Odogwu Banye Mmobuosi, a former chief executive officer of Tingo Group, has been sued in a United States court for inflating his investments’ worth to acquire the Sheffield United football team.
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the unsealing of Mmobuosi’s indictment on Tuesday.
Mmobuosi is accused of forging documents and deceiving investors with false US Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Prosecutors charged him with fraud, conspiracy and forgery.
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Known as Dozy Mmobuosi, the fintech boss allegedly told investors that Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, business portfolios under Tingo Group, were highly capitalised and operational, bringing multimillion dollars in revenue.
“Dozy Mmobuosi allegedly orchestrated a massive scheme to inflate Tingo Group’s financial statements and make it appear as though the cellular and agriculture companies he founded were profitable and cash-rich companies when, in fact, they were not,” Williams said. “With this indictment, Mmobuosi’s alleged deceitful scheme comes to an end.”
Mmobuosi sold Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods to some companies in the US. Consequently, he enabled Tingo Group and Agri-Fintech to lay claim to false financial statements indicating the companies were financially buoyant when indeed they were not.
The three charges against him carry different sentences. One count of conspiracy carries a maximum of five years imprisonment, securities fraud carries twenty years imprisonment and making false filings with SEC carries a maximum of twenty years.
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Although the accused is still at large, SEC is also prosecuting him separately. In a 72-page civil filing dated December 18, 2023, SEC alleged that the Nigerian national and his companies orchestrated a staggering fraud by overstating their “reported revenues, expenses, profits and assets in their SEC filings, public statements, and the books and records they have provided to their auditors”.
The US capital market regulator alleged that Tingo’s former CEO stole at least $16 million from Tingo Group and spent the same in purchasing choice cars and trips on private jets. He also attempted using the stolen funds to buy Sheffield United football team when it was in the lower Championship league.
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