From Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance, December 18:
SEC Claims ‘Staggering’ Fraud by Firm Hindenburg Called Out
Tingo Group, a financial technology company that was the subject of a short seller report, was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly overstating its financial results in an ongoing fraud of “staggering” scope.
Tingo and two related companies, Tingo International Holdings Inc. and Agri-Fintech Holdings Inc., have booked billions of dollars in false transactions through two Nigerian subsidiaries since 2019, according to the lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan. Tingo reported hundreds of millions of dollars in fake revenues and assets, the SEC alleges.
The regulator accused Tingo’s chief executive officer, Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye, of orchestrating the alleged fraud. In one example, Tingo reported a cash balance of $461.7 million in March when legitimate bank records showed less than $50, according to the suit....
....MUCH MORE
That right there is what the forensic accountants refer to as a "discrepancy."
And before I am accused of besmirching the good name and reputation of Nigerian financial institutions, allow me to point out a positive post from a while back. Quite a while.January 9, 2008
From thisismoney:
A Nigerian bank may not be the first to spring to mind when looking for a safe and profitable home for your money, but UK savers should be advised to take note.
The UK subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria has been offering a suite of table-topping savings accounts since July of last year and – following pressure from This is Money – has pledged to make them more attractive by adding rate guarantees.
However savers may still be deterred by the association with a nation whose banking and political systems have been widely deemed corrupt.
First Bank's rates compare favourably to the best in the industry but, performance aside, would you be wise to deposit your money with it?>>>MORE
*Wikipedia has a nice suite of variations here.**One of my mentors, and one of the sharpest traders I ever met, had the most common flaw of students of markets, hubris. In his case it was non-fatal, more of a cost of doing business:
1) He had somehow ended up with some of the Boston Chicken-Einstein/Noah bagel bonds. We know how that worked out:
...Short-sellers got teary-eyed this week following word that old faithful Boston Chicken (Nasdaq: BOST) finally bit the Chapter 11 bankruptcy dust. Though hardly unexpected, Monday's announcement dropped the stock to $0.50 a share, down an astonishing 97% from its 52-week high near $16.He knew it was a finance scam "but the debentures paid 11%"
Source (scroll to "A Chicken Autopsy")
2) He got into a rigged blackjack game in Yugoslavia. Lost half-a-mil. Said he started to think it was was fixed when he was down a couple hundred.
Wife: "Then why the hell did you keep playing?"
Him: "I thought I could beat it".
Dear President/Ceo,
It is of utmost important that you take your time to read this mail after which you can ask me any question you may deem necessary. I am a branch manager of The Co-Operative Bank Plc based in England United Kingdom, in the course of my job; I discovered an account, which has been dormant for the past sixteen years. This account has been dormant for ten years before my emergence as the branch manager.
I have carried out an investigation to know who the owner of this account is and why the account has been left dormant, my investigation reveals that the account belongs to an African Leader who visited the United Kingdom in 1992 opened an account with the sum of £4,000.00 in our bank.
The rest of the fund that entered the account was money being transferred from the politicians home country. The account has been continuously credited and never debited for once for a period of nine months. As at December 1992, the account balance was totalling over $50,000,000.00, as the account is a domiciliary one.From December 1992 till date, no money has been credited or debited from the account and this was what raised my curiosity. My finding has revealed that the account was in the name of the politicians concubine who unfortunately died in a car crash. The politician does not have any way of laying claim to the money and the name used as the next of kin is fictitious.
To make the matter worst, the politician is facing a lot of challenges in his country and as such is not interested in any thing that will bring his name to the press as he is facing too much already.You may ask why I decided to write you. I did because I want you to assist me lay claim to the fund based on the fact that your name coincides with the fictitious name used as next of kin. All I need is your readiness to assist then I will tell you all that needs to be done.
You dont need to be afraid of any thing as I am an insider and will provide you with every detailed information and clean plan on how we are going to go about it. I will need to have your phone number so that we can talk more elaborately. This is because I need to be assured of your confidentiality and trust. Please get back to via my private emaill address douglaswinter97@walla.com
Yours faithfully,
Douglas Winter
Fam that I never knew I had!
I picture the Climateer clan, gathered around the dinner table somewhere in Lagos, retelling the story of the politician and the concubine.
