© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The seal of the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., Could 12, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Picture
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan unveiled legal costs towards a Nigerian fintech businessman who lately bid unsuccessfully for an English Premier League soccer membership, saying he lied to traders concerning the funds of his corporations.
Odogwu Banye Mmobuosi, the previous co-chief government officer of Tingo Group, was charged with securities fraud, making false U.S. Securities and Trade Fee filings, and conspiracy in an indictment made public on Tuesday.
Prosecutors stated the defendant, generally known as Dozy, falsely represented that his Tingo Cellular and Tingo Meals had been worthwhile companies producing lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} of income.
Mmobuosi offered the companies to Tingo Group and Agri-Fintech Holdings, induced them to falsely painting his companies as “cash-rich, revenue-generating corporations,” and looted tens of millions of {dollars} by misappropriating money and promoting inventory at inflated costs, the indictment stated.
A lawyer for Mmobuosi couldn’t instantly be recognized. Tingo Group, based mostly in Montvale, New Jersey, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The alleged scheme occurred from 2019 to 2023, prosecutors stated.
Mmobuosi quickly stepped down as Tingo Group’s co-CEO final month, after the SEC filed civil costs accusing him of orchestrating a “staggering” fraud.
The SEC stated Mmobuosi siphoned a minimum of $16 million from Tingo Group and used it to purchase luxurious vehicles and journey on personal jets, and attempt to purchase the Sheffield United soccer staff.
In response to the SEC grievance, Tingo Cellular purportedly provides cell handsets and associated providers to farmers in Nigeria, whereas Tingo Meals is a purported meals processor.
The indictment was made public almost seven months after the short-seller Hindenburg Analysis accused Tingo Group of getting “fabricated” its financials, and challenged Mmobuosi’s declare to have developed Nigeria’s first cell cost app.