The incredible tale of the northern big hitters caught up in billion dollar fraud
Lancashire knight and Cheshire entrepreneur stay silent as their African tycoon partner goes on the run
It reads like the script for a highly implausible TV drama and its cast list includes the Lancashire knight, the Cheshire entrepreneur and the African tycoon who tried to buy Sheffield United Football Club.
The FBI has now triggered a manhunt for a fraudster Dozy Mmobuosi who recently tried to buy a Premier League football club with the proceeds from a New York-listed African fintech business based on an audacious billion dollar fraud. Just another trophy asset to add to his fleet of fast cars and London mansion.
But in the supporting cast of this extraordinary drama we can reveal for the first time includes Sir David Trippier, a well-connected former Conservative MP and senior Freemason who sat on the same board of directors of Tingo Inc, a supposed global agritech, mobile and fintech business that was in fact a fraud.
Also involved at a senior board level in the now bust business is Darren Mercer, its former CEO, a seasoned ‘rainmaker’ and once the owner of a popular Cheshire gastropub, who retired from the company to spend more time with his wife, Danish supermodel Heidi Albertson.
Events have unfolded fast in the strange tale of Tingo Inc. In December the American regulator the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a devastating 65-page case alleging that the scope of the fraud at Tingo, Inc was “staggering”.
In parallel, the US Department for Justice has also filed an indictment after an investigation by the FBI that between 2019 to 2023, Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye, popularly known as Dozy Mmobuosi, orchestrated a scheme to enrich himself by falsely representing that the Nigerian companies he founded, Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, were operational, profitable businesses, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, but he also traded shares after spikes in price, triggered by the false information.
The SEC also claims that Mmobuosi essentially created a fake company with “no meaningful operations or customers” and only had about $15 in its bank account.
They further go on to allege that “non-existent revenues and assets” were falsely reported in Tingo’s formal filings (a 10-K form).
Accounts that were reported to have a cash balance of $461.7 million actually had less than $50 in them.
Facing charges are Mmobuosi and three named companies Tingo Group, Agrifintech Holdings and Tingo International Holdings.
The Cheshire-based entrepreneur Darren Mercer, who retired as chief executive of Tingo in September 2023 is not named in the SEC complaint and is not facing charges.
Similarly, the indictment and the complaint do not name Sir David Trippier, former Conservative MP for Rossendale, and the Grand Master of the Freemasons in the North West, and a board director of Tingo.
Nor are any charges directed against veteran Manchester stockbroker John McMillan Scott, the chairman of Tingo.
But both the FBI statement and SEC complaint pull few punches and accuse Mmobuosi of booking billions of dollars’ worth of fictitious transactions through two Nigerian subsidiary companies he founded and controls.
With Mmobuosi on the run, questions about when the alleged deceit began and ended may never be satisfactorily answered.
When TheBusinessDesk.com contacted Sir David Trippier he said he was unable to comment as it was a “legal matter” but very much gave the impression that as an existing director of Tingo he too was party to actions to pursue Mmobuosi.
But it’s worth looping back at the chain of events that led to the current extraordinary scenario.
Trippier is a well-liked public figure in the North West.
He was a director of Granada TV, when that meant something, he was business friendly, and well-connected in the City of London where he chaired the stockbroker WH Ireland and was closely involved in the establishment of the Alternative Investment Market in 1994, after he was appointed by the London Stock Exchange to sit on the committee that kickstarted it.
Knighted in 1992, when he was 46, he kept his hand in politics, long after losing his seat in 1992, and in 2003 he led the successful campaign in the North West against an elected regional assembly, which the deputy prime minister John Prescott was pushing as a major constitutional change.
In his capacity as the Provincial Grand Master of the Freemasons in the North West he was a prolific charity fundraiser, abseiling down Peel Tower in his 70s and he led appeals following the Manchester Arena terror attack that raised almost £250,000. As he said at the time: “It shows that Manchester and the North West do not stand alone and it makes me extremely proud to be a Freemason.”
It was no surprise then that on joining their board in May 2022, the word used by a fintech business, MICT, was that it was “honoured” and it hoped he would make a “valuable contribution”.
Listed on the NASDAQ market in New York, MICT (Micronet Enertec Technologies) was searching for what its chief executive Darren Mercer described as “value accretive business acquisitions in the fintech sector.”
Mercer, who had started his career as a stockbroker with Henry Cooke (later Brown Shipley) in Manchester, was once also the landlord of the Bells of Peover in Knutsford, famously the pub where Generals Eisenhower and Patton met in 1944 to discuss the D-Day landings.
Planning his own grand project, Mercer hoped that by merging with Tingo in early 2022 – which claimed it was highly profitable and growing strongly – “provides MICT with the opportunity to become a highly profitable global fintech powerhouse.”
Trippier, too, was full of hope that it was a good match.
“MICT’s financial technology platforms have the potential to reach a huge target market and significantly underserved populations, allowing for worldwide opportunities. I look forward to working with the management team to identify and maximize opportunities for the successful execution of MICT’s exciting and ambitious business plan,” he said at the time.
