie said the authority had taken down 130 domains linked to fraudulent activities in the first half of 2026, demonstrating the amount of enforcement activity that can take place before a scheme becomes widely known.
He said the authority’s investigations can also extend beyond the platform itself as investigators seek to identify everyone who may have played a role in the operation.
That is significant for schemes that rely on agents and promoters because shutting down a website or social media account may not necessarily eliminate the network that helped bring investors into the scheme.
The investigations into CWPC, Yepbit, and the other entities named by the SEC now form part of a broader enforcement effort against unlicensed online investment schemes in Ghana. While the CSA investigates and gathers evidence, the SEC works with law-enforcement agencies on cases involving suspected violations of the law.
Investors are being reminded to check the licence and regulatory status of investment platforms before committing their money, while authorities continue efforts to disrupt fraudulent operations, trace the networks behind them, and support law-enforcement action where evidence of wrongdoing is established.
