In August 2017, I  was introduced to Mr. Ben Chiza Mkandawire through a very good and trusted person who was a partner to the business I used to work for whilst I was in Nigeria. I have been working with High Net Worth Clients during my time in Nigeria and till this day still keep in touch with many of my clients who have become friends and mentors.

Instagram Page with Supporting evidence

At the time of meeting Mr. Mkandawire seemed to be doing well for himself and all present that weekend had a very good platonic time. No romance was involved or intended.

Supporting links https://linktr.ee/bcmontherun

Between the time I had met Mr. Mkandawire till the first time he asked me for money in May 2019, we had not physically met again but kept in touch via his Instagram. His Instagram his filled with images of him with captions relating to big business deals he is working on in Oil and Gas. He would also share updates such as sealing a $20 Million Dollar deal with his company Scilla Energy.

When Mr. Mkandawire initially asked me for Money on May 18th 2019, it was to book a flight from JFK to Hong Kong to make it in time for a business meeting. I was put on the spot but had the funds at the time and he agreed to pay back with interest. Once he had seen I was able to assist him, he now opened up to me that he had suffered from a financial loss and was attempting to put his money together again for the sake of his wonderful children – who I had met the weekend I was introduced to him.

I agreed to assist him based on this sob story and the fact that the introducer had never introduced me to anyone I had complained about over the 4 years I had known him. My regret was not to check in with this person at that point to avoid this whole drama.

This led to Mr. Mkandawire asking me for money several times a day. It was not only draining financially but emotionally and physically draining. I'd started and felt trapped because I thought I'd lose my money if I didn’t help him as his stories were very dramatic. For instance, there was a time he told me he got beaten up in Paris and they took all of his money and belongings. I had to send all I could to make sure he could get a phone and sort himself out. Up till now I do not know how true this story is but was told not long ago that he was detained as part of an asylum process in the UK.

Since May 2019 till date, Mr. Mkandawire has borrowed over 25,000£. I am still in the process of calculating as there are many receipts to go through.

Mr. Mkandawire was also very convincing with his excuses and stories and also introduced me to high profile people who seemed to be very fond of Mr. Mkandawire. He would send me pictures of people he referred to as doing business with, voice notes from other people talking about deals. Money was always meant to come tomorrow, however till today 16th September 2019, Mr. Mkandawire has not returned up to £1 of the borrowed funds.

Ben also borrowed £300 from my mother in the middle of the night without my knowledge in 2019.

I would press Mr. Mkandawire and he would often tell me that I am not patient and once he arrived in the UK, he registered Scilla Energy UK LTD and put me down as a 40% Shareholder to show how serious he was about returning my money with interest as agreed. I work full time so I left Mr. Mkandawire to get on with it and helped him with money for taxis, lunch, and anything I could do when asked. Once I realized Ben had been taking money from other women and people, i resigned as director from the company which later dissolved due to inactivity

Ben would put in bids for real oil and gas contracts and tell me that he had secured the deals but accessing the funds was not the right time as he still wanted to bring people from Dubai into the business deal. When I contacted one of the people whose contact he provided on the bid, She confirmed that Ben did put in a bid but did not secure the deal.

Once I confronted Ben, he started to threaten me, all which i have recorded and provided to the police in the UK. 

I proceeded to create the Instagram account - now called @returnthedough to document the threats and information regarding the debt. It was an emotional roller coaster as each day would go by, more stories were coming up about how this man had been taking money from people for many years. I have shared screenshots of conversations on WhatsApp, images and videos of evidence to support my case which will be made available once again on my Instagram page.

In retaliation, Ben instructed Justice Mponda to write a slanderous malicious communication about me on his blog, Malawi Voice which has now been deleted after emailing the domain hosting company.

I have been informed on several occasions by Ben that he is a powerful man and others online have informed me that he has been protected by politicians in Malawi. 

I would like to use this petition to call on the public to investigate why victims of Ben in Malawi were bullied into silence by thugs. Had Ben been dealt with in Malawi, I would not have faced the continuous distress and trauma from dealing with him and I will hold the Malawian Government accountable for allowing this to continue to this extent.