By February 2023 MICT had changed its name to Tingo and its trading ticker to “TIO” as its stock continued to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market, with Mercer claiming: “The Tingo brand is extremely important to the business, not only as Africa’s leading agri-fintech solution, but also as a Pan-Africa fintech partner to Visa, through TingoPay, and in connection with the recently launched businesses of Tingo Foods and the Tingo DMCC commodities platform and export business.”
But though the company continued to issue strong trading statements and formal results announcements, in 2023 the warning signs started to flash.
On June 6, 2023, a research analyst firm, Hindenburg, published a devastating report “Tingo Group: Fake Farmers, Phones, and Financials – The Nigerian Empire That Isn’t,” asserting that Tingo Group was “an exceptionally obvious scam with completely fabricated financials,” and alleging that neither Tingo Mobile nor Tingo Foods appeared to have any legitimate operations.
As a result, the share prices of both Tingo Group and Agri-Fintech, another business linked to Mmubuosi, fell by 48%, and 81%, respectively, immediately after the report’s publication.
But Tingo Group’s reaction was defiant (and according to the SEC “contrary to reality”). It claimed to have commissioned an investigation from leading law firm White & Case into the allegations, launching brutal counterclaims against Hindenburg.
Its initial report in August 2023 blamed typographical errors and claimed Hindenburg had interviewed the wrong companies in its report.
Notably, by August no mention was made of White & Case. But Tingo nevertheless dug in, saying that having dealt with the corporate issues, claimed “outside counsel will now proceed to investigate Hindenburg’s allegations against the founder of Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, Dozy Mmobuosi.”
On September 17 2023 the company issued a notice to the US stock market that Darren Mercer was to retire “to spend time with his young family and to coincide with his milestone birthday yesterday”.
The statement described how Mercer had led the company “through numerous key developments and milestones in its recent history”, noting the acquisitions of Tingo Mobile Limited and Tingo Foods Plc, but also that he had led “a rigorous investigation and response to allegations made by short seller Hindenburg Research.”
It was said to be always part of the plan, but had been “delayed further by the Investigation”.
His long retirement statement not only praised Mmobuosi but elevated him to be its co-CEO.
Manchester stockbroker John Scott, chairman of Tingo thanked him, and said: “Darren leaves the company in a vastly different position to the one he entered four years ago, and I will miss his vision and commitment to the cause. I wish him and his family happiness in his well-earned retirement.”
Worse was to come in December, however.
On December 18 the SEC obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against Dozy Mmobuosi and three affiliated US-based entities of which he is the CEO in connection with what it described as “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 is devastating. It 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. The complaint further alleges that Mmobuosi made and caused the entities to make material misrepresentations about their business operations and financial success in press releases, periodic SEC filings, and other public statements.
It questioned the stated $461.7m cash balances in the Nigerian bank accounts discovering that in reality, they held less than $50 as of the end of fiscal year 2022.
It also outlined how Mmobuosi “and the entities he controls” have fraudulently obtained hundreds of millions in money or property and that he siphoned off funds for his personal benefit, including purchases of luxury cars and travel on private jets, and an unsuccessful attempt to acquire Sheffield United Football Club.
It was claimed that on November 18, 2022, Mmobuosi and Saudi owner of the Blades, Prince Abdullah, shook hands on a deal for the club worth £115m at London’s Dorchester Hotel.
There are claims that Mmobuosi sank almost £9m into the club to prevent it falling into administration and his one interview on the deal with Rio Ferdinand on Five, prompted the EFL to issue a statement acknowledging that an agreement existed, but it was far from a done deal. “Whilst the league is in receipt of the share purchase agreement and owners and directors' test declaration, alongside some evidence of source and sufficiency of funding, it has previously raised a number of additional queries with the proposed purchaser and the club.
"The EFL has been awaiting a response on those queries for some time and until the league is satisfied that the requirements of its regulations have been met, it will not process a change of control at the club."
For his part, Mmobuosi denies it all.
A statement in the African media attributed to him says: ‘‘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.
“As is publicly known, Mr. Mmobuosi is resident in the United Kingdom and cannot be said to be at large. He is committed to cooperating with the legal authorities to ensure a thorough and fair examination of the facts, which he believes will ultimately lead to his exoneration.
“We appreciate the understanding of the media and the public during this time and request respect for the legal process and the principles of justice.’’
As stated, Sir David Trippier politely but firmly terminated a call when approached.
Darren Mercer did not respond to a request for an interview.
Tingo has not responded, either to direct requests or via a public affairs agency that has been previously engaged by the company.
An SEC spokesman responded to further background on their inquiries, saying: “We decline comment beyond our public filings on the matter.”
The obvious question now is what’s next? The FBI have issued an arrest warrant for Mmubuosi who is supposed to be resident in the UK, while the rest of the board, past and present, are left wondering how it all came to this.