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Newark, NJ - The current and former top executives of Nigerian fintech company Tingo Group Inc. have been hit with a derivative suit in New Jersey federal court over revelations of fraud at the company, which has led to other litigation, including actions launched by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Plaintiff Jia Cheng filed a complaint Thursday against Tingo's founder, interim CEO, chief financial officer, and several board members, alleging that the conduct of the individual defendants cost stockholders "substantial sums" of money.

Cheng said Tingo has been described as a "worthless and brazen fraud that should serve as a humiliating embarrassment for all involved."

According to the complaint, Tingo is a holding company that claimed to be a leader in African financial technology and agricultural financial technology. However, Cheng said Tingo's rise was built on a series of lies engineered by its founder, Dozy Mmobuosi.

The complaint states that beginning in 2019, Mmobuosi, who is originally from Nigeria, began positioning one of Tingo's entities, Tingo Mobile, to access U.S. capital markets. He eventually achieved success in 2021 when a public company named iWeb Inc. acquired Tingo Mobile and renamed itself Tingo Inc. and then later Agri-Fintech Holdings Inc.

According to the complaint, Mmobuosi has been the CEO and controlling stockholder of Agri-Fintech Holdings since August 2021. Tingo Group was later formed in 2023, following another merger, and it traded on Nasdaq until it was delisted from the exchange in March this year, the complaint states.

Cheng alleged that from October 2022 through September 2023, the individual defendants made several misleading and false statements and omissions. Cheng said Mmobuosi lied about his background, education, and achievements, including about receiving a Ph.D.

Cheng alleged the company's financials and projections were inflated and fabricated, including representations to investors that Tingo's agricultural export business was on track to deliver $1.34 billion in exports by the company's third quarter of 2023.

The complaint also alleges the company used Photoshop to advertise "nonexistent success," including "passing pictures from a different point of sale system operator's website off as its own by photoshopping its own logo over those pictures and Mmobuosi urging customers on social media to fly with an airline business he claimed to have launched."

According to the complaint, Mmobuosi later admitted to never owning any aircraft. The images used to show "Tingo Airlines" showed airplanes with the Tingo logo "photoshopped onto pictures of airplanes it did not own."

The company also publicized sham expansion projects, Cheng said, such as leading investors to believe it was breaking ground on a $1.6 billion food processing plant and that it was making "significant progress" on the facility's construction "even though the purported progress in reality consisted of six cinderblocks and a plaque."

Additionally, Cheng said Tingo did not have relationships with two farming cooperatives it claimed to have and that the company lacked effective controls over accounting and financial reporting.

The truth about Tingo started coming to light in June 2023, the complaint states, when investment research firm Hindenburg Research published a report titled "Tingo Group: Fake Farmers, Phones, and Financials — The Nigerian Empire That Isn't." The report revealed, among other things, the company was an "exceptionally obvious scam with fabricated financials" and had made continuous, false representations about its business, operations, and prospects.

A second report, titled "Tingo Forges Ahead With Its Brazen Scam as $725 Million in Claimed Cash Disappears From its Balance Sheet in One Quarter," was published last August, and in December, the SEC launched its suit against the company alleging Mmobuosi had engaged in a multiyear scheme to inflate the financial performance metrics of Tingo and its entities to defraud investors worldwide.

According to Cheng, shortly after filing its complaint, the SEC obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against the company, which was in place until March 15 of this year.

The DOJ also announced in January it had indicted Mmobuosi on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying SEC reports.

Cheng said the defendants' alleged misconduct has significantly harmed the company and investors since Tingo's stock price has plummeted roughly 56% since last year. On Friday, Tingo's stock was trading around $0.42.

The suit seeks damages, attorney fees, and a jury trial. Cheng's complaint follows another stockholder action filed in March in Delaware Chancery Court over Tingo's alleged refusal to voluntarily release documents related to the business and Mmobuosi.

Representatives for the parties did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Cheng is represented by Melissa A. Fortunato and Badge Humphries of Bragar Eagel & Squire PC.

Counsel information for the defendants was not available Friday.