The SEC charged Tingo Group, a Nigerian "Agri-fintech" company with "Massive fraud" this week, claiming that almost every aspect of the company - including its partners and its financials - was fabricated.
Short seller Hindenburg Research had written about the company on June 6, calling it "An exceptionally obvious scam with completely fabricated financials".
In a release out Monday, the SEC announced that it obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against the company's founder Dozy Mmobuosi for running an "Alleged multi-year scheme to inflate the financial performance metrics of his companies and key operating subsidiaries to defraud investors worldwide".
"Mmobuosi spearheaded a scheme to fabricate financial statements and other documents of the three entities, Tingo Group Inc., Agri-Fintech Holdings Inc., and Tingo International Holdings Inc. and their Nigerian operating subsidiaries," the SEC wrote in a release earlier this week.
Dozy Mmobuosi, Tingo CEO Among the more egregious examples of fraud the SEC alleged was the company claiming to have $461.7 million in cash when it had only $50 in its bank accounts: Tingo Group's fiscal year 2022 Form 10-K filed in March 2023 reported a cash and cash equivalent balance of $461.7 million in its subsidiary Tingo Mobile's Nigerian bank accounts.
"We think Tingo is a worthless and brazen fraud that should serve as a humiliating embarrassment for all involved," Hindenburg wrote at the end of their June report.
Tingo responded shortly thereafter that the Hindenburg report was full of "Misleading and libellous content".
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/astonishing-audit-failure-sec-charges-tingo-group-massive-fraud
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