31 July 2026
Last week, scores of disgruntled members of the SGK pyramid scheme gathered outside the office of SGK Brand Image Store, registered earlier this year by Mampoi Makhetha. This is the same office where, in February, FNB employees helped recruits open bank accounts. Archive photo: Thetso Letsepe.
On the same day that FNB Lesotho issued a “scam alert” on social media about the SGK pyramid scheme, which has since collapsed, bank employees were at an SGK office, helping recruits open bank accounts.
From about November 2025, a mysterious platform called SGK conned thousands of people into investing money by promising guaranteed returns if they watched short video ads on an app. Members celebrated consistent returns and were pulled into reinvesting their earnings and recruiting new members, until payouts abruptly stopped.
The Lesotho Financial Intelligence Unit found that at least M8-million (equivalent to R8-million) flowed through local bank accounts and was withdrawn overseas or converted into cryptocurrency in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The FIU was unable to trace it further.
Some members of the scheme were promoted to higher levels, which involved opening physical offices. At an office at the DLM Complex in Khubetsoane, prospective members were given weekly presentations explaining how the scheme worked.
During a presentation on 25 February, FNB Lesotho employees were stationed at the back of the room, helping recruits open the bank accounts they needed to participate in the scheme.
This is despite FNB Lesotho posting on Facebook, on the same day, a “scam alert” about the scheme. The post dismissed as misinformation messages circulating online that FNB employees would be opening accounts at SGK offices.
We interviewed seven former SGK members who say they opened FNB accounts that day.
FNB Lesotho posted a warning against the SGK scheme and dismissed claims that its staff were working at a recruitment site.
Last week, during a meeting of former disgruntled SGK members, Mampoi Makhetha, who managed the store at the DLM Complex and registered a company on behalf of SGK, explained that the bank was invited to remove one of the biggest obstacles that prevented people from joining the scheme.
“When I joined SGK, many people wanted to join. Some had bank accounts while others did not. Those without bank accounts handed their money to the people who had recruited them,” said Makhetha.
“We approached FNB to ask whether they could assist by opening bank accounts for those people. The request was accepted.”
Makhetha claims she was also duped by the scheme.
One woman, who requested anonymity because she fears reprisals, attended a presentation at the DLM Complex on 25 February.
“We were told that once you joined SGK you had to open an FNB account,” she told GroundUp. “We were told FNB would come to help people who did not have bank accounts every Wednesday.”
“As the presentation continued, people who needed bank accounts were told to go to the back of the room where FNB staff were opening accounts.”
She estimates there were between 50 and 70 people in the queue with the FNB people. She left the office with a new bank card. GroundUp has seen her FNB agreement, which confirms this.
The woman first invested M600, then reinvested M1,800, and eventually M25,500. She then opened three additional profiles on the SGK app, investing M6,300 in one and M600 in each of the other. By the time the scheme collapsed, she had built a network of about 150 people, 20 of whom she had recruited.
Two other former members told GroundUp similar stories. One said she opened her account using only her identity card, with no proof of address, before receiving her bank card the same day.
FNB South Africa spokesperson Gosai Lekha confirmed, on behalf of FNB Lesotho, that staff conducted an “off-site account-opening activation at the DLM Complex to assist individuals wishing to open personal bank accounts”.
The bank said the activation formed “part of its ongoing commitment to financial inclusion and expanding access to banking services”.
“The Bank’s participation in this activation did not constitute an endorsement of, affiliation with, participation in, or validation of SGK, its activities, or its business model.”
Lekha said FNB has “no business, commercial, or partnership relationship with SGK” and “accounts opened through off-site activations are subject to the same Know Your Customer, customer due diligence and anti-money laundering requirements as accounts opened at any other FNB channel”.
The bank declined to comment on individual customers or whether it reported any SGK-related transactions to regulators, citing customer confidentiality and legal obligations.
Lekha declined to answer follow-up questions.
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