The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has brought charges against Olayinka Temitope Oyebola, a Nigerian accountant, and his firm, Olayinka Oyebola & Co. (Chartered Accountants), for their purported involvement in a securities fraud scheme.
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It was gathered that the fraud was allegedly orchestrated by Nigerian businessman Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye, also known as Dozy Mmobuosi, and three U.S.-based companies he controlled under the Tingo entities.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Oyebola and his firm allegedly aided Mmobuosi in fabricating audit reports that were submitted as part of SEC filings, misleading auditors, regulators, and investors.
The scheme, which spanned several years, allowed Mmobuosi and the Tingo entities to inflate financial metrics and defraud investors worldwide.
The SEC’s investigation revealed that Oyebola and his firm knowingly concealed the fraudulent nature of these audit reports, leading to significant financial harm.
The SEC had previously secured a $250 million final judgment against Mmobuosi and his companies.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the charges against Oyebola and his firm include aiding and abetting violations of U.S. antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as Rule 10b-5 thereunder, by Mmobuosi and the three Tingo entities.
The SEC is seeking civil penalties and a permanent ban on Oyebola and his firm from acting as auditors or accountants for U.S. public companies.
However, SEC also charged Oyebola with aiding and abetting Mmobuosi’s violation of the lying to auditors provisions of Exchange Act Rules 13b2-2(a) and (b).
The SEC’s ongoing investigation is being conducted by Michael DiBattista, Christopher Mele, Jeremy Brandt, Gerald Gross, and Rebecca Reilly under the supervision of Tejal D. Shah.
It is being litigated by David Zetlin-Jones and Mr. DiBattista under the supervision of Alexander Vasilescu, all of the New York Regional Office.
In September, Financial Times reported that Mmobuosi, a Nigerian businessman who attempted to purchase English football club Sheffield United last year, had been ordered to pay over $250 million in fines by a US federal court.
Judge Jesse M Furman of the Southern District of New York issued the final judgment by default against Mmobuosi and his companies—Tingo Group, Agri-Fintech Holdings, and Tingo International Holdings—after Mmobuosi did not respond to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil complaint filed last December.
The SEC had charged Mmobuosi with fraud for inflating the “financial performance metrics of his companies and key operating subsidiaries to defraud investors worldwide.”
The judge noted that Mmobuosi and his firms had “failed to answer, plead, or otherwise defend” themselves in the case. The SEC described Mmobuosi’s business empire as a “fiction.”
Tingo, Mmobuosi’s fintech group, claimed to have over 9 million customers in Nigeria and a food processing business.
However, the SEC’s complaint stated that the “purported assets, revenues, expenses, customers and suppliers” of Tingo were “virtually entirely fabricated,” with the scale of the fraud being “staggering.” Despite reporting $461.7 million in cash for 2022, Tingo’s actual balance was less than $50, according to the SEC.
Hindenburg Research, a US short seller, had previously labelled Tingo as an “exceptionally obvious scam,” leading to a dramatic drop in its stock price.
The SEC’s charges came after trading was halted in the shares of Tingo Group and Agri-Fintech Holdings due to concerns about the accuracy of their public information.
Mmobuosi gained attention with his bid to acquire Sheffield United, a Yorkshire-based club that recently fell to the second tier of English football. Mmobuosi and his companies have not yet responded to requests for comment.
