Tingo ex CEO, Mmobuosi, responds to US fraud allegations

Dozy Mmobuosi, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tingo Group, has described as baseless and unfounded the securities fraud allegations leveled against him by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

This is even as denied being at large as insinuated saying he is a resident of the United Kingdom.

Mmobuosi is accused of securities fraud, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and conspiracy. He risks up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

In a statement by his representative on Thursday, January 4, 2024, Mmobuosi said he rejects “all the allegations presented by the United States Department of Justice via the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. According to their statement published on January 2, 2024, Mr. Mmobuosi is alleged to have misrepresented the companies he once ran in the United States market.”

READ ALSO:Nigerian farmers count gains as Tingo Foods Processing Facility set for completion in 24 months

“Mr Mmobuosi wishes to make it unequivocally clear that these allegations are unfounded, and he is preparing to contest them to the full extent of his capacity. However, he will not be making specific statements regarding the allegations for now, as the matter is now in the purview of the courts”, the statement reads.

Trouble had started for Mmobuosi when in June 2023, activist short seller, Hindenburg Research published a report labelling Tingo an “exceptionally obvious scam.” Hindenburg’s report alleged that several claims made by Mmobuosi were false, including that of building the first payment app in Nigeria.

There were also allegations about the operations of Tingo’s food division, which claimed to have generated $577.2 million in revenue just seven months after operations began. Tingo Mobile was also involved in providing mobile phones to farmers in Nigeria, but checks revealed that the cooperatives it listed as partners had less than 100 farmers, while leaders of the cooperatives denied knowledge of Tingo.

Although the report led to a significant fall in Tingo’s share prices, the company soldiered on, announcing shares of $977 million in H1 2023. At the same time, it said that investigations by an independent counsel showed it was innocent of the charges brought by Hindenburg. Tingo did not disclose the results of the investigation.

After shares of Tingo were suspended in November 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed it would be charging Mmobuosi with “massive fraud” the following month.

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