Breaking friendships in businesses

I have an older brother who acts skeptically at almost every venture, which is good but also limits opportunities, as oftentimes he has missed on some opportunities but has also saved himself some headaches. But I am the opposite of my older brother—very optimistic and daring.

Thus, my story with Opeyemi, my primary school classmate whom I reconnected with after about two decades, is that Opeyemi was in the agricultural processing business somewhere in Abeokuta, which is at least five hours by road. Going there was discouraging, and I banked on pictorial evidence and trust. We talked at length about his business and the opportunities I could get from it. He painted me a picture of limited offers and, just like scammers do, tried to hasten me into investing in his business. Would I say I was gullible or reckless for not doing further and thorough research on Opeyemi and his purported business?

He further asked me to invite my colleagues into the business, and even though I did the marketing for them, I told them I would prefer to have first-hand testimony. I made my first investment of N225,000 in July, I think, and the agreement was to have a 10% profit monthly for the first twelve months. The return on investment was delayed for about 72 hours after the due date, and he made me realize it was because my package was below the minimum package, which was N450,000, that he told me from the onset. After my intervention on the roi, it was paid, and my efforts were geared to top up my investment with N275,000, which amounted to my investment of N500,000.

The roi became significantly epileptic, often after a series of chats and calls. By November, I topped it with N500,000 so as to both boost my investment for a significant return (call it greedy, maybe) after I sold my Volkswagen car that kept giving me issues. The car was sold for N700,000, out of which I topped up N500,000 with Opeyemi. Crazy or charmed, you could say. But November remained the very last time I saw any ROI, both from initial investments and the top ups. I requested to withdraw my capital in February when I saw only bleakness, but no, he began to quote some things on the document he sent to me as evidence of a contract. There, I realized he embedded in it some terms in his favor. However, during our discussions, he assured me I could always get my capital whenever I needed it with a month's notice. He, however, refused to honor his words and instead stuck with his paper document.

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By June or July of the following year, I denounced our relationship as classmates or friends and told him I would do whatever it took to get my money out of him. I accused him of going bankrupt, but he denied it. He reached out to me in August and gave me a glimpse of resuming the payment of ROI. I told him I preferred to have my capital withdrawn instead. He, however, told me that in order to facilitate the release of my ROI, I needed to top up with another N200,000. I laughed so hard and told him I would do anything it'd take to get my money, and he said, Good luck'. This infuriated me further, and after consulting some layers of friends and my sister-in-law, inclusive, my petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was redirected to the police, even though they are not recovery agents. I wanted to go all out against Opeyemi and did not mind getting him arrested and charged accordingly. Along the way, I saw his recent Instagram posts about being able to facilitate N750,000 grants for those in need of funds for their agricultural businesses. I was convinced he was nothing short of a fraud. I arranged with the police and got him tracked up to Abeokuta, where he was. Truly, there was a farm, but he was not the sole proprietor, and it was not as large as he painted; in fact, he was in desperate need of funds, as though he were in a gamble. He was brought down to Kwara State, and thankfully, it was a weekend. He spent the weekend at the police cell, since the 24-hour stay could not be interfered with as a weekend. I had even gone to court to get some paper documents, all of which were not available.

Opeyemi's family rallied around and could not drop a dime. It was his business partner who paid N400,000 out of the N1,000,000 debt he owed me. He was released from the cell with an agreement to pay the balance within a stipulated time. But you can guess right—to date, Opeyemi has an outstanding debt of N330,000, which he didn't bother to pay back as the police had enjoyed their cuts from both sides. Fair enough, I got more than half my investment while dissociating myself completely from him.

Do not mix business with relationships.

Do diligent research before committing funds.

Take time to digest the terms and conditions.

Do not pay for an item you have not seen.

Listen to your instincts.

These and many more I learned. I hope to hear your comments and contributions. Thank you for reading.