SEC: Tingo is a fraud. Amazing work Sherlock!
Just a short one today. I am sure you are busy preparing for Xmas dinner or trying to reuse that old present for X, whose gift you forgot to buy. Or am I projecting?
Wow, Tingo is a fraud. Who would have known?
In a 72-page report the Securities and Exchange Commission brought legal action against Tingo and Dozy Mmobuosi, Chief Magician, Founder and CEO of Tingo who together “intentionally and materially overstated their reported revenues, expenses, profits, and assets in their SEC filings, public statements, and the books and records they have provided to their auditors.
I and millions of others could have saved them at least 71.5 pages and months of investigations. I wrote about this phenomenon a while ago but nobody in SEC subscribes to this newsletter. Their loss I guess.
“The scope of the fraud is staggering,” the SEC wrote in the complaint. “Since 2019, defendants have booked billions of dollars’ worth of fictitious transactions through two Nigerian subsidiary companies Mmobuosi founded and controls, reporting hundreds of millions of dollars of non-existent revenues and assets.”
- FT News, 23rd December 2023
The scope of the fraud is not staggering. What is staggering is that it has taken so long for what has been obvious to be confirmed. Apparently 9mm Nigerian farmers used Tingo - Did anybody find any of them?
Maybe some investors searched in vain. They could have also called any of the 634 payment-tech founders in Nigeria for advice. After laughing at thier stupidity for at least a minute, they would have confirmed what was common knowledge and then asked if they could send their pitch deck. But you get my point.
Now we have another case of a Nigerian prince, another Nigerian scammer (even though my Ghanian family are trying to take national battles beyond the Jollof wars) but the real story for me is of international stupidity.
Are there many Nigerian investors that Dozy scammed? I doubt it. I wish the local and international press would share the details of people who met and believed in this gifted and convincing orator because there is probably a bigger story of mindless greed.
When my brother was 15, a friend’s dad asked him whether he could trust the deal sent to him by one of the Nigerian princes. A grown-ass man got this letter, remembered his son had a Nigerian friend, forgot common sense, and asked 15 year old Chijioke if he should trust the letter. Let’s be clear this was over 30 years ago so there was no email and no Canva so you can’t imagine what that letter looked like. This my friend is the real story; how investors get scammed by deals 15-year-olds would laugh at. But we never get that story
The FT’s headline reads “SEC charges fintech Tingo chief with ‘massive’ fraud after Hindenburg short position”. I for one would rather something along the lines of “World charges Tingo investors with colossal stupidity.” It’s 13 hours to midnight in California and this would be an awesome gift to me.
Otherwise a Merry Xmas to you and yours.