FRAUD: US files lawsuit against Dozy Mmobuosi over fake UBA, GTBank statements, others
"The scope of the fraud is staggering," US authorities stated in court files on Monday.
Dozy Mmobuosi, CEO of Tingo Group, has been charged with civil fraud by the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misrepresenting financial statements and other documents for three Tingo Group subsidiaries, including Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods Plc.
SEC prosecutors outlined a laundry list of corruption charges against Mr Mmobuosi and three entities linked to him in court records obtained by Peoples Gazette.
“For years, Mmobuosi and the companies he controlled, TIH, Agri-Fintech, and Tingo Group, have intentionally and materially overstated their reported revenues, expenses, profits, and assets in their SEC filings, public statements, and the books and records they provided to their auditors,” according to a civil complaint filed Monday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. “The scope of the fraud is staggering.”
According to authorities, Mr Mmobuosi utilized entities associated with him to file fake financial transactions and doctored bank records to display vastly inflated balance statements from Nigerian banks.
In one case in 2020, he issued a GTBank statement with a balance of N5.7 billion when the true balance was only N5,544.
He filed a balance sheet reportedly from the United Bank of Africa in 2022, with a balance of more than N53 billion. However, when the account was verified, it only had N1.6 million in it.
“Mmobuosi and the entities he controls have fraudulently obtained hundreds of millions in money or property through these schemes,” the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.
According to The Gazette report in June, Mr Mmobuosi, a Nigerian businessman and software entrepreneur, had been indicted by the Malawian government on charges of passport racketeering.
Exchange for technology listings in the United States Tingo Group, commonly known as Agri-Fintech, has been suspended from trading on NASDAQ pending the outcome of the allegations. Mr Mmobuosi’s location, reported to be in London, remained unknown as of Monday evening, with The Gazette unable to reach him for comment.
In a statement, the government claimed that he “fraudulently obtained hundreds of millions in money or property through these schemes, and that Mmobuosi has siphoned off funds for his personal benefit, including purchases of luxury cars and travel on private jets, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to acquire an English Football Club Premier League team, among other things.”
The SEC revealed that Tingo Group had $461.7 million in cash and cash equivalents for fiscal year 2022, although its bank accounts held less than $50 in total.