The Nigerian "billionaire" who tried to buy Sheffield United is accused of being a fraudster in a new research report published today:

https://hindenburgresearch.com/tingo/

We are short Tingo Group Inc (NASDAQ:TIO) because we believe the company is an exceptionally obvious scam with completely fabricated financials.

Tingo, headquartered in New Jersey, claims to have several business segments focused on providing mobile phones, food processing and an online food marketplace for farmers primarily located in Nigeria

Tingo was founded and is spearheaded by “Dozy” Mmobuosi, CEO of the key holding company entity. Dozy is regularly described by the media as a billionaire and made waves earlier this year when he attempted to acquire the now-Premier League soccer team Sheffield United.

We’ve identified major red flags with Dozy’s background. For starters, he appears to have fabricated his biographical claim to have developed the first mobile payment app in Nigeria. We contacted the app’s actual creator, who called Dozy’s claims “a pure lie”.
Dozy claimed to have received a PhD in rural advancement from a Malaysian university in 2007. We contacted the school to verify the degree. They wrote back saying no one by his name was found in their verification system.

In 2017, Dozy was arrested and faced an 8-count indictment over issuance of bad checks, according to the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. He later settled the case in arbitration.

In 2019, Dozy claimed to have launched “Tingo Airlines” and posted social media messages encouraging customers to “fly with Tingo Airlines today”. Media outlets later uncovered that Tingo had photoshopped its logo onto pictures of airplanes. Dozy later admitted to never owning any actual aircraft.

We strongly suspect Tingo’s cash balance, which it conveniently claims is held in Nigeria, is fake. The company collected only ~12% of the interest income one would expect from its claimed cash balances.

Overall, we think Tingo is a worthless and brazen fraud that should serve as a humiliating embarrassment for all involved. We do not expect the company will be long for this world

Some of us drew this conclusion after he first made a play for Sheffield United.
His public biography is a clear case of smoke and mirrors.

By the way, I think Hindenburg Research delivers one of the best forensic reports I have read in a good while.

I knew they would come for this fellow after their failed attempt at obi cubana. Igbos shine your eyes.

They will never come for the real frauds masquerading as winners of presidential elections.

kettykings:
I knew they would come for this fellow after their failed attempt at obi cubana. Igbos shine your eyes.

They will never come for the real frauds masquerading as winners of presidential elections.

Deflection. denial and disbelief.
Fraud is fraud is fraud, comrade, so please don't try to pull the wool over our eyes.

Now instead of stabbing air in the dark, while looking for some indeterminate "they", why don't you direct your ire at the Forensic Accountant mentioned below. He is the one who published the report.

Founded by Nate Anderson, CFA, CAIA, Hindenburg Research specializes in forensic financial research.

While we use fundamental analysis to aid our investment decision-making, we believe the most impactful research results from uncovering hard-to-find information from atypical sources. In particular we often look for situations where companies may have any combination of:

Accounting irregularities
Bad actors in management or key service provider roles
Undisclosed related-party transactions
Illegal/unethical business or financial reporting practices
Undisclosed regulatory, product, or financial issues

Source: https://hindenburgresearch.com/about-us

Omo!

Some of the allegations..

We’ve identified major red flags with Dozy’s background. For starters, he appears to have fabricated his biographical claim to have developed the first mobile payment app in Nigeria. We contacted the app’s actual creator, who called Dozy’s claims “a pure lie”.

Dozy claimed to have received a PhD in rural advancement from a Malaysian university in 2007. We contacted the school to verify the degree. They wrote back saying no one by his name was found in their verification system

In 2019, Dozy claimed to have launched “Tingo Airlines” and posted social media messages encouraging customers to “fly with Tingo Airlines today”. Media outlets later uncovered that Tingo had photoshopped its logo onto pictures of airplanes. Dozy later admitted to never owning any actual aircraft.

In April 2023, Tingo’s Co-Chairman wrote a public letter to Dozy, filed with the SEC, saying he could not approve the company’s annual report and felt it “necessary to recuse myself by resigning” due to “many critical questions, comments and recommendations” that went “unanswered and unheeded”.

Tingo’s food division is 7 months old, yet claimed to generate $577.2 million in revenue last quarter alone, representing 68% of total reported revenue. If accurate, its claimed 24.8% operating margins would exceed those of every major comparable food company.

