The CEO of Tingo Group, Dozy Mmobuosi has been sentenced by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay a fine of more than 250 million dollars and banned from any management position within a listed company.

This Tingo Group scandal reveals the flaws in the regulation and supervision of start-ups. Tingo is a Nigerian company that bills itself as a leader in agri-fintech. The decision came following an investigation by the SEC, which revealed questionable financial practices within the NASDAQ listed company. The investigation was launched in 2023 and uncovered major irregularities in the accounts of Tingo Group. In particular, one of its subsidiaries, Tingo Mobile, declared an amount of $461.7 million for the financial year 2022, deposited in Nigerian banks. For their part, the investigators discovered that the real amount in these accounts was less than $50, a significant discrepancy that fueled the suspicion of fraud

In June 2023, Hindenburg Research published an explosive report that called Tingo Group a “particularly blatant scam.” The document exposes inconsistencies in the company's statements, as well as exaggerations concerning its activities in Nigeria and internationally. Faced with these accusations, Tingo Group and Dozy Mmobuosi denied any fraudulent behavior, but did not present a defense in the civil complaint filed by the SEC. Judge Jesse M. Furman, of the Southern District Court of New York, has therefore issued a default judgment, which imposes a fine on Mmobuosi and its three entities based in