Promoters of the outlawed BG Wealth Sharing scheme have announced they will hold a meeting in Tonga today to advance their investment operation, directly challenging not only the current ban but the Supreme Court’s 2022 warning that anyone involved in Ponzi‑style schemes will face harsh penalties.
Their move comes as financial authorities intensify their alerts, with the National Reserve Bank of Tonga issuing escalating warnings and urging the public to distance themselves immediately from the scheme before more people suffer serious financial harm.
It follows a joint warning issued by New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and its Tongan counterpart, which cautioned that the BG Wealth/DSJ EX scheme—linked to a wider network known as TXEX—relies on aggressive multi‑level recruitment tactics and is connected to 813 duplicate websites and 30 related entities.
A woman identified as Siani Kijlstra, also known as Siosiani Uata, went live on Facebook this morning, urgently announcing that a so‑called “leadership team” would be in Tonga today, Friday 27 February, to hold a session with people interested in the BG Wealth Sharing scheme at Haʻateiho.
Another post seen by Kaniva News indicated that the event was scheduled to take place at 7pm at the Tonga Tauʻataina Church hall.
In her livestream, Kijlstra said in Tongan: “Inivesi tuʻo taha fakatuputupu ki he pāʻangangalu,” claiming that a single investment would continue to grow “until the end of time.”
On her Facebook page, she heavily promotes the scheme and urges Tongans to join—behaviour consistent with the recruitment‑driven nature of Ponzi operations, which rely on new investor money to pay earlier participants like Siani.
Several promotional banners on her page also show that Zoom sessions are being run for both Tongan and Samoan audiences.
While the BG scheme has triggered warnings across Australia, California, Canada, the United Kingdom and several European countries, Tonga has already demonstrated that breaches of its bans can lead to prosecution.
As Kaniva News and other media reported in 2022, police officer Vaiola Tupa, 41, of Ngele‘ia, and ‘Anaseini Siulua Pongi, 36, of Te‘ekiu, were among those fined for promoting an illegal pyramid scheme.
The Nuku’alofa Supreme Court ordered them to pay $4,000 each or face imprisonment in default.
In its ruling, the court emphasised that the sentence should serve as a warning that pyramid and Ponzi networks are illegal in Tonga, and that anyone attempting to operate such schemes will face severe penalties.
Warnings From History
While promoters of the BG scheme remain vocal and aggressive in their marketing, critics argue the operation mirrors past scams such as Validus and Hyperfund, which collapsed about two years ago and left hundreds of thousands of investors — including many Tongans — unable to recover their money.
Those schemes also inspired locally developed Ponzi operations run by Tongans, including Tongitupe and the 6K Gifting Co‑operative (6K). Both schemes promised returns of up to $6,000.
Tongitupe founder Tilila Siolaʻa Walker is set to stand trial in the United States in March 2027, while her New Zealand‑based co‑founder, ‘Ofa Siasau, is facing a warrant of arrest for failing to repay $26,000 owed to a Tongitupe victim.
In early April 2025, Frances Saimone — identified as the overall leader and “banker” of the 6K Gifting Co‑operative — and promoter Patricia Pousini pleaded guilty in the Manukau District Court to charges of promoting a pyramid scheme.
Saimone was fined $33,306, while Pousini was fined $10,200.
