(Bloomberg) -- The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused a Nigerian audit firm of covering up a years-long scheme by fintech Tingo Group Inc. and its affiliates to inflate their financial performance and defraud investors worldwide.
Olayinka Oyebola and his audit firm, Olayinka Oyebola & Co., “deliberately remained silent” as Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye and his fintech concocted and used fake audit reports, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in New York on Monday.
The regulator seeks civil penalties and to permanently bar the firm from auditing US-listed companies. An attorney for Oyebola declined to comment, and a representative for Tingo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We will not hesitate to hold gatekeepers to the public markets accountable when they facilitate fiction rather than truth,” Antonia Apps, director of the SEC’s New York regional office, said in a statement.
Tingo’s founder and his companies were ordered to pay the SEC more than $250 million in August after the regulator described fabricated transactions and fake cash balances that inflated the companies’ finances.
From 2019 to 2021, Oyebola raised no red flags when he signed off on financial statements, the SEC alleged on Monday, including when the firm found out the companies created fake audit reports with forged signatures.
Oyebola’s US clients include mostly firms traded over the counter, according to US audit regulator records. The firm recently picked up new business from companies seeking audits after the SEC shut down the firm that worked with Donald Trump’s social media company.
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