Yet, Tingo has no food processing facility of its own. Rather, it claims its explosive revenue and profitability is derived from acting as a middleman between Nigerian farmers and an unnamed third-party food processor.

The guy shouldn’t have opted to buy a club in UK! They’ll surely verify the source of your wealth! He made a huge mistake..

They don come.
I trust a counter research to also emanate.
They can never see an Igbo man progress, never. This is what they have swore. To be an Igbo man in Nigeria is a crime in the first place.

Meanwhile, if he's guilty of that, let the law take it's place. I condemn fraud in it's entirety, reason I don't support the new person in Aso villa

DaddyJapan:


Deflection. denial and disbelief.
Fraud is fraud is fraud, comrade, so please don't try to pool the wool over our eyes.

Now instead of stabbing air in the dark, while looking for some indeterminate "they", why don't you direct your ire at the Forensic Accountant mentioned below. He is the one who published the report.


Source: https://hindenburgresearch.com/about-us

No wonder the investigation was so professional.. They even added images and videos..

They exposed the guy no be small!

Haterz from the wasteside are already here vomiting trash meanwhile their president is a drug dealer, vice president a terrorist and Chief of staff a fraudster. Tufiakwa

GeneralPula:

No wonder the investigation was so professional.. They even added images and videos..

They exposed the guy no be small!

The financial statement presented by a publicly listed company is called into question, and I see some people are getting bent out of shape here.

Jah knows I struggle to understand the Nigerian mindset half the time.

A big one the idiot says he wan buy shielded united club when win championship just dey use us dey catch criuse
Even Dangonte and otedola combined no feel afford the players wages for 3seasons na this camel say he wan buy sheifed
Ifeanyi ubah try am for Nigerian league he reck he ran for his dear life.

DaddyJapan:
Some of us drew this conclusion after he first made a play for Sheffield United.
His public biography is a clear case of smoke and mirrors.

By the way, I think Hindenburg Research delivers one of the best forensic reports I have read in a good while.

The Tingo food scam surprised me special. To think that the guy invited our government officials & they granted the invitation.

GeneralPula:

The Tingo food scam surprised me special. To think that the guy invited our government officials & they granted the invitation.

Who knows if Dozzy is simply a Man Friday for some political godfather that has fallen out of favour with the establishment?
I have met a good few of them over the years I should know.

DaddyJapan:


The financial statement presented by a publicly listed company is called into question, and I see some people are getting bent out of shape here.

Jah knows I struggle to understand the Nigerian mindset half the time.

This must have been what drew their attention to the investigation. I saw Their financial statements & I was SMH..

DaddyJapan:


Who knows if Dozzy is simply a Man Friday for some political godfather that has fallen out of favour with the establishment?
I have met a good few of them over the years I should know.

Sounds like it..

UK investigated the guy and exposed him straight..

GeneralPula:

Sounds like it..

UK investigated the guy and exposed him straight..

Yep yep

A NIGERIAN billionaire being linked with a takeover at Sheffield United is facing questions about his airline company, according to reports.

Dozy Mmobuosi wants to buy the Championship club for £90million.

But The Athletic claim there is no evidence a Tingo Airlines flight has ever taken place.

The company is registered in England and declared a share capital of £1billion in August 2019, but there is no evidence of assets or published accounts.

Mmobuosi was registered as the sole shareholder.

Tingo had a registered address in Hertfordshire, which was lifted in December 2019 and was said to be "invalid or ineffective and was forged."

Mmobuosi's bid to buy the Yorkshire club is currently being looked into by the EFL.

And the English Football League are hoping for answers to discover where his money has come from.

According to BBC, United current owner Prince Abdullah has been in talks with the Nigerian over a takeover.

Sheffield United have so far declined to comment on the matter.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21291137/sheffield-united-dozy-mmobuosi-takeover/

Hindenburg is on a murder spree. Holy smokes!

Adani, Icahn, now Dozy. It's only the middle of the year.

Dozy's exposé is the worst yet. Dude could end up in jail. Joining embattled Carlos Watson of Ozy who's a couple of court dates away from the same destination.

Here's to hoping Calendly's Tope escapes the carnage. The $3B valuation (and his $1.2B net worth) is sus. But he's the first Nigerian American billionaire, so props to him... for now.

-Lord

DaddyJapan:


The financial statement presented by a publicly listed company is called into question, and I see some people are getting bent out of shape here.

