₦22 Billion Fraud: Court stops the Ajetunmobis from accessing funds from 21 banks

On Thursday, a Lagos state high court, Ikoyi division officially stopped Mr. Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi, Mrs. Elizabeth Anuoluwapo Ajetunmobi, Imagine Global Holding Company Limited, Imagine Global Solutions Limited from accessing funds in 21 commercial banks in Nigeria over an alleged N22 billion scam.

The pair, Bamise and Elizabeth Ajetunmobi, reportedly went into hiding after squandering investors’ money said to be as much as N22 billion, according to social media accounts of investors.

The banks included: Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, Citi Bank Nigeria, Ecobank Nigeria, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, Globus Bank, Heritage Bank, Jaiz Bank, Keystone Bank, Polaris Bank, Providus Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, United Bank for Africa, Unity Bank, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.

The presiding judge, Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullai issued a restraining order on defendants from accessing N11,795,090,000 in their accounts sequel to an ex-parte application filed by counsel to the claimants/applicants, Adetunji Adedoyin-Adeniyi on October 15 which sought to freeze accounts of the defendants. He then adjourned the matter till November 3, for the continuation of trial.

The Order made by the court

The judge ordered that the aforementioned banks file and serve to claimants/applicants within seven days an affidavit disclosing the balance on the defendant’s accounts.

The court restrained the defendants from dealing with monies standing to their credit in any accounts in the bank to the tune of N11.795 billion pending determination of the Mareva application filled by applicants’ counsel on their behalf.

What you should know

• The defendants are both founders of Imagine Global Solution Limited, an investment company based in Lagos Nigeria founded in 2017.
• They intended to become a major lender by offering microloans to the unbanked, small and medium-sized companies and low-income workers throughout Africa and the rest of the globe.
• The couple is said to have allegedly conned investors, defrauding them of billions of nairas.
• The N11,795 billion was the outstanding investments and return on investments accruing to the claimants/applicants from the defendants.
• The claimants/applicants were aggrieved Nigerians who heavily invested their funds in Imagine Global.

An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and one of the most common types of confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum.