If you’ve been approached recently by someone promising guaranteed daily returns from “trading” US stocks or crypto, there’s a good chance the pitch traces back to a scheme called QVSE and the man behind it isn’t done yet. Quant Vest Stock Exchange Ltd (QVSE), also operating under the name Global Investment Group (GIG), became operational in Kenya around January 2026. It pitched itself as a way for everyday Kenyans to earn steady daily profits by pooling money into an account that would supposedly trade blue-chip stocks like Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla twice a day, every day, for a promised return of Sh1,554 on every Sh65,000 deposited per trade. The person driving the scheme goes by “Prof Carl,” real name Carl Grindan, who is linked to an American businessman, Marc Hudon. Investors were recruited through word of mouth and communicated with via BonChat, a messaging app used to send trading “signals,” with more than 12,000 people eventually signed up.
QVSE relied on what’s known as copy trading: a signal provider (Grindan) tells investors when to “trade,” and their digital capital held in stablecoins is supposedly moved to mirror his positions. In practice, this is the same mechanical setup used in classic Ponzi structures: money doesn’t need to actually be invested anywhere for a while, as long as new deposits keep coming in to pay out “returns” to earlier investors, and everyone is encouraged to bring in more people. Deposits ranged from Sh65,000 to Sh130,000, with promised daily payouts of Sh777 to Sh1,554 per trade. For a while, some investors really did receive payouts which is often exactly what keeps a scheme like this alive, since early “proof” builds trust and pulls in bigger sums from the same people.
On September 5, 2026, Grindan abruptly froze all investor accounts, claiming without evidence that some members had created multiple accounts to inflate their holdings. He told investors that unfreezing an account would cost an additional Sh 65,000. Deadlines to unfreeze accounts came and went (September 12, then extended to September 19) without funds being released. In the meantime, Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) publicly listed QVSE and GIG among 15 entities operating illegally in the country without the required licenses, warning the public to stay away. Grindan dismissed the warning as “performative.”
Rather than returning the roughly Sh1 billion reportedly locked in QVSE accounts, Grindan has launched a new platform called Apollo Exchange. His pitch is that investors can get their frozen QVSE balances and new deposits transferred to Apollo but only after paying Sh51,800 per account, with a September 25 deadline. He’s also been asking some investors to pay an amount equal to their entire original deposit either Sh65,000 or Sh129,000 just to “activate” their new Apollo account, a promise investigators say has already proven false for those who paid. This is a well-worn tactic: rather than disappearing, the operator rebrands and asks victims to pay their way into a “new and improved” scheme that promises to make them whole. It rarely does.
QVSE appears to be a direct descendant of an earlier scheme called PCEX, which the CMA also flagged as operating illegally in Kenya using an almost identical copy-trading model. PCEX announced a “temporary closure” in April 2025, blamed on internal issues, and never reopened, leaving an unknown amount of investor money unaccounted for. Even the face of the operation may be borrowed: Grindan has used a photo of a middle-aged Caucasian man in a grey blazer to represent himself to investors. A reverse image search by the Business Daily traced the photo to a Norway-based photographer’s 2021 portfolio, and the same picture currently appears on the LinkedIn profile of an unrelated business executive at a Norwegian automotive company.
Two local agents connected to QVSE Ruth Mueni Kimeu, a Machakos County employee, and Mary Katuma Mwangangi, a primary school teacher were charged at a Nairobi court with fraudulently inducing members of the public to trade in securities without a CMA license. Prosecutors allege the pair used deceptive statements and false promises to get Kenyans to subscribe to QVSE/GIG between January and September 2026. Both denied the charges and were released on a Sh200,000 bond each.
QVSE’s victims reportedly include teachers, small-scale traders, professionals, and boda boda operators a cross-section of ordinary Kenyans looking for a way to grow modest savings in a high-cost-of-living environment. The CMA has stressed that these entities disguise fraudulent activity as legitimate investment opportunity, and it’s actively investigating alongside the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. The takeaway is simple: any platform promising fixed, above-market daily returns from stock or crypto trading especially one that recruits through messaging apps rather than a licensed brokerage should be treated as a red flag. Verify licensing directly with the CMA before depositing anything, and be especially wary if a platform later asks you to pay more money to unlock funds you’ve already deposited. That’s rarely a withdrawal fee. It’s usually the next stage of the scheme.
