LAGOS (CU)_In late-October, the Lagos State High Court issued an order restraining commercial banks in Nigeria from releasing funds up to ₦11.795 billion (US$ 28.5 million) to Imagine Global Holding Company Limited and Imagine Global Solutions Limited, which were recently discovered to have perpetuating a large-scale Ponzi scheme in the West African nation. The company was founded by Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi, an ex-banker, and his wife Elizabeth Anuoluwapo Ajetunmobi, who are currently on the run.
The companies are said to have received over ₦20 billion from investors seeking promising returns as much as 10 per cent a month, as the firms claimed to provide investment banking, micro-lending, advisory and brokerage services in Nigeria and Africa. However, in August this year, the company failed to pay the promised returns to investors, which triggered suspicion among his largest investors. By October, they were facing a third consecutive month of zero returns on their investment, and therefore decided to file a joint application to court, with the aim of seeking a regulatory remedy.
Accordingly, on Wednesday (3 November), Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullahi of the Lagos High Court warned banks against the consequences of snubbing court orders. She threatened to sanction any bank executive or legal practitioner who defaults any obligations set out in the twenty-fourth-October court order. “[…] the court will not allow the citizens of this country to keep weeping because of the absconding investors,” she said.
Wema Bank and Mainstreet Capital Limited are among the firms which have invested in the defendants and have filed applications to join as co-claimants in the suit. However, the victims’ counsel Adetunji Adedoyin-Adeniyi, rejected these applications, arguing that many organisations which lacked courage to go after the couple are now attempting to get a free ride. Accordingly, he claimed that the victims of the scheme should not be compelled to allow other parties to join the case, and that anyone with grievances against the defendants “should file his own case”.
