A Nigerian businessman and Chief Govt Officer of Tingo Group, Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye, aka Dozy Mmobuosi, and three corporations have been sued by the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) for inflating monetary data of the businesses and key subsidiaries to defraud buyers.
The Fee stated Mmobuosi has since 2019 inflated the monetary statements of Tingo Cellular Restricted. It additionally acknowledged that, as in opposition to the $461.7 million reported for its 2022 fiscal yr, the corporate’s checking account allegedly confirmed a mixed steadiness of lower than $50.
The assertion partly reads: “The SEC’s criticism, filed on December 18, 2023, alleges that, since no less than 2019, Mmobuosi spearheaded a scheme to manufacture monetary statements and different paperwork of the three entities and their Nigerian working subsidiaries, Tingo Cellular Restricted and Tingo Meals PLC. The criticism additional alleges that Mmobuosi made and prompted the entities to make materials misrepresentations about their enterprise operations and monetary success in press releases, periodic SEC filings, and different public statements.
“As an example, Tingo Group’s fiscal yr 2022 Kind 10-Ok filed in March 2023 reported a money and money equal steadiness of $461.7m in its subsidiary Tingo Cellular’s Nigerian financial institution accounts. In actuality, those self same financial institution accounts allegedly had a mixed steadiness of lower than $50 as of the tip of fiscal yr 2022. In line with the SEC’s criticism, Defendants additionally fabricated the shopper relationships that fashioned the idea of their purported companies.”
The SEC additionally revealed that Mmbuosi had made an unsuccessful try to purchase a Premier League membership earlier within the yr.
“The criticism alleges that Mmobuosi and the entities he controls have fraudulently obtained lots of of tens of millions in cash or property by means of these schemes, and that Mmobuosi has siphoned off funds for his private profit, together with purchases of luxurious automobiles and journey on non-public jets, in addition to an unsuccessful try to accumulate an English Soccer Membership Premier League staff, amongst different issues,” the assertion reads.
The fee stated it had filed a criticism within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of New York, and prayed six emergency purposes, which embody freezing Mmobuosi’s property, and prohibiting TIH, Agri-Fintech and Tingo Group from transferring cash or property or issuing shares to Mmobuosi.
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