- A US federal court has ordered the Nigerian entrepreneur, Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye, also known as Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo CEO, to pay over $250 million in fines and barred him from serving as a director of a public company in a fraud case against him and his three US-based entities.
- The judgment entered by the judge was by default after the CEO failed to make any representations to the complaints filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- According to the judge, Mmobuosi and his companies — Tingo Group, Agri-Fintech Holdings, and Tingo International Holdings — had “failed to answer, plead, or otherwise defend” themselves in the matter.
These legal events started unfolding for Tingo following a June 2023 Hindenburg Research report that revealed irregularities at Tingo Group and disputed many claims by Tingo and the CEO, describing it as an “exceptionally obvious scam.”
According to the report, Tingo's claims included selling more than 12 million smartphones to farmers in Africa. However, the supposed partners in the scheme denied doing business with the company.
Furthermore, Nwassa, an agricultural marketplace launched by Tingo, which the CEO claimed was processing fewer than 500,000 transactions as of May 2019 and expected to grow to 2 million, was never completed, and according to Hindenburg, the business never existed.
The SEC suspended trading of Tingo Group's shares in November 2023, expressing concerns about the accuracy and sufficiency of Tingo Group's publicly accessible information and advised brokers and the public to "carefully consider" the action it has taken and "any information subsequently issued by the company.”
In December, the authority charged Mmobuosi with fraud, highlighting that he defrauded investors by inflating the financial performance of three of his companies.
Mmobuosi also reportedly attempted to acquire Sheffield United, a club competing in the English Premier League but since relegated to the second tier of English football; however, the proposed acquisition never materialised.
Recall that following the fall of its shares last year, Tingo had announced shares of $977 million in H1 2023 and stated that investigations by independent counsel showed it was innocent of the charges brought by Hindenburg, but did not disclose the results of the investigation.