Jah knows I struggle to understand the Nigerian mindset half the time.

It's not the Nigerian mindset. We all know who these people are, and how they never own up to anything. They always believe someone else is the cause of their problems

Another international embarrassment specially brought to you from the land of the rising crime.

kettykings:
I knew they would come for this fellow after their failed attempt at obi cubana. Igbos shine your eyes.

They will never come for the real frauds masquerading as winners of presidential elections.

Keep defending criminals.
Why do Igbos love crime and defend criminals?
What a disgusting tribe!

OldBeer:
Another international embarrassment specially brought to you from the land of the rising crime.

Igbos have been disgracing Nigeria before the birth of christ.

NaijaReCrminals:
Keep defending criminals.
Why do Igbos love crime and defend criminals?
What a disgusting tribe!

The number 1 criminal is now the president, deal with that first

dustmalik:

It's not the Nigerian mindset. We all know who these people are, and how they never own up to anything. They always believe someone else is the cause of their problems

You mean persecutory delusions?
Well...this is largely down to unresolved tensions which continue to hold Nigeria hostage.

What is sad is there are lots of delusional people like these.

I'm an estate agent and I remember taking a couple to inspect a huge parcel of land in which the landlord was seeking a sponsor for a C of O for that particular land.

Would you believe they requested I assist them with transport money! You want to enter into a transaction in which they'll expend 8 figures in Naira and yet have insufficient funds for transport?

They did say they knew a few pastors and church contacts who'd invest but what really put me off was their horrible penchant for coming very late for inspections.

Update on this story:

A Nigerian businessman who appeared to be closing in on a takeover of the Premier League football club Sheffield United is being sued by the US financial watchdog for a fraud, in which he is alleged to have faked documents and made up companies out of “thin air”.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday it had filed charges against Dozy Mmobuosi, claiming he inflated his companies’ financial performance by hundreds of millions of dollars to defraud investors.

The regulator filed its claim against Mmobuosi personally, and his company Tingo Group, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and two related companies, Tingo International Holdings and Agri-Fintech Holdings.

The regulator alleges Mmobuosi orchestrated a “staggering” fraud the roots of which date back years.

In a court filing, the SEC said the fraud related mostly to Tingo Mobile, a private Nigerian company Mmobuosi founded that purportedly sourced and supplied mobile handsets and related services to farmers in Nigeria.

It claimed Mmobuosi created fake bank statements and forged supporting documents to give the impression that Tingo Mobile was a “thriving” business worth more than $1bn, when in fact it had “no meaningful customers or operations and about $15 in its bank account”.

He allegedly engineered the sale of Tingo Mobile from Agri-Fintech to Nasdaq-listed Tingo Group in an all-share merger, meaning the fake revenues were incorporated into the new company.

He then repeated the trick with the sale of Tingo Foods, described as an “elaborate fiction”, to Tingo Group for $204m earlier this year.

“Mmobuosi and the entities he controls have fraudulently obtained hundreds of millions in money or property through these schemes,” the SEC said in a statement.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/19/businessman-tried-buy-sheffield-united-accused-elaborate-dozy-mmobuosi?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2023-254

Washington D.C., Dec. 19, 2023 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye a/k/a Dozy Mmobuosi and three affiliated U.S. based entities of which he is the CEO in connection with an alleged multi-year scheme to inflate the financial performance metrics of his companies and key operating subsidiaries to defraud investors worldwide.

The SEC’s complaint, filed on Dec. 18, 2023, alleges that, since at least 2019, 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, Tingo Mobile Limited and Tingo Foods PLC.

“As alleged, Mmobuosi spearheaded a brazen scheme using phony records and fictitious entities to make the Tingo companies he controlled appear highly profitable, so that he could hoodwink investors and reap massive benefits at their expense,” said Antonia M. Apps, Regional Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “We filed this emergency action to expose Mmobuosi’s fraud and hold him accountable, while protecting investors from further harm.”

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-254

SEC Complaint download - long read
https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2023/comp25913.pdf

Another Invictus here. I was very skeptical there's such a big company in Nigeria that I have never heard of.

Dozy is another criminal mastermind in the mold of Emmanuel Nwude.
I followed his fake groundbreaking ceremony and found the whole set up very opaque.
Looks like his ambition far outweighs his talent.